Pageant results(2)

The man was a well known gruff and impatient individual so it came as quite the surprise that he was judging a pageant of all things. Nick could understand roughly how this judges table had been created and found it most probable that it was mostly Madame Maximes doing. She likely used her authority as the headmistress of the school hosting this event to get Dumbledore on the table and the rest were either well known for magical beasts or were friends of hers. Nick decided to ignore this though since the competition itself didn't interest him all that much.-

Any way this event turns out he will have accomplished his goal of publicizing Nazgul to the world. Winning was merely a bonus at this point in time so he was not bothered by any part of the pageant anymore. Each numbered badge was called in order and the participants each took to the field with their beast to strut their stuff. The only interesting creature before Dusk belonged to the twelfth numbered badge and came in the form of a horned water snake that arrogantly showed off in the field. The species was well known for their foresight ability that made them very hard to find as they saw you coming before you ever got near them.-

The species as a whole was dark blue and about as thick as a bucket and nearly twenty feet long on average. They got their name from the bodies of water they made their homes along with the long curved horn on their heads. To even see one was rare but the owner of this particular member of the species that was a woman with her face covered clearly had it as her familiar from how close she appeared with it.-

What left Nick surprised however was that the woman spoke in parseltongue to the serpent. This was also a point of interest for everyone else as well as the gift was very rare with only India having a fairly large population of users for it. Unlike in Europe parseltongue was a revered ability to have in India and was mostly used by healers and sages. 'I wonder if she naturally has the ability or if she got it from her familiar?' Nick wondered curiously. That is how familiar bonds normally worked  after all as the familiar passing some abilities to their partner and vice versa.-

Nick and Nazgul were unique in that most of her abilities came from him and he got almost nothing from her since he was both her creator and partner. Nick knew he had received something from her through their bond but other than a slight increase in spiritual power he had no idea what. He tried the whole basilisk eyes thing but that was a dud and even the whole soul eating thing wasn't it either. He also couldn't turn into lightning to teleport , he tried REALLY hard on that one.-

Besides the brief glance he received from the woman after Dusks number was called Nick did not interact with her at all since he had no real reason to. Dusk didn't need Nick to tell him what to do once they were out on the field and began to show off his prowess. It probably didn't need to be stated but Dusk going all out with his fire and strength was an awe inspiring sight. The bird casually lifted quarter ton weighs and flew around with them for a minute before putting them down. After that it erupted in flame in the special fire resistant area and bathed the whole field in scorching heat as he went all out.-

Immortal birds were not a joke when they wanted to show their power as each one of them could cause considerable damage if they wished to. Thunderbirds could called a hurricane filled with copious amounts of lightning on a whim , ho hos summoned fierce flames like those of the sun and phoenixs could teleport via flame and had strong fire manipulation powers. Once Dusks performance was complete they left the field to quite a lot of applause. The woman with the horned water snake seemed to be sizing them up at that point but Nick ignored it as she wasn't alone.-

Quite a few participants were doing the same either out of fear , intrigue and concern but all eyes were on Nick and Dusk. The pageant went on after that and Nazgul left more than a few jaws on the ground with her performance. It didn't come as much of a surprise that she ended winning by a landslide as she ticked all the right boxes. Beauty , grace , power , temperament and uniqueness , she had all of that in spades.