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Keen took to the stage gracefully, floating across it to stand before the judges. She was nervous and the last time she had been on a stage she had ended up breaking lights and destroying the room in general. This was going to be tough.

Her first song was a rather lovely lilting version of the 12 days of Christmas, and she actually did a good job, keeping her voice modulated as to ensure she didn't release any untoward wailing and otherwise dangerous sounds. It seemed things were starting on the correct foot and she may manage to not hurt anyone this round.

Song two, holly jolly Christmas, she sang it poorly, her voice cutting out and cracking a few times. This was not going so well, maybe she would have done better had she just held up poster board with the words written on it. She kept on singing though, her eyes half closed and her body swaying gently, she was not going to give up, and maybe that was why she didn't do as bad as she should have. Actually she did really well.

She had done well the first time with the 12 days and she decided to sing it again, this time her voice was hauntingly stunning, filling the room. It was as if she was mesmerizing the judges... and maybe she was. Hmm, was that against any rules?

Same song again, this was going great. 12 days and another good score. Not the best score by far but it was a lovely version perky and happy and she had no regrets at all at singing the song again. She was actually having some fun with it.

Okay three times singing one song, she had to pick something else, so this time she sang Silent Night, and it came out lovely, she didn't feel bad at all at the job she had done. She felt wonderful actually that she had been able to sing at all.

[For Helki]

Brute wasn't sure what to make of things when he returned to the stadium only to find the setting had changed once more. What he was sure about, and rather enthusiastically so, was the fact that he could finally, finally remove his skull pin and let himself be in his natural form, a state that would be far more comfortable to him than this weak, small, and worst of all, long armed humanoid state. With the skull pin off, within seconds the change was complete, and where the more recognizable version of Brute stood, there was now a mini van sized, T-Rex like creature standing, snorting, huffing, and stamping it's feet before letting out a mighty roar, with small arms curled and claws wiggling in excitement.

Somebody stopped in front of him and held up some papers. Brute peered down at them with a tilt of his head and a narrowed red eye, before opening his mouth just enough to take the leafs of music away by holding them delicately within his teeth and promptly drooling all over them, destroying what words and notes might have been written upon them.

This was okay, because Brute could improvise by bellowing out the songs of his people, and who wouldn't appreciate that? However, the elf who had handed him the papers was now giving him an exasperated look, and though Brute had no problems with glaring back in response, he also felt mildly uncomfortable. Had he done something bad? Would it reflect badly on him, and shorten his time at the academy? He had only just gotten here, and he did not want to be asked to leave so soon. Chewing up and swallowing the papers, he decided to stomp around a little bit and listen to those who were practicing their singing, stopping to take in the sounds and attempt to commit them to memory, before heading off through the trees and to his first stop.

The path came to an end in front of an elf, who looked at him rather expectantly. Clearing his throat with a deep grunt, he began, the tune rumbling from his throat in a growl that rose and fell with the tone and inflection that he thought was necessary to pull it off. The elf looked confused at first, and perhaps slightly concerned, but then slightly pleased. He gave Brute a score and waved him on, and the monster turned to wander away, whacking a nearby tree with his tail and nearly knocking it over.

The next path took him to stand in front of a delightfully tasty looking creature, and Brute began to drool, great gobs of saliva dripping from his partially opened maw as he began to growl out another tune, his eyes fixated on what he would consider to be nothing more than prey. The reindeer did not appear to enjoy the song much, but may have been too nervous by how Brute was looking at him to give him too terrible of a score. When the song was finished, the wyvern, with great hesitation, moved away to the next judge.

His stomach now rumbling because of the tease of a delicious meal that he could not sample, Brute was simply too distracted to try and remember a new song to growl. He did the same again, though this time the audience, a rather happy looking snowman, really seemed to enjoy it. Brute gave a nod of his head in thanks at the nice scoring, before turning to take another path.

This time his judge appeared to be an apex predator much like himself. Brute immediately felt a strong desire to prove himself, and roared his way through the same song again with loud, long, and powerful notes that shook the very snow out of the trees. The lady polar bear seemed adequately impressed by this showing, and chose to gave him a decent score for his efforts. When Brute turned to head down the path to his final judge, he was beginning to feel quite confident, and happy with himself for doing such a good job thus far.

The final judge was a strange looking object. Brute was not sure whether or not it was an edible thing. He peered at the large dreidel curiously before beginning, finally remembering that he should switch to a new song, and falling back to the first one he had growled, as he could not remember any of the others that he'd heard. This seemed to have been a good idea, as the dredelman gave him a wide smile and quite a bit of praise. Brute's tail, unbidden, thumped against the ground. He had done well! This was a cause for celebration! With all of his judges thoroughly impressed, Brute accepted his medal, which was hung over one of his claws for safekeeping, and munched down the mug of hot chocolate, crunching down the cup and all.

Aisha loved music but not usually singing it. Still, she loved to dance and rock out so perhaps she could sway the judges on her performance.

Unfortunately she knew nothing about the winter holidays so performing the dreidel song for the elf judge didn't go over very well. It wasn't exactly a good start to the competition.

The next judge also didn't like her choice of song, but Aisha started a very elaborate dance routine which seemed to sway their opinion. Even the judge was bopping along with her by the end.

Riding high on her last performance, Aisha pretty much nailed the next one. The unique beat of the song appealed to her and she laid it down perfectly for the snowperson.

The next song also was much easier now that he stage fright was gone. The zombie ghoul knocked this song out of the park.

She tried that other song again, the one she'd liked so much, but found it didn't go over so well with the last judge. Still- she felt good about the test as a whole.