For some reason, Kryschenn expected to turn around and see a large boulder rolling down the tunnel at them, a la Indiana Jones. Needless to say, she was a little surprised to look up at Teri's warning and see a yellow-orange conflagration of burning gases billowing towards them. Well, she decided, in this instance, there was no shame in following Teri's suggestion to run."Move! MOVE!" she shouted as the roar of the fireball screamed closer.
They ran. But the mass of combustion followed, licking at their heels, its firey light nearly blinding them as it danced off the quartz in the tunnel walls. Ahead of them, the tunnel branched into a Y.
What the heck..? What a time to be seeing this now! Kryschenn realized that she was looking at that same whatever-it-was down the right-hand side of the tunnel. Was it guiding them? Was it telling them that this way was safe? Well, time to chance it. "Down here!" she screamed, veering to the right and only vaguely noticing that the thing she had seen was already gone before she'd really realized it was there.
About ten yards into this branch of the tunnel, there was a depression in the floor maybe three feet deep and fifteen feet wide. "Quick!" Diana shouted. "Everybody! Dive in here!" Launching herself in the air, she executed a perfect flip into the depression, landing on her feet but throwing herself into a roll and hugging the ground. No one else's landing was quite as graceful as they crowded into the miniature crevasse. At the last second, Eric brought his shield up to offer what protection he could as the fireball roared over them.
Seconds passed in silence. No one moved. Presto and Varla were hugging each other tight, not daring to look up and see if they'd made it.
"Thanks for the warning, kid," Diana finally said to Teri. That seemed to be the signal that everyone was still alive, and finally, they began to sit up and climb out of the depression.
"Lady," Eric said to Zeo, coughing slightly from the residual smoke, "how in the world do you move like that in those four inch heels?" He got up, realizing to his surprise that he'd landed on Fairalin, who was now looking more than a little irritated with him.
"What was that?" Kryschenn asked, offering a hand to the next person to climb out of the depression. "Did we trigger some kind of trap or something?"
Tanaka remained strangely silent.
"I don't know," Presto said, giving Varla one last squeeze to make sure she was all right. "I wasn't really trying to detect any magical traps or anything. Maybe there was just a buildup of flammable gases or something in the tunnel, and one of the torches ignited it."
"What did you eat for lunch?" Eric quipped.
Kryschenn sighed. "Cute. Look, I saw that thing again. Whatever it is. It was in this tunnel as we were running. You guys think it was trying to lead us to-" Abruptly, she whirled around at a slight sound, her sword leaping to her hand so quickly that there was nothing but a silvery flash and a hiss of drawn steel.
"Who the #*$@ are you?!" she screamed, wild-eyed, aiming her sword at a stranger with a drum who was just casually standing there in the depths of the catacombs.
((Rude greeting, I know, but Krys just gets that way when she's been startled. 
))
