Thank you for your input, everyone! I now have plenty to work on. :) The delay in updating is because I wasn't sure if I should put this one up… it went in the wrong direction so I was conferring with A Girl Called Candice as to whether I should put it up. Eventually I decided I'd take my chance with the flames… On with the show!

***

Death Two: Eaten By the Tiger Skin Rug In Daine's Room

A/N: Imagine that Varice comes to Daine's room after she and Zek have just dried off from falling in the river…

Daine deposited her new friend on the bed, where he nervously clung to Kitten, and approached the tiger skin rug that lay on the polished marble floor. She hated to think that what had once been a vibrant, living creature was now degraded in such a way. Fur was not meant to be walked on – it was to be grown for warmth and camouflage by the creature that needed it.

With a shudder, Daine bent and put her hand on the remains of the dead creature, and her palms grew uncomfortably warm and itchy. When she tried to pull away, white fire briefly poured from her hands to the rug. In disbelief, Daine stared at her palms, wondering, What was that all about?

Kitten and Zek stared at her from the bed. "Kit," Daine began shakily. "What–" She was interrupted by a knock at the door, and pushed her questions aside as she went to answer it.

A blonde, shapely woman barged past her into the room. "Hello, I'm Varice Kingsford. I hear that Arram is your teacher, and I'd quite like to seduce him later this evening, so I wondered if you could answer some questions for me about how he's changed in the last ten years –" (A/N: this isn't supposed to be realistic dialogue! I couldn't think of a better reason for her to be there…)

Catching sight of something over Daine's shoulder, Varice went deathly pale. A strangled cry came from her throat. Feeling mixed anger at the woman's nerve, and confusion at her sudden change in behaviour, Daine followed her gaze and gasped herself.

The tiger skin was alive. It stood unsupported on its paws, empty space where its body should be, and it was prowling steadily towards Varice with an unmistakable look of hunger on its formerly-blank face. Where glass eyes had once been, real ones now fixed her with a predatory glare as it slowly advanced, its intention all too clear.

Daine, panicked, tried to call out to the skin with her magic, but it either ignored her or could not be communicated with. Varice swayed, and before Daine could catch her she slumped to the floor in a dead faint, hitting her head on the hard floor with a crack that Daine, in spite of herself, found quite interesting.

The tiger skin took no notice of the girl who had inadvertently animated it – it reached Varice's fallen form and began to lap at the small trickle of blood that ran from a cut at the back of the woman's head. Daine's instinct was to run out into the corridor and call for help, but then too many people would know about this strange new power. All she could do was stay rooted to the spot, staring in horror as sharp teeth moved towards Varice's neck…

Kitten covered Zek's eyes with a paw, squeezing her own tightly shut, as the tiger lunged in one swift action and ripped out Varice's throat. Blood sprayed everywhere, and Daine backed against the wall, terrified, as the tiger systematically moved to the blonde's stomach and pulled out her entrails almost playfully.

Unable to look away, Daine pushed down the nausea that rose in her throat, and cried out in disbelief as both Varice's body and her various piles of gore began to fade away. An old woman's voice said in her head, "Never did like her. Far too promiscuous." The tiger skin dropped, exanimate, to the marble, and when Numair and Alanna found her some time later, they found her huddled against the bedpost, staring at the crumpled but clean rug that lay on the floor, as rugs do.

***

Okay, that just went from comedy to disturbing… I promise I'm not an axe-murdering monster, and I really don't know where all the gory stuff came from, so please don't flame…