Son of a Legend

Part 17: Killer On the Loose

"You coming, mom?" Mkali asks as he walks towards Priderock, but his mother, Vitani, seems frozen in shock. She snaps out of it and shakes her head.
"Yeah, I'm coming!" Vitani tells her son as she runs to catch up to him. "The guard told me that you might have a thing for Misuli. Is that true?" Vitani asks her son in a teasing tone.
Mkali puts a hand over his face and shakes his head.
"There is nothing between me and Misuli. She's like a sister to me." Mkali replies.
"Okay..." Vitani says skeptically. "Well, if you don't like Misuli, then who do you like?"
Mkali groans. "I'm not talking about this with you, mom."
"Why not!?" Vitani demands in a playful tone.
"Because you're my mom. I'm not talking about my love life with my mother." Mkali says back. He thinks about Taji, the lioness who did hold his heart. He smiled, but Mkali did not know that he was.
"I know that you do like someone, but you don't have to tell me who." Vitani says to her son.
"Thanks." Mkali replies back. He smiles at his mom, and Vitani returns the smile.
Before they know it, they are back at Priderock. Mkali walks in and sees his family, the family that he had told that he did not want to be part of.
"I owe you guys an apology," He started. "I was a jerk. I was just so angry to see that my guard was getting hurt and losing the fight because I had told them not to fight back. I shouldn't have yelled at you guys, and I shouldn't have attacked you, Kovu. I apologize from the bottom of my heart."
Kovu stands up and walks towards Mkali. Mkali sees Kovu start to raise a hand, and he flinches. He looks down and sees that he is trying to shake Mkali's hand.
"All is forgiven. I've been where you are at one point, Mkali. I've done some things that I'm not proud of when I was angry. So, as promised, your spot as leader of the Lion Guard is restored." Mkali shakes Kovu's hand. Mkali turns around and sees his guard standing there.
"It's good to have you back, man." Koda says. Everyone else nods their head in agreement.
"There's no one else I'd rather have lead us." Misuli says.
"And not only do we have our leader back, but we also have our best friend back." Kasi adds on.
"You know how to bring the best out of us, Mkali. There's no other lion ever that can replace you, not even Kion." Kushona said.
Mkali smiles at them. "Thanks, guys! Now, who's ready for patrol?"
They all go on patrol around the border of the Pridelands. They are walking when Mkali tells them to stop.
"Anyone else smell that?" He asks his team.
"It smells like antelope blood." Koda says as he walks up next to Mkali. Mkali looks at a bush on his left and sees that some of the leaves are bloody. The guard walks over to the bushes. Mkali breaks some of the branches, revealing an antelope that was decapitated, the head was missing. Mkali gasps at what he sees.
"Mkali, what is- OH!" Koda says as he sees the corpse. Mkali steps to the side so that the other can see. Kushona sees this and dry heaves once. Kasi knees quiver at the sight of it. Misuli starts quivering.
"We'd better tell Kovu and Kiara about this." Mkali says. He is doing his best not to let the sight of the corpse bother him.
They walk back to Priderock to inform the King and Queen about the murder and mutilation that they saw.
"Show me the body." Kovu said.
"You're sure? This is a lot more gruesome than you would think." Mkali warns against Kovu's request.
"I'm sure." Kovu assured. Kiara and Vitani decided to come with them for whatever reason.
Mkali pulled the branches of the bush back and showed the King, Queen, and former interim leader of the Lion Guard the body. Kovu gasps and puts his hands over his mouth. Kiara faints after seeing the body.
"Mom!" Koda cries out as he catches her. Vitani, however, seems to be utterly unphased by this.
"It's a bummer. I hate seeing an animal's journey in the Circle of Life end early." She says. She clenches her fists, as she is angry now. She is reminded of the night about a week ago that her husband was taken from her by the flames of a fire that were set by a group of lions on purpose.
Mkali sees her start to get angry. "We'll find out who did this, I promise, mom." Mkali says. Kovu is starting to look queasy. "Kovu, you good?" Mkali asks.
Kovu shakes his head, then he throws up. Everyone is in shock. Kovu had been trained for the first 17 years of his life to be a ruthless killer. He had admitted to decapitating people prey animals in the past, yet the sight of this makes him lose his nerve.
"Kovu! Are you alright?" Vitani asks. She runs over to check on her brother. Kovu is lying on the ground, his head in his hands. Kovu starts breathing heavily, having flashbacks to his childhood. The things he saw, the things he did, all of those poor animals lives that he took with such brutality and couldn't take back and undo.
Suddenly, a female hornbill comes flying towards them. "Kovu! Kiara! There is a wildebeest that had been decapitated, and its head is missing!" She says to the group.
"Thanks for telling us, Habari!" Mkali says. (Zazu died while Mkali and his guard were away, so Habari is his replacement. Habari means information)
Kovu starts to gather himself. "You guys go back to Priderock!" Mkali says just as Kiara starts to regain consciousness. Vitani and Kovu nod. Kovu takes Kiara by the arm and leads her back to Priderock. Mkali and the guard all follow Habari to a bush on about 2 miles away from the one the antelope was in. Before Mkali parts the branches, he turns to his guard and asks them, "Are you guys ready to see this?" Everyone nods. Mkali pulls back the branches, and everyone's reactions are similar to that of Vitani's when they were at the antelope earlier. Mkali looked at the claw marks, and so did Kushona, Koda, Misuli, and Kasi.
"Is it just me, or are those claw marks the same as on the antelope?" Koda asks. Kushona and Mkali nod.
"Unfortunately, yes." Mkali says.
"So, does this mean that we have a serial killer in the Pridelands?" Kasi and Misuli ask at the same time.
"Worse." Mkali responds. "We have a serial mutilator."
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Hey guys! Sorry that I couldn't get this up this morning. I had this chapter all up and ready to post by 7 this morning, but there was a glitch where it wouldn't let me publish this chapter, so I had to delete it and write it over again. I hope that you guys can understand. Thanks for reading!