One year after the Asafa retired, the pride lands were more peaceful than ever.
Asafa defeated 60 enemies by himself and no one dared to invade this land anymore. Mohatu ruled with fairnes and many that had lived long enough, believed Mohatu to be more similar to Mufasa than Asafa himself.
As for the former king, he was behind the pride rock in a lake relaxing with his buddies.
"Haaaaa this is the life." Timon said, finally feleing like they were back together, the whole crew... 'Plus a few extra.' he thought as he gave Ayana, Nala and Zahara a stinky eye.
Those three were sitting further away, disgusted by what the crew was about to do.
"Ignore them Timon, they'll never understand Hakuna Matata!" Asafa said with his pure wisdom.
Then he picked up another snail and slurped it!
"Asafa, don't think you can win this time!" Pumba said with confidence as he also swallows a snail.
Ayana felt like vomiting so she moved further away.
"Pfft, weak kitties, this is how a real woman should be like!" Imani said as she upped 3 snails.
"I was once the king to be, let me show you why that is!" Simba said as he slurped 4.
"Well, I was king!" Asafa said as he slurped 5.
"Well, I am king!" Hamu said as he slurped 10. Sadly it was too much for him as he almost died. Timon had to push out the snails by pushing his chest.
"Hahahaha" they all laughed.
But Asafa felt a hint of sadness, the amount of snails everyone could eat was lowering by the week.
Asafa saw that Timon and Pumba were aging, the same could be said for Imani as well
Hamu was till in his adulthood and didn't seem effected.
"You know.. we worried about you." Timon suddenly said as he looked up to the sky.
"Me?" Asafa questioned.
"Yeah... Whenever you came by, you had longing eyes... But you had to return because of your responsibilities." Timon said.
Asafa smiled, he didn't think anyone noticed that, but it seemed like those he grew up with knew him better than he thought.
"Why didn't you ever say anything." Asafa asked curiously.
"Wouldn't that make you more burdened?" Timon asked.
Asafa was surprised. Indeed, if his crew asked to have more time with him when he didn't have it, it would make him feel very bad. It seemed like during the last few years, it wasn't just him that was holding back.
"Thank you, I couldn't have done any of this withouth you guys." Asafa said.
"No, you used your snake and created an army of lions, I think you could've done fine without us." Hamu spoke, not reading the atmosphere.
Asafa turned away in awkwardness.
As he stood up, a female lion came down the pride rock with one cub following happily.
"Grandpaaaa missed you" The cub shouted before jumping into the lake towards Asafa.
Asafa panicked and picked up his grandchild who didn't know how to swim.
"Be careful Zuberi!" Asafa said angrily.
"I knew you'd save me gramps!" The cub said happily.
Asafa sighed, his grandson was half a year old, and the crown prince... but he was reckless.
Mohatu had inherited his hard working genes and impregnated 4 females. This was his first born, the others hadn't been born yet.
But Asafa was worried, the crown prince was too fearless...
"Ah, you're back little cub! This time I'll teach you how you should never judge a book by it's cover, That why you should alway trust and believe in strangers!" Timon said.
"Timon, if you don't want to end up as kebab, please be quiet..." Asafa said.
Asafa finally understood where Zuberi was learning his bad habits from.
"Father-in-law, I'll leave him with you guys for the night." The young female said as she walked back.
This had become routine as Asafa and the crew loved having Zuberi over.
"Aahh poor Zuberi, he's going to learn more bad habits here..." Simba said in a sigh.
Asafa looked at him, and wondered if this was how their late mother used to feel when his children were cubs.
He smiled at the memory of his mother. She died just a few days after Asafa retired, so they spent the her last days together.
Asafa picked up Zuberi, whose name was chosen in the memory of Sarabi as they sounded similar.
Asafa smiled as he thought about how life kept going in cycles.
They all walked towards the sleeping area and laid down in their spots.
"Ahhhh I missed this! Timon said as he laid down in Asafa's mane
Asafa smiled as he had also missed this.
This was his story, the story of King Asafa.
From adolescence to adulthood.
From a young cub, to a young, free spirited adult with no responsibilities, to a young king with heavy responsibility to revive his pride and land, to a father and teacher... And finally to an elder that has retired and enjoys the fruit of his hard work.
The story of King Asafa, son of Mufasa and the great king of the pride lands.
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Lion King: Son of Mufasa by Passerby_Venne