Skilight, chapter 2, by mutated-ducks-rule and EppogirlXD.

----

A light green meadow, covered by thousands of pure white daises. Fluffy, cotton candy clouds whisked across the sky. This place was beautiful. The only problem was that I had no idea where I could possibly be.

"Hello?" I called out. The only response I heard was a sigh. A long and aggravated one too.

I slowly turned around. There, a lone figure was standing ten feet away from me. "Can I help you?" I asked, not quite sure how to handle this situation.

The figure shook his head and started to slowly retreat. Before completely vanishing into the forest (I somehow failed to see that), he gave me one last glance and opened his mouth.

"Marlene?"

I started gaping. This figure, a creature I couldn't even properly see, knew my name?

"Marlene?" came the oddly familiar voice.

"What do you want?" I yelled, feeling flustered.

Almost on cue, my surroundings turned into a concrete bed. Well that would explain it! The figure, the place, all a dream. A really weird dream.

"Are you okay, Marlene?" my dad asked. He had a weird expression on his face and was nervously twittering with his fingers.

"Dandy." I replied, sitting up in my new concrete bed. "Why do you ask?"

"You were snoring... really loud actually." he answered.

"Oh... how about we pretend you didn't hear it and take that tour you promised me."

Robert's eyes instantly brightened. "I'll take you up on that deal!"

He quickly bounded outside, leaving me to follow.

Dad was fast, I'll give him that, but I was faster! Once we had reached the edge of the clean, fresh grass, I launched myself into the pond. While scrambling to remain upright, I swiftly kicked my hind paws to gain momentum. Looked like the momentum had gained me some time, for I had barely gotten out of the water before Dad.

"Looks like I beat you, Dad!" I announced happily.

"Out of plain luck!" Robert scoffed.. his eyes twinkling.

Giggling to myself, we both walked along the pattern tiles that were hexagonal shaped. The sky was still gray again, like it was about to rain. I had a great time chatting with my dad. As I told him all about Helen and company, we strolled (and I tripped) on the zoo walk paths. I was having such a great time, I didn't even notice that we had suddenly stopped in front of a habitat until Robert pulled me back by the tail. "Wait," he said. "Before we go on, I'd like you to meet someone."

"Alright, who?" I asked, curious.

"You'll have to go and see." he replied, raising an eyebrow.

Smiling, I jumped over the brick wall after him. The entire place was filled with huge, green leaves and a lot of grassy grounds. 'What is this place?' I mouthed to my dad. My only response was a mild chuckle.

Before I could ask what on Earth the chuckle was for, a large shadow fell upon us. "Robert!" called a voice.

It was a deep voice, apparently belonging to a dark gray furred animal with a striped black and white tail. A lemur? We obviously didn't have those in my old aquarium, but I've heard about them.

My dad and the immense lemur gave each other what I like to call 'the Man- hug'. "Who's this?" the lemur asked in a heavy Madagascar accent.

"Marlene." my father replied. His already swelled out chest seemed to lift even more.

"Hi," I said, awkwardly. Okay, maybe I was a little afraid of the guy. I mean, come on! Whoever heard of a yellow-eyed creature?

"Name's Danny," the lemur greeted. "And I've heard so much about you!"

"Really?" I asked.

"Sure! When isn't there a time your dad talked about you?" he replied.

So Dad had talked about me, huh? Well dang. There goes my reputation.

"Er, would you guys like to come in and meet the rest of the gang?" Danny said, gesturing towards a platform.

"We would love to!" Robert answered.

'Rest of the gang?' I thought. But of course nobody ever listens to my thoughts (not like they can though) so we found our way to a bamboo ladder leading up to a concrete platform.

"Need a paw?" someone asked. Looking up, I realized it was a lemur. "Name's Julien ," he said.

"Okay." I reached up to take his paw but he pulled it away just as I was about to grasp it. "Hey!" He just laughed.

Robert and Danny came in between us. "Marlene, this is Julien. Julien, this is Marlene." Danny explained.

"Pleased to meet you," I told him sarcastically. Julien gives a small grin and finally lent me his paw to shake, which he did–in a way that made my arm jiggle and my bones rattle when he pulled my arm up and down.

"Don't forget me!" a child-like voice interrupted. Glancing over in the direction I heard it, I realized that the shout had come from a small mouse-lemur.

"Aww! You are simply adorable!" I cried, my arms reaching out to hug him.

"Don't do that!" Julian shouted, standing in front of me. "He has rabies!"

"That's ridiculous-"

"Oh, is it?"

I rolled my eyes as a lemur (an aye-aye by the looks of it) came into our conversation. "Rabies?" he questioned. "Since when has Mort ever gotten rabies?"

"Well, there was that one time that he started foaming at the mouth-"

"The same time you fed him an ice cream sundae... with extra whipped cream?"

"No! Besides, it was shaving cream, not whipped cream!"

"Is that healthy?" I cut in.

"Why should I care?" Julian retorted.

"Because-"

"Can we just get on with the rest of the tour... PLEASE!" my dad asked.

Julien stuck his tongue at Maurice and motioned for Mort to come with him–but not to get to close. While Robert and the two other lemurs walked in front, Maurice and I trailed behind. "Shaving cream?" I asked, laughing a bit at the idea. Though it seemed pretty ordinary for Julien to do that, seeing from his first impression to me.

"Yeah, you should have seen some of the other times," Maurice said. "Jello-filled toilet water, replacing the first aid-kit with 'Operation', and hiding toilet paper in the most random places you can think of."

"Sounds like an interesting neighbor to me," I replied.

"You keep on thinking that..." he trailed off.

We soon stop at a building. 'The Zoovenir Shop' the sign above it read.

We strolled right in. A wave of cool air hit us, resulting in a large, group sigh of relief.

On the inside, rows and rows of stuffed animals surrounded us. The lifeless, dull eyes staring into yours. Okay, it's probably just me, but dolls? Yeah, they're going to take over the world.

"This is the zoovenir shop," Robert announced.

"Don't you mean souvenir shop?" I corrected. I remembered a souvenir shop back at the aquarium.

"Nope, he means zoovenir," Danny said. "Humans like to be rhymey."

"This is where zoo meetings take place." Robert continued. "And you can find many things to take for your own personal use back in your habitat."

Then we continued on the tour, past the office, bathrooms, animal clinic, tables and fountain. The sky stayed gray all day. It was an hour later when we started to actually go visit the animals themselves in the main zoo, reptile house, and children's zoo. Finally.