Tabaqi

***Tabaqi*** is the Bajelous Jungle's local jackal resident.

## Appearance

Although others, and he himself refers to his species as a jackal, he holds little to no true appearance of one in the real world. His fur is a duller gold with numerous orange spots all over his body, only vaguely resembling a leopard in terms of patterning. His has a long tail, with thickened fur along his chest and along both the top and sides of his head. His ears are large and rounded, orange tipped. His teeth are mainly inside his mouth, but a large canine tooth is always exposed along the left side of the mouth, giving him a toothy grin as his default. His eyes are dark red, and he has a pair of prominent eyebrows.

## Personality

Tabaqi is a sly, yet cowardly animal who often tries to mooch off of other animals in the jungle to benefit him in some way, mostly simply to either get at someone else's food or just to mess with the tribe itself, as shown when he starts spreading around the rumor of Steven Universe living with Alexander, despite the wolf pack trying to keep it a secret at the time. Although he is naturally mischievous in this regard, he is physically weaker than most animals and is quick to cower away whenever anyone tried challenging him. Because of this, he's often one to compliment, fawn, and doing whatever he can to lower another animal's guard around him.

His favorite form of mischief is spreading rumors and gossip, and any information he would deem worthy of spreading he'd gladly do so without hesitation, mainly just to try and get a reaction out of others and cause problems for the tribe.

## History

### Volume 01. Arrival

He first appears in "New World", wandering through the Bajelous Jungle until he found the Wolf Den. He went right up to the den, saying he's there just to get some scraps from the wolves, although his talking briefly wakes up Bravo much to his worry. Lucky for him, he is allowed inside, claiming that while the scraps weren't much for true wolves, it's perfect size for a "feeble and humble as [himself]". As he ate the leftovers, he overhears Alexander's worries, and uses the opportunity to share with the wolf parents the news of Shere Khan. He riles up Alexander by also saying Shere Khan's in their territory looking for "specific prey", but before he can say what, Raksha drives him off and out of the den.

In "They Came from the Sky", he appears at the very end of the chapter, revealing to have overheard the entire situation with Steven and the wolves.

In "The Crystal Gems", he arrives over towards a large pond, specifically to the nest belonging to Ruffle and shares the information with her about Steven and the wolves and planting the idea that the tribe won't accept him, and bad luck will come to the jungle. It's revealed that he also shared similar information throughout the jungle, including the Savannah and Farthing Wood. After thinking on it, he goes off to tell the Watership Down warren of the news.

## Trivia

* The comic spells his name as "Tabaqi", but official media actually names him as "Tabaqui".
* The design of Tabaqi, despite the cartoonish appearance, is actually from an official Jungle Book film, namely the one created by JetLag/GoodTimes productions.