Abby literally shuffled her feet as Philo launched into an explanation. By some stroke of luck (or misfortune!) the professors had found them. But what if they hadn't found an exit in here? What if Alvis had been seriously, gravely injured? What if the ghost had locked them in his tomb? She wouldn't know what to do. She hadn't known what to do.

Realizing this, Abby was quiet, and Aileen's face was slowly settling into 'that look'. The scary look of stony anger.

"If you're finished," Aileen said darkly, then gestured at the exit. "Shall we?"

Abby leaned in to whisper in Alvis' ear, "You want to go up first, with a professor or one of us?"

She wouldn't dare say it out loud in front of the adults, but she was worried about his head injury and how he was doing.

Alvis slipped the little statue into his pocket pocket while Philo's explanation drew the teachers' attention, for which he was rather grateful. Professor Trisha seemed reasonable enough, if a little roughed up, but Professor Reid was starting to look...scary. He felt a little bad, leaving the entire story to Philo, but he couldn't think of anything to add that didn't raise more questions.

"You want to go up first?" Abby whispered in his ear.

"Oh...no. That's not necessary, I..." He began, but cut off when he realized that he was suddenly looking at two Abbys, laid over each other like over-developed film. There was also two Philos, and two of each Professor, and when he tried to take a step back the floor suddenly pitched beneath him.

He caught his balance, but only because of Runner, which shot up a corner to provide support  for his hand.Alvis took the hint and sat down on the carpet, pitching the bridge of his nose. "Actually, that might be a good idea."

He glanced up at Professor Trishna through his bangs. The puppy-dog eyes, while sincerely apologetic, were not intentional and stemmed primarily from the ringing pain between his eardrums and the place where his head first met the wall. "I'm sorry Professor. You can yell at us all you want - I know we deserve it - but I think I have a mild concussion, and Professor Reid looks really angry, so we better go upstairs now."

Runner, as though agreeing, flattened at a comfortable sitting height in mid-air and stretched its tassels, as though claiming that it could totally carry everyone up at once if they tried.

Tapendra had a lot of questions, though perhaps the least of which was "Why?" The two boys were Ravenclaws; he couldn't exactly fault them for being curious and trying to their best to pursue that curiosity, now could he? In their situation he'd likely have done the same thing. Abby, well, she'd probably have come along for fun.

Not that it excused them running off from the tour and trapping themselves in the tomb!

Aileen spoke before he could, and he put a hand on her shoulder automatically, as if to calm her down. Snapping at them now wasn't a good idea, though he wasn't likely to hold her back once they were actually out. It simply seemed a bad place to lecture the kids, especially when they did need to get out of here -

Alvis stumbled and sat down, and at his words Tapendra knelt in front of him, a hand gently cupping and turning the boy's head. There was a mark there, and he looked at Alvis's eyes...and wished he could remember what to look for with concussions.

"What happened?" He asked, looking at the other two. "How bad is it, Norling?"

Philo was nearly petrified by Professor Reid's gaze. His mother could pull a similar tone although she didn't shoot it at him for things like sneaking off on a tour group because of a renegade rug. If this had been the school year Ravenclaw would have surely lost dozens of points.

Both of the professors, at least, were more focused on the immediate needs of exit and Alvis' head wound. Philo knew his tongue lashing could be more severe.

"That was from when we, dropped in." A horrible term to use but he couldn't think of anything else. "We had a clue that Ialu's tomb was very low, by a descendant's tomb, marked with a 'divine bird' that needed an offering. It was a picto-glyph of this great white bird, with a long tail, a caladrius, something Alvis remembered." It had only been after the head bang, which made Philo feel more guilty.

"Abby shone a lighter on it, and I touched it with a hurt finger. One of those must have been the offering and before we could react the floor just disappeared, like the trick stairs at Hogwarts. Abby and I were fine because we landed on the carpet, but Alvis...missed, landed on his feet but slammed back into the wall where he crumpled."

"It's all my fault." Philo choked on the words, sullen eyes downcast. "I should have just left the carpet alone, or asked a chaperone about what to do with it or trying to find the tomb."

Aileen felt the hand on her shoulder and stiffened, not at all reassured. Though she was grateful for Tapendra's patient influence, she'd only feel better once they escaped this tomb.

When Alvis stumbled, Aileen reached for him while Tapendra knelt and assessed the injury. She looked at the bump on his head, concern flickering across her features as her mouth thinned. That could have easily been Abby!

"Yes, you should have! All of you," she scolded Mr. Falkin unnecessarily, shooting him a glare. The boy looked like he was going to burst into tears. But she had more important things to worry about than their feelings, or giving them a lecture, so she left it at that for now. Mr. Norling needed ice, something cold. They needed to leave this tomb.

The rug stretched out, but she didn't quite trust it to hold two adults and three students all at once. Aileen pressed the rug with her fingers to test how stable it was, and then sat carefully next to the student.

"We'll head up together, Mr. Norling. If you start to feel dizzy, or anything at all, grab my arm, grab the rug - don't concern yourself with propriety," Aileen addressed him in a less harsh tone, drawing up her reserves of professional calm.

She put what she hoped was a steadying hand on the boy's back. "I won't let you fall off."

"Tapendra," she glanced at him, "Be sure that the floor - and the students - stay put. Please."

Aileen looked at Abby, who offered none of her usual defensive ramblings or grins. She'd worry about it later. "Once we've reached the surface I'll send the rug back."

"How bad is it, Norling?"

"Not too bad. Ears ringing. No balance. Head hurts. But my head always hurts." The pain grew worse when Professor Trishna tried to look him in the eye, like every heartbeat was driving a wedge further and further into the base of his skull. He winced away, breaking eye contact after a few seconds. The pain was replaced by a brief wave of exhaustion, guilt, and concern, but only the guilt came from him, and it lingered even after the visitors faded away. 

His ringing ears were growing so loud that it was difficult to hear any more than snippets of the conversation around him. But Professor Reid's anger and Philo's crushed expression made the exchange clear enough.

"It's not Philo's fault," Alvis insisted, slurring the fricative consonants. "We all agreed to come 'cause we...we hadto do it. Runner couldn't have come alone, there wasn't enough magic left. What if we'd kept him out or he got lost and the magic ran dry and he died?"

That didn't make sense. Alvis knew it. Runner was as mortal as a broom. But still...

"He's a good rug. Worth the trouble." As bad as he felt for putting the teachers through hell, Alvis couldn't apologize for helping a friend. He pulled his legs onto the rug, sitting cross-legged next to Professor Reid, and managed to not fall on top of her in defiance of his skewed balance. "Come on, boy. Let's get out of here."

Runner took off up the stairs - carefully, as though only just remembering how to fly and not wanting to risk dumping its passengers - and Alvis managed to keep his balance for a full five seconds before he had to grip Professor Reid's arm.

Tapendra stood as the carpet headed up, an eyebrow going right back to being quirked. He'd never seen a rug act like - what had they called it? Runner - well, act like that outside of a Disney movie. He wasn't exactly an expert on the things, of course, having only seen one or two - which had been either stationary or being used as a means to carry books. The fact they were illegal in England was something he'd have to have a chat with Falkin about, however.

He watched Alvis and Aileen carefully, but turned to the other students after a few moments - Abby in particular. "And you two? Are you hurt at all?" He asked, reaching for his wand - before his better sense made him stop. Best not to start a whole new set of problems if the tomb once again decided it hated magic. The healing of cuts and scrapes could be taken care of once they were all safely outside. Merlin knew he and Aileen could use a few rounds of it.

A sigh and a re-stored wand later, he looked at Falkin. "You said you met a ghost? How is it you could understand him?" He asked, eyebrow still quirked.

"I'm fine, I think." Philo inspected his hands. Outside of his scratch from above and the tumble into the tomb he only had the odd nick or scrape. It really was lucky that he had landed how he did into the tomb. Although that made him more guilty when he thought of how Alvis had been injured.

Philo gaped for a moment then shrugged when Professor Trishna asked him about the ghost. "I didn't think of that. Maybe, could a ghost learn English? He mentioned he's had several other visitors to his tomb over the eons, and he might not spend all of his time here."