Enchanted Tiger

Guests turn from Magnifico toward the nearest window, where a heavy fog has gathered and a large shape looms within it. The glass explodes inward an instant later, wounding several partygoers, and the rush of wind snuffs every torch, dropping the hall into darkness. Owen recovers a still burning torch, and as a sickening sound fills the room and blood splatters the two women nearest its source, his light reveals the horror: the tiger pishacha has torn through the window and devoured two noblemen.

The remaining guests scatter as the beast begins killing those closest to it, and Farnese recognizes at once that it is possessed. When it bounds to the exit to cut off the fleeing crowd and resumes its rampage, Roderick draws his sword to face it while Farnese fights through the panicked mass to grab a silver candelabrum.

To the crowd's shock, Farnese returns and swings the candelabrum at the tiger, but her constricting gown leaves her clumsy, and the creature knocks the weapon from her grip. It presses toward her as Roderick struggles to reach her in time.

As the tiger strikes, a sudden gust sweeps in, and Farnese finds herself safe in Serpico's arms, snatched away at the last breath by a burst of speed from his sylph cloak. Guts and the rest of the group arrive alongside them.

The twenty page chapter belongs to the Millennium Falcon Arc and appeared in Young Animal issue 15 on 22 July 2005.