Epilogue

The sun shone bright across the savannah, and outside of Pride Rock's den Kiara, Tiifu and Zuri happily talked amongst them as they sunbathed. Usually they would have gone to the water hole, but because it was to be expected that Kiara's trip to the Outlands wouldn't come without consequences the cub was still going through her punishment of not leaving Pride Rock. On the bright side there were only a few days left before she regained her freedom.

"How long does this usually take again?" Tiifu asked as she glanced curiously at the den.

"No idea." Kiara shrugged. "But it's not like these things can be rushed."

A light breeze blew her fur as something quickly zoomed by Kiara. Curious she turned behind her to see what had rushed out of the den so quickly, but only managed to see a bird hurriedly flying in the distance. Was that Zazu just now?

"I don't think I can wait any longer the suspense is killing me!" Zuri exclaimed excitedly. "I don't know about you guys but I wouldn't mind having another princess around here to hang out with."

"What? No way, we need a prince! What if he's really cute?" Tiifu giggled.

"You don't even know what he'd be like Tiifu." Kiara chuckled. "Besides even if I had a brother who says he'll fall for you?"

Tiifu smiled confident and crossed her front paws with poise.

"Please Kiara how could he say no to this?"

Kiara rolled her eyes amused and smiled in defeat.

"What about you Kiara?" Zuri spoke up. "Do you want a brother or a sister?"

Kiara hummed in thought to herself. Honestly she hadn't been thinking about it much, but when it came to personal preference it didn't seem to make any difference.

"Well I'm fine with either honestly. As long as everything turns out okay I'm good." Kiara said as she discreetly glanced back at the den.

The three cubs gasped in surprise when suddenly Zazu flew by them with a running Simba hurriedly following the hornbill back to the inside of the den. Neither bothered to talk or even look at the cubs, both too focused in arriving to their destination.

"Wow…" Tiifu murmured in surprise. "I didn't think Simba would be that worried. He sure seemed to be in a rush."

Kiara smiled to both her friends, chuckling shyly.

"He can't help it, dad really cares about us."

Panting tiredly Simba quickly looked for Nala as soon as he made it inside. When he spotted her by the far end of the cave he hurried to her side, and found himself at a loss for words when he saw Nala cleaning a tiny cub between her paws.

"Nala." Simba whispered gleefully as he nuzzled her.

Nala sighed contently against the softness of Simba's mane, allowing herself to be pampered by his nuzzles. Though utterly rejoiced Nala was tired, and the warmth and softness of Simba's fur comforted her.

"Simba, we have a son."

He felt his heart skip a beat. Still keeping Nala close to him Simba took a moment to look at the cub between Nala's paws. His son was so very small, mewling in distress with his eyes still closed. Simba smiled proudly to himself at noticing the unmistakable bright golden fur the cub had.

"Kion." Simba murmured blissfully.

The name rolled off his tongue almost instantly, but somehow despite not giving it much thought he and Nala both felt it was perfect.

Simba let himself be succumbed by the warm fuzzy feeling growing inside his chest and purred contently against Nala's muzzle. In that instant it felt as if nothing at all had happened during the last few weeks, almost like it had been nothing but a bad dream that Simba had just woken up from.

Though a bit reluctantly Simba pulled away from Nala, smiling shyly as she nodded knowingly. He turned around and walked back outside where the three young cubs were still waiting. As soon as they saw him they immediately stopped talking and looked expectantly in his direction.

"Kiara, there's someone we'd like you to meet." Simba smiled softly.

Suddenly overwhelmed by nervousness and excitement at the same time Kiara stood up shakily, glancing back at Tiifu and Zuri. Both her friends nodded and smiled encouragingly at Kiara, urging her to get on her way.

Quietly breathing in to calm her beating heart Kiara walked cautiously towards the den, Simba following right behind her.

As she saw them come back in Nala smiled in their direction, noticing how Kiara seemed uncertain and wary, walking slowly as if she was afraid to disturb her sibling.

"It's okay Kiara, you can get closer." Nala assured her.

Kiara didn't notice when she stopped walking, but when Simba softly nudged her to keep going the cub jumped in surprise and managed to force her legs onward.

Spotting yellow fur hidden between her mother's paws Kiara gasped awestruck at seeing the tiny lion cub that fidgeted disoriented against Nala's chest.

"Kiara this is your brother, Kion."

Slowly Kiara guided her paw to barely touch Kion's fur, a wide smile appearing on her maw when he mewled in response.

She always used to feel small. Whenever Kiara was sitting by her parents or watching the Pridelands from Pride Rock she'd always feel so small compared to everything around her. But right then, seeing how her paw was twice the size of Kion's head a sense marvel and wonder filled her.

"He's so small." Kiara chuckled.

Almost as if responding to her voice Kion struggled to open his eyes and met Kiara's. Though a bit shade lighter than hers Kion's eyes were brown hazel too, unmistakable proof that he too had taken after Simba.

From behind Kiara Simba leaned down to be at her eye level.

"Kiara from now on be sure to look after Kion okay?" Simba smiled at Kiara.

That's right, she was a big sister, and though at first it was hard to imagine what it'd be like now that Kiara had Kion right before her very eyes a wave of love and pride filled her. Something inside of her told her to always look out for him, especially now that he was so small, and Kiara was determined to do so.

"Don't worry daddy, you can leave it to me. I'll be the best big sister ever." Kiara replied confidently.

Though at first Kiara was scared she'd wouldn't be a good older sister in that moment every ounce of doubt had already vanished. It was almost certain that there were a lot of things she didn't know yet of being a good role model for her sibling, but she was willing to go as far as needed to learn to do so.

Kiara smiled down at Kion.

"And that's a promise, because your big sister will also be the best queen ever."


The End

And it's over! From here on out Kiara continued working hard to be both a good queen and big sister! Perhaps she hasn't mastered the latter in The Lion Guard yet, but you she's still a work in progress ^^

Thanks to everyone for reading! I really hope you enjoyed the story and thought this was a good possible explanation for what happened in that period of TLK story. Special thanks to yingyangmaster and GraceKim1 for your constant support! You two always helped me keep going~

See you next time!