It was claimed that one hundred wizards were necessary to subdue a single Nundu. Something Garin had assumed was an exaggeration. The few books Garin could find about magical creatures weren't quite clear, but it was said that they were immensely dangerous creatures. So Garin took it seriously at least.
That did not mean he intended to bring a small army to East Africa, as he did not know a hundred wizards he trusted, and gathering so many would entirely defeat the purpose of going alone.
After this trip, he would make another and then most likely return to Dorne to begin a project to found and build a House that would also serve as a smaller version of this world's magical schools.
Garin had not crossed the boundary between worlds merely to learn spells other men had already mastered, obey their limitations, and repeat their accomplishments with slightly more power. He had come to understand a foreign system of magic in which the dangerous creatures born of it were as important as its wands, charms, and potions.
He intended to establish a place in Dorne where the descendants of the Rhoynar, meaning the descendants of House Martell who possessed the talent of magic, could study properly.
Water sorcery would form its heart because the Rhoyne had been his beginning, but it would not be its limit, nor would the school be limited to housing humans.
Magical plants and beasts all shaped the magic of this world. While wandmakers tore hairs from tails and potion-makers cut organs from carcasses, very few seemed interested in asking what those creatures did with their days while they were alive.
All except Mister Scamander, whom Garin met just recently.
Garin required living specimens, and the Nundu was the first one. It was dangerous and, as such, would serve as a protector of Garin's House he will create.
He entered East Africa through a shallow pool, carrying a newly enchanted travelling case with the extension charm. Its interior contained several magically expanded habitats, including two separate territories prepared for the Nundus. Garin wanted a breeding pair, but he was not foolish enough to place two unknown predators together immediately. He would have to first subdue them, study them and then train them before he could be sure they wouldn't kill one another.
Finding the first one took two days.
The Nundu, despite its massive size, left almost no tracks and noticed most of the charms Garin used to find it. He eventually found an antelope lying beside a contaminated pool, with melted wounds on its body. The air carried traces of toxins so potent that even the insects had abandoned the area and nothing was left alive there.
Garin drew moisture from the grass and spread it across the savanna and forests as a fine mist. Every moving creature disturbed it, and through that, left small ripples which he could feel like a 3-dimensional map.
Suddenly, and to his shock, he was pulled out of his concentration as the shape standing behind him displaced enough water to resemble a moving wall.
Garin turned just as the male Nundu, almost the size of a British bus, growled and exhaled.
Acting speedily, a sphere of water was conjured around him. The disease cloud struck it, turning the outer layers black and dark green, but the water trapped the poison and preserved the clean air within, as Garin split the O2 from the water molecules.
The nearest trees withered where the breath passed, while decay spread across the ground in seconds.
Seeing the enemy inside its territory not dying, the Nundu roared angrily and charged through the water wall without another thought. Its instincts were marvellous, but not even a predator of its renown and power could conceive Garin's true power when he was actively hiding it.
'Protego'
Garin raised a shield before one of the Nundus' massive paws struck him. The blow shattered the protection, sending Garin through a young tree. Not bothering with this, as he had reinforced himself with his energy, he waved his hand, casting several spells at once. One was to cast a Stunning Spell directly between the creature's eyes, and he used another to transfigure the ground and make it bouncy.
The spell broke apart on its fur, and Garin bounced off the ground, landing on his feet.
"Hmm, well, that explains some of the hundred wizards, at least," Garin said to himself.
*ROOARRR*
The Nundu attacked again. Garin froze parts of the ground and improved his dexterity, avoiding its claws. He drew the contaminated air into a spinning ball, opened a small vial that also held the extension charm, and placed it all inside.
He dodged another attack, transfiguring the ground to create hundreds of strong vines that started to restrict its movements. The beast landed on the transfigured ground, which Garin enchanted to have the properties of quicksand and started to sink through it before it could leap away.
Its claws tried to tear at him, but Garin opened his case, moved the ground with the Nundu and trapped it inside the first habitat.
"Puuh... That was exciting."
He had not strictly defeated the Nundu, as in he had killed it. He had merely put it inside his case and captured it. In a way, that was harder, as he didn't want to harm the creature.
With the male specimen captured, the female found Garin three nights later.
Garin had made rain fall when he sensed her breath spreading through the air from somewhere upwind. He stopped every drop around him in mid-air and captured as much of the toxic air as possible inside the water droplets.
Garin sent the rain sideways.
The female tore through the first restraints he transfigured with surprising ease. Still, every drop around her was under Garin's control, and his fight against the male Nundu had taught him more than enough to be considered a master Nundu capturer.
Water transformed and wrapped around her legs, slowing her charge, and forced her onto the patch of flooded earth Garin had prepared just for this. A mirror made of water, like the one which had taken him to this world, opened beneath her and displaced her into the other half of the habitat, inside his case.
It was a successful capture.
.
For four days, Garin observed the pair. The male attacked the barrier whenever Garin appeared. The female seemed calmer and watched the magic he used, searching for weaknesses. Both were healthy, furious, and contained.
One hundred ordinary wizards might indeed have been needed to hunt one. After reviewing both captures, Garin thought the toxic breath was even more deadly than he had initially realised.
After making sure they were well cared for for now and had enough food and water, he set off on his second journey. This one took him to the Appalachian Mountains in North America, where he began searching for Wampus cats.
Somewhat resembling the mundane mountain lion or cougar in size and appearance, the Wampus cat had an extra pair of legs which allowed it to walk on its hind legs. It was said to be so fast that it could outrun arrows.
The Cherokee had woven old protections through parts of the mountains, especially around their natural habitats. Garin respected those boundaries and searched elsewhere for an adult male and an adult female. He had no desire to steal cubs or disturb a nursery.
Eventually, he found the first Wampus Cat. And the initial meeting didn't go as he had predicted. He made the mistake of looking the beast in the eyes.
The moment he saw yellow eyes between two trees, the forest disappeared.
Garin stood in the golden cage above Chroyane once more. He heard Valyrian laughter, smelled smoke, and felt the chains around his wrists. His perfect memory made the illusion more convincing than the creature could have understood it.
However, it also allowed him to recognise every small detail that was wrong. It took a moment, probably far longer than he would have liked, but far, far quicker than anyone else, to realise that he was inside an illusion.
Garin broke the illusion, only to realise that the magical creature had entered his mind and read his memories. He saw a truly monstrous-sized Wampus Cat, looking down on him and opening its maw to devour him.
Thanks to his beyond-genius-level intelligence, Garin realised he was inside his mind and that, here, he was as powerful as he had imagined himself to be.
With a thought, the Wampus Cat froze mid-lunge. Garin grew in size until he towered over the magical beast and slapped it on the nose. The cat roared in surprise and fright, trying to leave his mind.
Garin followed the connection back to its source, though, something no 'prey' had ever done.
For a moment, he saw through the female Wampus cat's entire memories: moonlit hunts, iron traps, her larger mate and several men carrying a blue-green box into an abandoned mine.
After reviewing the Wampus Cat's entire life, he left her mind. The moment he opened his eyes in the real world, she leapt at him.
Garin filled the air with mist and cast a protego charm. The cat was fast enough to outrun an arrow, but she could not move without disturbing the water around her.
Her strength, however, was something Garin wasn't entirely prepared for. Like a car, the Wampus Cat hit his shield and shattered it, forcing Garin to intercept her with several streams of water from the nearby river.
Before Garin could follow up, the male, which was her mate, arrived. The female tore free just as the male attacked Garin from the side.
The second Wampus cat was larger and had approached without entering Garin's mist until the final moment. The front paw hit Garin in the chest; he hit the ground, rolled away from its claws and cast a protection charm.
'Protego Maxima + Fianto Duri'
Garin demonstrated incredible proficiency in transfiguration as he transformed all the leaves and wood around them into thousands of butterflies, which disrupted the two predators' vision, landed on their bodies, and then turned into thick ropes that wrapped around their limbs.
The female avoided them by following her mate's thoughts, the moment the first butterfly turned into a rope. Garin felt the link between the cats and, with yet another unreal amount of legllimency skill, highjacked the connection and sent false information through it.
She turned to intercept an image of Garin and stepped directly into a water mirror.
The male roared as it saw its mate disappear and fixed its yellow eyes on Garin. A command pressed against his mind, demanding that he release her.
"Haha, aren't you an impressive creature?" he chuckled.
With yet another trick, Garin created an illusion of the Wampus Cat's mate.
The male charged through yet another mirror after what it thought was his mate, and Garin sealed both inside the Appalachian habitat, inside his case. Unlike with the Nundus, no barrier separated them as they were already mates.
He should have left after that, but the memory of the blue-green box remained.
The female had seen the wizards, who could only be smugglers, several times. By invading Garin's mind, she had also shown him how her natural Legilimency worked.
Without further ado, Garin followed the Wampus cat's memory to an abandoned mine hidden deep within the mountains. The entrance was concealed by an illusion of solid rock and protected by several powerful wards specifically designed to repel animals and suppress any trace of the magical signatures within.
Garin bypassed the layered protections effortlessly, using his powerful energy core to slip through the barrier without triggering a single alarm.
The damp air inside smelled of rust and excrement. Garin could clearly feel the presence of six wizards through their magic.
Iron cages lined the cavern walls, holding terrified, angry or deeply saddened magical creatures. At the same time, glass containers on long wooden shelves displayed harvested feathers, horns, and all kinds of organs.
A poacher standing near the entrance turned and spotted him.
"Hey! Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"
Without hesitation, the man raised a jagged wand and cast a curse, sending a crackling streak of purple light directly at Garin.
Garin did not dodge or draw a wand. He simply reached out and stopped the curse mid-air. In a fraction of a second, Garin had unravelled the spell's structure, understood its mechanics, and forcefully reversed it.
He turned his wrist and sent the purple light back across the room.
"Wha-- AAAHHHH!!"
The poacher collapsed instantly, his limbs locking violently as his own reversed curse took hold.
"BOSS!!"
"GET HIM!!"
The remaining five wizards shouted in alarm and scrambled for their wands. Two of them fired simultaneously, roaring, "Stupefy!" and "Confringo!"
Red and orange spells illuminated the cave, hurtling toward the Archmage. Garin swept his hands upward, pulling water from the puddles in the stone. A thick wall of water erupted in front of him, swallowing the spells and absorbing their explosions without affecting Garin.
Before the poachers could cast a second volley, Garin flicked his fingers. The water lashed out like liquid whips, wrapping around the wizards' wrists, wrenching their wands away and shattering them against the stone walls.
The streams of water then snapped around their chests and mouths, binding their hands tightly and silencing any further incantations they might have spoken. Not that that would have been of any use.
After another look at the creatures, Garin controlled the water to crush the six poachers to bloody mist and then vanished their bodies.
With the threat neutralised, Garin freed the beasts that were healthy enough and native to be returned to the wild and carefully moved the injured and foreign ones into the expansive sanctuary of his travelling case.
After he was finished, Garin found an egg inside a black metal box in the deepest chamber of the mine, which surely belonged to the boss of these poachers. It was a glossy blue-green and remarkably warm, despite the heavy runic bands designed to suppress the ancient magic within it.
He had carefully removed the restrictive wards, drawing heat from the metal to break the locks. As the box opened, a soft, resonant note sounded through the chamber, although the shell itself did not break.
The song seemed to be carrying a brief image of a bright red flame.
"Interesting."
Garin placed the egg within an open, specially protected chamber in his travelling case and shaped new enchantments so that, once it finally hatched, the bird or creature would be free to move as it desired.
After everything had been taken care of, Garin finally returned to a big river to journey back. He carried several more beasts than he had initially planned, along with a mysterious egg he was eager to see hatch.
It was a strange beginning for a magical school, but Garin thought it was perfectly suitable for him.