Raza's Tale: 2024 Christmas Special
{The events of this Christmas Special happen before the events of Season I}
“Raz where are we going?” Jahzara asks sleepily, plodding along behind her brother, barley keeping her eyes open as the cold wind makes her shiver.
“I told you Zara it’s a surprise.” Raza replies, seemingly not affected by the cold as he continues to walk. “We have to leave at night if we are to make it there and back before Malik notices we’ve gone.”
Jahzara feels a bump to her side and sees her best friend Ajani walking next to her equally tired, basically using Jahzara as a guide as he presses up against her.
The three wolves continue on their journey and before long, they come to a mountain top, the view is normally vast grassland mixed with forests stretching for miles. This time however , all they see is darkness. Looking around, Raza sees a small cave. Turning to make sure Jahzara and Ajani are still following, he enters the cave.
“Raz where are we?” the youngest wolf asks as she enters the cave and sits down, rubbing sleepy dust from her eyes.
Chucking Raza looks around the cave “we are in the Uchawi cave”
“The magic cave?” Ajani says as he plods over to Jahzara and sits next to her.
“Malik says magic is bullshit” his best friend blurts out.
Raza sighs and looks at the two teens in front of him. “Malik says a lot of stuff, but I promise you, the magic in this cave is very much real. When I was younger, my father brought me to this very cave to show me the magic”
He felt his heart swell seeing Ajani’s eyes go as big as they could go “can you show us it?” he asks, now fully awake, tail wagging like mad as if he’s a pup again.
“Hmm...” Raza replies back with a smirk “have you both been good this year? If I remember correctly, it only works if you’ve both been good wolves all year”
Ajani raises his paw quickly “I HAVE! I HAVE!”
“So, the magic won’t work with Malik then?” Jahzara chimes in causing Raza to laugh out loud.
“Probably not. It also only works on special wolves like yourselves” he responds.
“Does that mean you’re not special then?”
Raza smirks at his sister’s comment “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Now, in order to get the magic to work, you both need to close your eyes and not peak”
Ajani quickly does as instructed, squeezing his eyes shut and covering them with both his paws. Jahzara rolls her eyes at her best friends pupish enthusiasm and follows along.
Their ears twitch at the sound of shuffling. A few moments later Raza’s voice pierces the silence “You both can open your eyes now” he whispers.
When they open their eyes, their faces fall. They were expecting something exciting and incredible but all that was in front of them was… nothing.
“did… did the magic not work?” Ajani says to Raza, visibly upset.
Jahzara also looks disappointed “Maybe Malik was right. Maybe there is no magic”
Seeing and remembering this is exactly how he reacted when he was younger, Raza gives a soft smile. “It needs a special trick to be able to work.”
“What kind of trick?” Ajani asks, looking hopeful.
“Legend has it that it can only work to the howl of an Ethiopian wolf”
Ajani stands up quickly, raising his paw “I’LL DO IT! I’LL DO IT!”
Raza chuckles at how similar he and Ajani were “That’s great Ajani but everyone has to howl together in order for it to work”
Ajani quickly turns to his best friend “Zara we got to howl!”
All Jahzara does is rolls her eyes, chuckles and gives a loud yawn “Can’t it be activated by a yawn instead?”
Raza chuckles before looking out the cave enterence. The full moon beaming across on them, casting a silvery shine everywhere.
“Ok you two. On the count of three we all howl ok?”
“IM READY RAZA!!” Ajani says, barely able to hold his excitement as his tail wags like mad.
“Yeah sure” the other female wolf says, focusing more on wanting to sleep then the magic.
Raza takes a deep breath “One… two… Three!”
On three Ajani lets out a loud howl, giving it everything he has, his head pointing to the cave ceiling.
Jahzara does a big yawn instead before taking a deep breath and letting out a howl which unknowingly to her, perfectly harmonises with Ajani’s.
Raza’s eyes widens as he hears the teens harmonizing howls. Upon finishing the howl both teens eyes widen at the sight in front of them
In front of them was something neither of them were expecting to happen. The cave that once had a dull silvery glow to it is now transformed into a rainbow of many colours. The walls shone with shades of reds, greens, blues, purples and any other colour you could think of. It wasn’t just the light that had changed, as above them the ceiling shimmered and sparkled with hundreds of shiny stones. The whole roof looking more amazing than even the clearest night sky ever. Everything seems to come from the centre of the cave where they see small glowing objects.
Ajani stood their mouth open in awe at the sight around him. He’d never seen such a sight before. Jahzara looks around impressed. She isn’t as into the whole magic thing like Ajani is, but she still finds it pretty. She gives a look to Raza which doesn’t go unnoticed before looking at her best friends awestruck look.
“This is the magic of the cave.” Raza whispers as he watches his sister and her best friends expressions, remembering how incredible it was for him to see it when he was a pup.
Ajani gives a confused look to Raza “how does the magic work?”
Raza chuckles “it’s a secret. Anyway, another treat I got for you is a present each”
Jahzara gives a confused look “Present? We only get presents on our born-day”
“I know but my father gave me a present when I was your age when I came here so it’s only fair I do the same thing”
Raza goes behind a rock, returning a moment later with a present wrapped in green leaves and red vines and slides it over to Jahzara.
Grinning, she takes it and opens it, revealing a polished stone. The stone being extremely rare and from a distant land. Looking in it she sees her reflection distort to the rock face. “Woah! Thanks, Raz! I can add it to my collection!”
“Your welcome Zara” Raza replies back.
Ajani, feeling left out, gives a soft whimper seeing Jahzara get a present and not him. Seeing him so sad, Raza goes behind the rock again before producing another smaller bundle of leaves and slides it over to him. Seeing the present, Ajani gives a questioning look to Raza
“For me?”
Raza nods “your as much a part of this family as Jahzara is AJ. I know you’re not related by blood life definitely wasn’t the best to you at the start when you joined the pack but I’m glad you’re here now and part of me and Zara’s family.”
Hearing this, Ajani tears up “No one has ever called me family before!” he then opens it and sees a small stone with a painting on. As he looks at it, his eyes widen as he sees what looks like three Ethiopian wolves sat together. Two of the wolves were done in a decent level of detail. The other wolf seemingly done in less detail and was more like a smudgy blob then a detailed wolf.
Both Raza and Jahzara see tears roll down Ajani’s cheeks as he looks to the painting and then to the other wolves “Thank you!” he rushes to Raza and hugs him tight “I’ll look after it forever!”
Raza hugs back “your welcome Ajani. I’m glad you like it.”
Ajani then releases the hug and looks at Jahzara. Raza smirks as he sees a blush form on Ajani through his orange fur. Before Raza or Ajani know it, Jahzara rushes up to her best friend and hugs him tight and gives him a big long lick to his cheek making the wolf faint to the floor. A short while later, he wakes up and hugs Jahzara again “Thanks Zara. I love it”
Jahzara returns the hug, blushing equally as much. “Your welcome. I painted me myself!” she remarks, pointing to the smudgy blob “See there’s me, and there’s you and Raz!” As she says each name she points to its respective painting.
Sniffing, Ajani looks at it again “Thanks guys.”
After chatting some more and sharing memories, the three wolves make their way back to the den, Raza leading the way. As they near the den, Jahzara walks ahead of Ajani and next to Raza “I know what you did for the magic” she whispers to Raza causing him to give a shocked and worried look. “You got those shiny things, put them in a pile and used your tail to block the moonlight till we howled right?”
He looks stunned but before he can say anything Jahzara continues talking “don’t worry. I won’t tell AJ it was you. I enjoyed seeing him so happy for a change”
“If you don’t tell AJ about my magic, I won’t tell him you have a massive crush on him. Deal?” Raza responds with a sly smirk causing Jahzara to blush.
“Deal!” she hisses.
Upon reaching the den, Raza sighs with relief seeing everyone still asleep. After making sure Ajani gets back to his sleeping spot ok, he makes his way to Jahzara who is ready to sleep herself. Following his sleep routine, he brushes the floor with his tail, spins around a few times before curling up in a ball with his tail over his snout. As with every sleep, he feels Jahzara climb on top of him and spins around herself before curling up in a ball just like her older brother.
“Night Raz” she calls out quietly into the darkness.
Raza’s ear twitches at her voice. Though he didn’t want to show it, he was exhausted, having not slept all night till now. Someone had to prepare the magic before Jahzara and Ajani arrived. He hears Jahzaras voice but is too tired to verbally respond, so he simply lets out a “Hmm” in response.
Happy with his response, Jahzara looks over to Ajani, sighing to herself before going to sleep herself, watching him till sleep and darkness overcomes her. Her last thoughts being of her and Ajani hugging in the sunset.
