After years and years of theories and ideas and re-looking online of the reply for him, one episode finally answers some of the fandom's questions. After all these years, we finally get a huge, major clue of who's Nala's father. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that Disney has paid attention to our work and decided to treat us to something like this. So now I finally have an excuse of doing a story about Nala's father.

I own nothing. The Lion Guard and all its content belong to Disney. I don't own the cover image either.

Enjoy the story!

It wasn't often she'd come into the stone cave near Pride Rock, but after today's events she felt strangely drawn to come into the hidden den. Her son had ran up the stone steps of the great kopje to greet her and Simba, eager to report the events of today. It was a common thing for him to do, unless the day's events had truly exhausted him, and they enjoyed listening to all he had done to make the Prideland's a safer place.

But today, an interesting, shocking explanation had come into life. After explaining it all, Kion had asked out his maternal grandfather.

Her heart had dropped in her chest after he had asked that. After listening what Kion had learned from today's experience, she had thought it be best to go down to where exactly he had learned it.

After getting directions from Simba, Nala soon came down to the base of the the kopje and brushed past the vines to the concealed lair. Her eyes squinted past the light that was entering through the hole in the ceiling. She was startled to see that the lair was so well lit. To her astonishment the cave was extremely beautiful. Everything was cleaned and illuminated, compared to her views of what caves would be. Vines and draping leaves fell down from the ceiling and the nooks and crannies in the rock. A small pool of water in the center of it all rippled, sending rays of dazzling light bouncing off everything.

And then there were the pictures.

Exquisitely detailed and vibrantly done murals adorned every part of the cave wall she saw. Pictures of creatures big and small, plants and land formations all had a part in the story. To her shock, in one very descriptive piece, she saw herself in the story of her mate's life.

"Ah, your majesty," came a voice from beside, shocking her out of her thoughts. She turned to see the mandrill decorating another piece of the wall while her son's best friend was on his hands and knees, wiping up some spilled paint with some leaves. He sent a smile and a wave her way before resuming back to work under Rafiki's look.

"I assume you are here because of Kion," he said, rattling the gourds on his staff. She gave a firm nod and he replied with a small chuckle. "Then perhaps it is time to fulfill the promise I made to your mother all those years ago."

"What promise," she asked, surprised and eager to hear what her deceased mother had been keeping from her. Rafiki chuckled and sat down beside the wall, tapping the ground with his staff next to him. She came over at a slow pace before sitting beside him. His stick tapped against the stone wall and instantly, several pictures of the Pridelands glowed and almost came to life in a way.

What immediately caught her eyes was the on his staff was pointing towards where an orange cub with a red tuft, looking quite identical to her son, stood on top of a tall tree on a slope.

"When your father was young and before the time of Mufasa's reign, your father was an adventurous and brave, yet quite proud and cocky cub. One day, your father took a risky dare and climbed to the top of a tall, dead tree. Unfortunately for him, a branch broke under his weight, sending him falling down." Nala gasped as the cub painting made its descent too down the wall.

"But thankfully was rescued by the Guard in his day. He would've have been a goner had not he been saved." Nala looked at her beautifully sketched group of lions surrounding her father, breaking his fall. Her eyes lingered for a second more before turning back to Rafiki.

"But why now? Why am I just finding about all this? About my missing parent that I had no idea who existed until now," she asked, her voice almost coming into a begging state.

"You must let me finish. The story is not done yet." He retracted his staff from the wall and set it neatly down on his lap. "Your father later went to become, if you can believe it, the next Prideland's fastest on the Lion Guard. You can see now where Kion got some of his teamwork skills. Your father saved Sarafina, your mother, from a tree as well, but from one about to topple onto her. She was grateful for his help and later went on to become his mate and pregnant with you." His smile lingered for a second longer, but then changed to a frown.

"Unfortunately, his speed could not save him when came the time when Scar betrayed the guard." A shudder passed through the mandrill as if he could feel the vibrations of the roar from the past stream down his spine. "Your mother was heartbroken. After she gave birth to you, she asked the pride to keep any knowledge of your father a secret from you so that you would be unaware of missing him. Then she instructed me to tell you the truth about your sire when the time came when you were all grown up."

"But why all this now? Why not before she died," she asked, desperation creeping into her voice. His legs had drawn up to his chest and he clutched his staff close while his head dipped to the floor.

"She thought that if she died before telling you, you would feel less grief of her passing. She thought it be better off knowing you've lost one parent instead of both," he replied. His head then turned up again. "But now that you have grown, I thought it be the best time to tell you." Her head dipped down as her eyes blinked shut in concentration. She let out a large exhale before lifting it again to meet Rafiki's face.

"What was my father's name," she asked slowly in a whisper, as if she was almost afraid to ask. His eyes widened for a moment before they softened.

"Adofo. Meaning 'one who loves'." His lips quirked up a bit in a small smile. "He really did love you Nala, even though he never got the chance to be there when you were born and the chance to raise you as his daughter. He thought before as well that if something happened to him, leaving him able to care for you and your mother, to tell you when you were old enough that he loves you dearly."

"Adofo," she repeated, letting the syllables roll off her tongue as she stared at her father as a cub. She could see the resemblance he had with his grandson and she could also see how his coloring looked like hers combined with the light cream color of Sarafina. She felt a pang of sadness inside her heart and she realized it was grief she was feeling. Grief that her father had been killed long before she realized he had been. The void in her heart, the small, almost nonexistent void that once ached in her cub years with the feeling that something was missing from her life now throbbed inside her chest again as she now knew what was the missing piece.

"I love you too, father," she whispered, almost inaudibly. She blinked rapidly as she felt moisture begin to gather at the bottom of each eyelid as she began to grief for the lion she had never met, but still was a big part of her.

The picture, though she wasn't sure if it was a trick of her eyes or the light or not, seemed to come to life and glimmer one last time without the aid of Rafiki's staff, before becoming still once more.

Sigh, you know I'm really happy that this episode had mentions Nala's father in it. I think it's a sign that the animators and writers at Disney have taken a look and interest into our work, both in literature, artwork and in discussions and have decided to take our ideas and incorporate them into the show. Makes me really thankful for them and all the effort they've put in. However, they could still take in some more biology/zoology lessons when researching, considering in "Mbali Fields Migration", zebras are technically born with brown stripes.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed treading this. Please leave a review and feel free to check out some of my other stories. Sincerely, v.t.7