((Slight amendment.))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. In fact, it was just at this moment that they realized he was no longer with them.
"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. ))
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