Son of a Legend

Part 34: Epilogue

10 years later...
Mkali and Taji were making their way to the Pridelands for the celebration of Koda's 10th anniversary as leader of the Lion Guard. Only he and Ascari had accomplished that feat. On Mkali's back was their 6 year old son, Gozi. They decided to name him after Kion since his real name was Kiongozi, and they didn't want to apply all the pressure in the world to fill his shoes. Going had Taji's brown fur, purple-blue eyes (a combination of Taji and Mkali's eye color), and Mkali's red mane. He was fast asleep on Mkali's back. Mkali and Taji smiled at each other. The two of them were holding hands as they walked. It wasn't long before the familiar sight of Priderock came into view. They also saw 5 lions who were very familiar to them. Kushona- the Prideland's keenest of sight, Misuli- the Prideland's strongest, Kasi- the Prideland's fastest, Tamaa- the Prideland's bravest, and Koda- the Prideland's fiercest and leader of the Lion Guard.
"What is this? A royal escort?" Mkali jokes. This gets a laugh from everyone.
"King Simko and Queen Leah's orders," Koda jokes back. Mkali goes and hugs everyone one at a time, Taji does the same.
"Congrats on ten years, man," Mkali says to Koda once he gets to him.
"It's all thanks to you! You took out all the big threats," Koda replies.
Gozi starts to wake up. "Are we there yet?" He says, rubbing his eyes with his balled up fists.
"Yep, we sure are, bud!" Mkali says. Taji grabs onto her son and puts him in the ground. Gozi reaches up and grabs onto his mother's hand. The Lion Guard leads King Mkali and Queen Taji of the Tree of Life to Priderock.
Once there, they are greeted by the king and queen of the Pridelands.
"Mkali, Taji! Long time no see!" Leah says excitedly. She hugs her cousin and his wife.
"Let's not make that a habit," Mkali agrees.
"Sis, good to see you!" Simko says as he hugs his sister.
"Good to see you too, little bro!" Taji teases. After they all greet each other, Taji and Mkali look around because they don't hear their son.
"Hey, any idea where Gozi went?" Mkali asks.
"Oh, I'm sure he's playing with his cousins," Simko reassures his fellow king. They hear some cheering coming from the Lion Guard lair.
"Oh, they're probably watching Koda and I's fight again," Mkali says. The two kings and queens go down to the Lion Guard lair.
Sure enough, Mkali was right, and they were watching a replay of Mkali and Koda's fight.
"Oh, you came to watch me kick your butt, huh?" Koda asks teasingly.
Mkali chuckles. "Yeah, remind me, who won again?" Mkali asks.
"Only because I broke my hand on your face! If I hadn't, you would've been out cold!" Koda says playfully.
"Then we both would've been out cold, which, under the rules that we were using, would've sent the fight to the judges, which means I would've still won," Mkali says with a smile on his face. Mkali, Taji, Leah, and Simko all pull up a chair. Gozi runs over and jumps into his father's lap. There are multiple children gathered around the screen. He recognized his niece, Bahati, who is 9 years old, and nephew, Fahari, who is 7.
Bahati had a fur color very similar to that of Nala and had brown eyes.
Fahari had the same fur color but had light purple eyes (like Laika's eyes) and some tufts of mane that are light brown (like Kushona's mane). He also sees Kamani, who is almost 11 now, sitting next to her sister, Kamili, age 7, who looks just like Kamani.
He sees Asha sitting in the corner. She is 18 now. Mkali also sees the daughter of Misuli and Tamaa. Her name is Avana and she is 8 years old. She has golden brown fur and hazel eyes. There are also Simko and Leah's boys, Ayubi and Mosi, and their daughter Nia.
Ayubi and Nia both had light brown fur and Simko's blue eyes, while Mosi had honey colored fur and dark brown eyes. Ayubi is 10, Mosi is 9 going on 10, and Nia just turned 8.
They all watch the fight, and everyone cheers when the fight is over.
Everyone is celebrating Koda's ten years as leader of the Lion Guard, making him the second longest serving leader behind Ascari, who did it for 17 years. Mkali decides that he needs some fresh air, so he finds himself in the weight room in the Lion Guard lair. He looks at the leaderboard for highest one rep max at every lift for each role in the Lion Guard.
Kion, obviously, was at the held the record in every lift in the Prideland's fiercest column. He looked and saw that he, Ascari, and Koda all came in 2nd to Kion. Mkali looked under the total weight moved (bench press+squat+deadlift+clean) row for the Prideland's fiercest and saw that he was the 2nd strongest leader that the Lion Guard had ever know, even after 10 years of Mkali not being in the Pridelands.
"Not half bad, huh, dad?" Mkali thinks. Mkali looks at what it says that Kion could squat (this was Mkali's favorite lift).
'655 lbs.' Is what it said. Mkali looked at what the leader board said that he could do.
'600 lbs.'
Mkali shrugs and says, "Why not?" He goes over to a rack and sets it up for Mkali to try 655 (six 45 lbs and one 35 lbs plates on each side plus the 45 lbs bar).
Mkali gets under the bar. He takes a deep breath and unracks the bar, then takes two steps back from the bar hooks. Mkali takes another deep breath, and then he slowly starts to bend his knees to start his rep. He slowly squats down until his knees are bent at 90 degrees. Mkali starts to stand up. His legs are on fire as he uses every muscle in his legs to force himself to stand up and finish the rep. Mkali grunts and struggles for a bit, but eventually, he is able to stand up, then rack the bar.
"Wooo!" Mkali shouts when he is able to do it. Mkali sees the spirit of his father. Kion nods at his son before he fades away.
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There you have it! Mkali's story is finished! I'll have to admit that it's kind of hard to close the book on Mkali, but it's time to move on. Thank you guys so much for reading! I know this was kind of an anticlimactic ending, but I was kind of in a hurry because I know that I still have another part of my Kion x Zuri story that I still need to get up today. So thanks again for reading, and I'll see you in my Kion x Zuri story (hopefully). See you guys soon!