Spike rubbed his eyes, and squinted at the patch of grass that had rustled once more. He really needed to find his glasses. Clearly he hadn't realised quite how bad his eyes were, nor how much of a difference his glasses did actually make to his sight.

He frowned at Professor Bentley. The gnome was gone? That'd explain the scream. But how? "What do you think got it, Professor?" he asked curiously. Gnomes weren't exactly a staple diet for many creatures, except jarveys, perhaps. But a jarvey wouldn't have waited until now to get in on the action, surely? From what Spike had heard, they were pretty brutal gnome hunters. Plus, they were also verbal creatures, so they would have heard it coming. If jarveys were anywhere right now, they'd been over collecting all the dizzy thrown gnomes and having a good feast of it.

So, if it wasn't a creature...was it a plant? But how? There weren't any flesh eaters in the student garden, as far as Spike knew. And he should know - he spent enough time there helping tend to it, and he was pretty hot on types of flesh eaters. There was only flesh eater he knew about that wasn't kept full time in the greenhouse - his own fanged rose crossbreed, Rosie. He bit his bottom lip, thoughtfully.

"Should we have a look?" Spike's curiosity was certainly aroused.