The Dog Who Kinda Saved Yule

I was feeling the holiday vibes listening to a bad Christmas music playlist in my room while I picked out a nice outfit to wear to the Orders Yule party (aka ‘OOM’ aka ‘Order of Merlin, the Magi’, whatever have you). I was excited since this was my second party with my newfound friends since I moved to the West Coast (the first being the Samhain celebration aka Halloween) I settled on a white dress shirt and red knit Christmas vest over black leggings and my most festive shimmering combat boots before the gang picked me up at a quarter to 5 in our friend Jared’s truck. The sun was already on its way down giving the sky that mystic purplish hue.

“Hannah!” They greeted me in a merrier than usual tone, Shirley’s jangly Christmas bracelet adding to the overall jovial atmosphere. I saw that Jimmy brought his little rat mix terrier Dudester, sporting a festive reindeer Christmas sweater.

“I like Dudes sweater.” I scratched behind his ears, which he was loving.  

“Its goofy as shit but I couldn’t resist when I saw it at the dollar store.”

“You would.” Nate shook his head smirking.

“It aint bougie like something you’d probably get a dog, but I appreciate good deals alright?”

“Mhm.”

“Anyway, who’s psyched? Besides me?” Shirley was probably in the best mood, and likely had a glass of wine or two-plus before she got into the car, but I was totally loving the vibe.

“Me! So, is this like the Samhain party?”

“Kind of I ’spose. There’ll be a big Yule bonfire and we sing and dance, I mean like a typical party, spiked spiced cider and earthy herbs, all that sort of scene.” Jimmy said pulling out a cigarette from his pocket.

“Yea it’s a good time.” Shirley jangled with every move she made.

“And I get to spend another evening doing endless tarot card readings for everyone, yay.” Nate seemed, if only, a little less enthused.

“Oh, come on, like you don’t enjoy messing with peoples ‘fortunes.’” Johana pinched his arm.  

“Hey, my fortunes are always legit unless it’s someone I don’t vibe with. Although Hannah, on this night of Winters Eve we need to do a reading with you.” His voice took a more sobering tone with that.

“Well, sounds fun to me.” Nate gave a sarcastic smile but lit up upon hearing Mariah Careys voice coming through the car speakers.

“Ooh turn this up!”

“Yeayyy!” Shirley joined in with enthusiasm. Jared, Johana and Jimmy looked at each other in mild contempt. I gave a chuckle before taking a hearty hit of the joint Jimmy passed me, enjoying the glittering scenery we were passing through the city.

Winding up through Mullholland Drive and up and around more side and winds we arrived at the residence of Lulu La Luz, the assistant advisor to the Order Club. She had a nice place in the Hollywood Hills, a cottage style abode with various plants and trees like yuccas, ferns and willows scattered about the property. It had a homey, rustic feel to it which I appreciated. We went up to the door decorated with a festive wreath of pines, berries and ribbons which she opened promptly.

“Welcome to my abode! Come in come in.” And her abode was fantastic, decorated with holly ivy and mistletoe, multiple pine trees glistening with silver and gold ornaments, ribbons, lights, garlands, candles of gold, green, white, and red scattered around the entirety of the house. It looked like a winter wonderland, as she always had a flair for decorating.

Guests were moseying about, mostly just enjoying the festivities playing board and card games, singing carols on karaoke, drinks in hand and munchies galore.

Of course, one of the first places we hit was the buffet table, which displayed a delectable looking spread.

“It’s beautiful.” I said, trying not to let the drool fall down my open mouth. I grabbed a plate, observing all the various holiday treats, but I couldn’t seem to decide where to start.   

“Need help?” I looked to my left to see Jimmy.

“I, yea, probably.” My eyes continually darted to and fro.

“For starters, this here.” He pointed to a festive chocolate Swiss roll.  “Is the Yule Log cake. This is like the centerpiece, obvie, check out how its decorated.” It was adorned with powdered sugar, rosemary sprigs and dried berries, and carefully carved tree lines to make the bark look realistic. “Its also like the theme of the party here, like the Yule Log that’s burning outside.” He pointed to the bonfire they had going on in the backyard. I nodded, impressed at the vibrant display. Then he motioned to another dark glazed Bundt cake sprinkled with chopped nuts. “Then here we have a Christmas rum cake, self-explanatory but don’t count on it getting you messed up, it won’t, that’s why there’s a rum punch bowl over here.” He pointed to a red bowl with fruit slices adorned atop. “There’s also your standard charcuterie boards and Christmas cookies.” I admired the meticulously decorated displays in shapes like stars and ginger girls and boys in various edible Christmas outfittings. We went toward the end of the table towards two more punch bowls. “The other beverages over here include wassail cider, which is another of our witchy faves that is a festive fruit punch combo.” This beverage was garnished with various fruits and cinnamon stars and sticks. “And a traditional holiday favorite eggnog, and two bottles of brandy and bourbon if you choose to pair. Oh, and of course don’t forget the jalapeno cheddar tamales that yours truly provided.” Then he grabbed a beer out of the inflatable pink flamingo palm tree cooler next to the table. “And here we have cold beer, wine or water.” He cracked open the can. “I’ll be outside mingling now.” He took Dude outside onto the patio while I commenced stacking my plate with a little bit of everything just mentioned.

“How you doing?” I mumbled half chew to the people passing by. I backed up into the corner a little, barely missing a fancy Father Christmas decor behind me. Probably against my better judgement I broke out the white girl groove listening to Christmas jazzhop classics, head bobbing and arms swaying awkwardly at my side.  

“Hannah!” I half jumped out of my groove. It was Nate summoning me to his station at the card table out on the deck. Two girls were walking away frantically chatting from his setup. “You’re up.” He reshuffled and laid out the tarot deck between us.

“What’s the chisme there?” I inquired about the previous clientele.

“Oh, nothing of interest, Bebe thinks her guy is hooking up with her cousin and asked for a love spread. Said cousin asked if Bebe’s boyfriend is getting a promotion at work a couple days ago at school so I had to dance around that one here.”

“Yeesh. Well anyway…”

“I need a down payment of a couple of those ginger boys you got there.” I slowly slid over the plate of my half-eaten ginger boys. “Not the ones you already bit into!”

“Right, I’ll be right back.” I went back to the table to grab a couple more gingerbreads when I heard two girls talking to Jimmy nearby.

“Yea, she went on a nature walk like an hour ago and we just went out walking, but we can’t find her?”

“Really? She high or something?” Jimmy asked.

“Nah, I mean no more than usual.”

“And I think she brought a Ouija board.” I saw Jimmy shaking his head.

“Well, I gotta take this Dude out to pee anyway, I’ll see if he can pick anything up.”

“Here’s her bag, I don’t know, for the scent or whatever.” One of the girls gave him a small Crown Royal bag that probably held cosmetics or cigarettes of some sort. He let Dudester sniff it.

“K’.” I got up and went over to get the scoop on that interaction.

“What was that all about?”

“Leticia got lost in the woods apparently.” I couldn’t help a small smirk.

“Really? She smoke one or something?”

“They said she didn’t. And messing with a Ouija board.” We both shook our heads.

“I’ll go with you.” I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to accompany my handsome friend in the dark on an adventure of sorts.

“Uh Hannah?” Nate lifted his hands in exasperation.

“Right, I’m gonna go find Leticia with Jimmy.”

“Well don’t take my cookies with you.”

“Right!” I dropped off his cookie plate before departing for our adventure.

Dudester led the way down into the wooded canyon that was behind Lulu’s house. Jimmy had his flashlight out so we could see in front of us, considering at this point it was practically pitch dark besides vague light pollution.

“’Ticia? ‘Ticia you around? Your girls are looking for you!” Jimmy called into the darkness but to no avail.

“Where would she have gone?” I asked, straining my eyes to see anything beyond all the damn surrounding trees and darkness. My flashlight on my outdated phone didn’t seem to shine as bright as Jimmys.

“I don’t know. I don’t know her too well, and I’m not sure what possessed her to do a Ouija board out in the wilderness of the Hollywood Hills.”

“Really though, it may be close to Christmas, but this vibe is just creeping me out.” I shivered from the cold and thought that something or someone could pop out and potentially eat me at any moment.

“I mean I don’t think Ouija boards can really do much but still as witchfolk, why risk it?”

“Yea, really.” I agreed.

Suddenly Dude started running ahead of us on the trail, tugging so hard Jimmy let go of his leash.

“Dude!” We both cried simultaneously and ran after him down a dark trail, trying not to trip over anything on the way down.

We finally came upon him in a small clearing where a spooked young lady was frantically pacing.  

“Jimmy! Thank God! Dude, I swear I just saw a jaguar! A were, man!”

“What?”

“Or like the Yule cat or somethin’! It was scoping me out, spying on me from the bushes then lookin’ me up and down and shit, about to like, eat me!”

“Ok calm down I’m sure that’s not what this is. How many have you had hon?”

“Like I smoked a little bit of MJ maybe but I’m good, I’m telling you and yea my dumbass was messin’ with this Ouija board…”

“Yea gimme that.” He took the board hastily. Then it sounded like Dude started growling into the distance. I looked at him while Jimmy was trying to calm Leticia down.

“What’s up boy?” I scratched behind his ears but not but a moment later the dog bolted off again further down the wooded path to the left.  

“Dude!” I cried and Jimmy and Leticia looked after. We all started running after the dog once again.

“Shit! Dude, where’d you go?” I said aloud.

“Ah shit you better get him the cat’ll eat him right up!” We reached another small clearing behind more shrubs and trees, and we all looked around down different directions when we finally saw Dude barking up around another clearing shrouded in shrubby trees.

“Dude!” Jimmy, Leticia and I followed behind him till he stopped abruptly. Shadows flittered behind him, and I swear I heard a growl that didn’t sound like a register low enough for that little dog.  Then the shadow got bigger, closer, the growl sounding like it came closer…Dude growled, drooled menacingly, letting out this weird sounding almost threatening like bark that even made me jump back a bit. I swear I could almost see the soundwaves emitting from it.

  And then, there was nothing but this eerie silence. Dude sat back down wagging his tail like nothing. I realized I was holding my breath when I let out an exasperated exhale. The three of us looked at each other coming out of our frozen states.

“See? Yall just saw that, heard that right?” Leticia looked back and forth from me to Jimmy, who shrugged.

“I don’t know...” Jimmy shook his head in assumed confusion.

“She did for sure, huh?” Leticia looked at me.

“I mean, I think I did, like shadows or something, I don’t know what that was to be honest.”

“Shit you guys I told you!” Leticia at least seemed a little more satisfied now than afraid.

“I mean, it was probably one of those mountain cats or something, they’re not uncommon around here. Come on guys, let’s go back, I think whatever that was about we can agree that Dude should get a treat.” He wagged his tail happily and we made off back towards the party.

Leticias two friends greeted her warmly upon arrival in hugs until one yanked her ponytail.

“Stupida! Why’re you using a Ouija board?”

“In the Hollywood hills at night on the eve of Yule no less!” The other friend slapped her in back of the head while I saw Lulu come over and give her a warm cup of wassail.

“What was that all about and why wasn’t I informed?” Johana came up to Jimmy and me with a semi-scornful look.  I’m pretty sure she would’ve loved to tag along too as she seemed to share my affinity of adventure and Jimmy.

“We were just out looking for Leticia.” Johana raised her brow.

“What’s a yule cat Jimmy? I heard her mention that.”

“What? A Jólakötturinn?” Johanas eyes went wide when she said that.

“A what now?” I was literally scratching my head at this point. Johana looked toward me.

“AKA Yule Cat. It’s a supposed cat demon that haunts lazy misbehaving kids on the eve of winter solstice. Was she tripping or did she really see some sort of cat out there?”  

“A cat? Where? Like a cougar?” Jared and Shirley suddenly appeared behind us.

“A Jólakötturinn?” Nate popped up to my left.

“Say what?” Jared and Shirley said simultaneously.

“The demon Yule Cat that eats kids on Christmas.” Jimmy said to me all too matter-of-factly.

“I guess that’s the jist of it.”  Johana nodded and shrugged.

“I got this.” Jared pulled out a small, folded hunting knife from his side pants pocket.

“Seriously where’d that even come from?” I was in admiration, but it was maybe a bit excessive for the moment.  

“Nah its good dude I didn’t actually see anything, I mean like anything we need to trip about, think she dipped to hard into the eggnog.”  

“More like ganja paranoia.” Johana said.

“Alright just sayin’.” He stowed the knife slowly. I turned back to Jimmy.

“Yea I heard her also mention something about a were? Like a werewolf or something?”

“Not likely in these parts. We don’t have any were-jags in the club and we don’t generally associate with them.”

        “Ok…” This seemed suspiciously open-ended. Then Nate yanked my wrist.

        “Come on now time for your reading.” Nate dragged me to the card table. The tarot cards were already laid out and as an added bonus there were two cups of eggnog garnished with cinnamon stick set for us.

“This an Evergreen Yule spread, basically the who, what, were, why and how of your internal vision board.”

“Looks like a good time.” I said sipping my eggnog thirstily. He smirked, shaking his head, and proceeded to do his thing. One by one he flipped the cards and explained the meaning of each accordingly. He turned over the sixth one which showed a picture of

“The Devil.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Ok, well this could mean a couple things. This is your protection card so…you have some temptations you need to resist or…something’s in pursuit of you, maybe something dangerous…” his airy manner wasn’t giving me confidence.

  “What? Are you messing with me?” He shrugged, taking another elongated sip of his eggnog. I shook my head frantically.

“Come on Hannah don’t trip about it now, let’s finish celebrating Yule then worry about if we have to slaughter demons later. You may be a mere muggle, but you have a group of magically enabled friend who can protect you.” He led me over to the Yule Log.

“Well, I guess here’s to magic friendship and stuff.” I lift my glass toasting my new friends.

“Friendship is indeed magic. And NOT like the pony show.” Jimmy toasted his glass and Dude barked.

“Hey don’t forget his puppuccino!” I reminded Jimmy before we had our toast.

“Got it!” Leticia brought over a cup of nice whipped cream for that little dog in his Christmas sweater that kinda saved Yule.