It's glorious to be matriarch.

My family line has always controlled the largest mango tree in the grove. Surveying our jungle home from the highest branches is a thrill few lemurs can brag about. The first fruits ripened by the sun are mine for the picking. The sweetest leaves are my first course of the day. When I've had my fill, the prime treats are reserved for my daughters, heiresses to the Queendom.

Some hover on branches a few levels down, hedging their bets and biding their time. Others have sought their fortunes in new trees. Outside challengers cannot vanquish the strongest bloodline.

When Mother died, my two sisters and I ran the Gauntlet. Being first up the Mother Tree gives you advantages but is by no means a promise that you will win the right to rule. The new Lemur Queen must defend her position for three sunrises before she is declared supreme by the clan.

My two sisters were identical to me in all ways but one.

They were never quite as ruthless.

A few young males start up a clan howl from the lowest branches. They eagerly await Love Moon, when they will be allowed to ascend to the heights of the canopy. As Queen, the first selection is mine. Last year's mate gave me a rare blessing, two females of exceeding beauty. They are old enough to forage for themselves but still young enough to seek my reassurance now and then. I hope they will not be the last of my children. Every year, my fur pales a little more. I do not miss the secret signals my older daughters make when my back is turned.

I feel no remorse for driving my sisters to the sea. This is our tradition. The humans come every few years, when the fruit is too abundant even for us. They bring no fire or iron to our shores. We give them our castaways, so new colonies may be formed on new islands.

Such has been our tradition from the first sunrise and it is by tradition we continue to thrive.

It's dull in the zoo.

The food pales in comparison to the sweet, sweet mango nectar of my youth. The papaya here is mostly water. The bananas sometimes stink of other animals. Everything stinks of humans.

The apes and elephants are the worst. Picky eaters who thumb every piece before making a selection.

It's not quite enough to quash my appetite, but some days it comes close.

I've always been a hearty eater. I knew the odds were against me when we raced to determine who would be the Lemur Queen. I thought my heart would burst from all that running and climbing but the temptation of the best fruit in the jungle...I gave it my best.

I was almost relieved to leap onto the human boat. My eldest sister bites hard. Sometimes, when my keeper notices my leg bothering me, she'll give me an ice pop to distract me. It's not as good as floating on your back in clear tropical waters but it's cold and tangy.

The other females in this pen are like me. They had their chance at Queen and lost. We have our own little support community. Those that can't learn to get along with the group are transferred. To other zoos, I suppose.

There's my keeper, right on time. She does a bit of that nonsense human chatter and holds out a slice of watermelon, just for me. There are more slices in the barrow for the group but this one is just the right size, sweet and juicy with seeds that give a nice little crunch. Keepers aren't supposed to admit to favorites among the animals but I know I secretly hold that title.

I suppose this place really isn't so bad.

If only we had a view of the ocean.

Being lost in the human world is terrible.

My oldest sister was twice my size but I'm scrappy. I gave her a few good nips to remember me by. The middle one melted like butter in the sun when the humans gave her kind words. I showed my teeth and made it clear I was no tame little rabbit eager for their approval.

I didn't take the time to study the land when we came ashore. I scuttled down the anchor and dashed full speed ahead as the humans laughed and tried to call me back. My sister chirped a half-hearted plea. I scraped dirt in her direction and kept going. Let her new human friends console her. I was done with those smelly creatures.

Impulsive, Mother always had said. She wasn't wrong.

What I had mistaken for a tropical forest similar to home was just a front. Behind a thin strip of palm trees was a human city that was huge, stinky...and hostile.

A large creature the color of midnight caught my scent and chased me for half a mile, its thunderous cries echoing off the sides of buildings. My nimble claws allowed me to escape the brute by climbing a cave wall made of strangely square red stones.

More humans than I ever could have imagined awaited me on the other side.

They were shaping great metal tree trunks into more of their monstrous dwellings. I could see nothing green, not even patches of weeds. A new sound, one of many rocks being ground together, had me running for my life.

Darkness had fallen by the time I found something resembling food. It was surrounded by many disgusting scents and the area was clearly a favorite human gathering spot. The mushy purple fruit left a bitter aftertaste but it allowed me to focus on something other than iminent death and roaring hunger.

Like the forest in the sky.

I approached it with great caution. It was suspended on two metal trees with interlocking branches. They were at the right height for human feet to climb but too far apart for me. Using my tail, I could just manage to swing my body from one slender branch to the next.

My limbs were trembling when I finally reached the welcome stretch of green. I reached out my claws to pull some leaves free and eat.

They brushed over a flat surface. A human trick. A painting.

I looked out over the vast, seemingly endless stretch of concrete and false stones, vowing that someday, I would be among the trees again.