Unexpected Perfection (Emperor's New Groove)

Part Five

Pushing the dense vegetation of the jungle aside, I started to lose hope that I could even find the Emperor. Unlike my dad, I had rarely traveled through here. Our village was well prepared to supply for themselves and families made sure their children avoided the dangers of the jungle.

Trying to stay positive, I continued on the barely visible dirt path. The jungle was rather beautiful, the chirping of birds and dripping water from past rain echoed through the trees. As long as you ignored the distant sounds of wild cats and glowing eyes staring at you.

"I'm the emperor, and as such, I'm born with an innate sense of direction." My head snapped up at the voice coming from a little further down the path. Quickly, I pushed through the barrier of plants and came an arm's distance away from the Emperor. Oblivious to my presence, he continued talking to himself, "Okay, where am I?"

"Emperor Kuzco!" I exclaimed in excitement, proud to have found him and... possibly wanting to scare him.

A shrill scream ripped out of the llama's mouth. Desperately his hand...hoof?... searched the ground for something and then hurled a rock at me. I grunted as it slammed into my abdomen and coughed, "I guess we're even now."

After recovering from his initial fright the Emperor asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to help you back to the palace," his face remained stoic but I could sense the relief roll off his shoulders. "And seeing that you don't know where you are," he huffed, "it's a good thing I'm here."

He turned his body away from my direction and only angled his face towards me, "Well, if you want to tag along, fine, but we will be following my directions," he drawled.

Seeing as we just had to follow the path, for the most part, I agreed.

~

"So," I licked my lips, "what do you do for fun?" Boy was this awkward. We had only been walking for a few minutes but in total silence.

He briefly glanced at me and sighed as if conversing with me was exhausting. "Wouldn't you like to know." Apparently, he saw me roll my eyes because he continued, "My whole life is fun."

I quirked an eyebrow, "Oh really?"

"Uh-huh. No commitments or restrictions for me." A good emperor would be committed to his people. Seeming to miss the conversation as I was thinking about his response, he continued, "What about you?"

My eyes widened in surprise. Noticing he was about to revert back into his arrogant silence at my reaction, I quickly relaxed. "Oh, me? Well, I love spending time with my family, especially my siblings, Tipo and Chaca."

"What do you do with Nico and Chica?" he asked honestly.

I laughed and he smiled, "We just play around, go on adventures. A couple days ago we built a treehouse. Tipo slept in there for one night only eating bugs."

"Eww."

"Yeah. Oh! I also teach the children of the village," I smiled at him thinking of all the kids, "so that's really fun."

He looked thoughtful, "What's so fun about that?"

I looked up, "Well, not all villages have the resources or people to do that." He looked confused. "You know, most villages don't have schools at all. Parents teach their kids what they can but a learning environment is so much richer. A lot of the schools that actually do exist only teach boys so..." I shrugged.

"I didn't kn–" our conversation was cut short as we heard a ruffling in a bush near the path. It seemed like something rather large and that only meant a few possibilities in the jungle, none of them good.

A small furry animal popped out unexpectedly. "Aah!" The Emperor jumped on me like a baby monkey. I held onto him in mutual fear but then released a large breath after realizing the animal, a squirrel, was not a threat.

Emperor Kuzco looked at me sheepishly and while I rolled my eyes, a small smile did mark my face. "Get off me you big baby," I said, pushing him off.

He gave a short laugh and then turned towards the squirrel, acting rudely to cover his embarrassment. "What do you want?"

The cute little guy chattered and then held out two acorns. "Aww. For us?" he gave a little nod, "Thanks little guy," I said, softly patting his head. He blushed and twisted his hands bashfully. Turning towards Emperor Kuzco he held out the remaining acorn.

"Oh, for me? Why, I don't know what to say." Surprised, I smiled at the Emperor's sweetness. My mistake, he threw the acorn at the squirrel. "Hit the road, bucky."

Disappointed, I stayed still as the Emperor moved forward, "Say you're sorry!" He only turned around briefly to blow a raspberry at the little squirrel. Strangely, the squirrel stepped in front of me to block my path from following the Emperor. My confusion was quickly cleared when the Emperor fell down a steep crevice off the path. "Oh no!" I was about to follow after him, disregarding the squirrel's warning chatters, but stopped when I noticed the jaguars below.

I harshly pulled at my hair in frustration trying to think of a solution. Desperately looking around, I finally spotted a path the Emperor could use to safely exit the sleeping pride of jaguars. I maintained a safe distance from the jaguars while climbing down and making my way toward the path I spotted.

"Emperor Kuzco," I said as quietly as possible. "Kuzco!" the Emperor's eyes jumped to mine, his chest fluctuating rapidly. "Come to me. There's a clear path out."

Gulping, the Emperor slowly nodded his head but before he could take a step the squirrel made an appearance. My face contorted in confusion as the squirrel made a... balloon animal? That was unexpected but if the Emperor can become a llama then I guess it shouldn't be too surprising.

Suddenly, there was a sharp pop followed by the Emperor laughing mockingly. My breath caught in my throat as the loud laughter awoke the jaguars. The Emperor wasted no time and ran towards my frozen figure. As he darted past me he grabbed my arm to drag me along, startling me out of my fright.

"You called me Kuzco," the Emperor panted as we stumbled away from the wild cats.

My mind more focused on running from our death, I screeched, "What?" While we're running for our lives and he's trying to make conversation?

"That means," he wheezed, "you like me." If his face wasn't marked with horror, he would definitely be smirking.

Quickly snapping my head around towards the racing jaguars behind us, after glancing at the Emperor, I huffed, "Emperor Kuzco's a mouthful."

"Uh-hu-ahhh!" We both yelled as we simultaneously tripped, rolling down a hill and stopping at a cliff.

"Oh no." The jaguars were closing us in.