Time for Chapter 11! :D "Branching" is another term from Guardians of Ga'Hoole, by the way.

Rainwalker, thanks for the review! Well, I'm ahead on presents this year, but outdoor decorating has taken a back-burner due to rain. :| Yup, it didn't take long. And now you make me wonder if Kaiba is going to make an appearance in the story….And never with the Corporal around. ;) I hope you enjoy this next chapter! :D

Kender20, thanks for the review! We shall soon see….And thank you! I shall! :D

Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, I do not own Avatar, I do own Chaos Creatures, etc….).

"Say, whatever happened to Joey and Tristan, anyway?" Yugi asked, after an hour of back-and-forth with Kelsey.

"They went out," she said, waving at the knothole. "They're practicing branching for when their wings come in."

"And you're not?" Yugi asked, feeling confused.

In response, she turned her back to him and pulled her long hair out of the way. "Check for me."

"What?"

"Check to see if I'm budging—if my wings are coming in."

"Er…."

She turned her head to glare at him. "Remember when you said to tell you about acceptable Chaos behavior?"

"This is one of those things?"

"Just feel up and down my back."

Yugi did so, trying not to feel embarrassed at this—he certainly wouldn't have done this to Mai or Vivian. "What am I feeling for?"

"You don't feel anything?"

"Well, no…."

Kelsey blew out a sigh. "I've been taking longer than the others—it stinks, it really does."

Yugi tried to think of a way to make her feel better. "Well…why don't you try, uh, branching? It's not like you can't practice now."

She gave it some thought. "Well, it's kind of pointless for me to, but you definitely do." she stood up and tugged on his hand. "Come on."

He followed her to the knothole. She stepped through onto a huge branch, as wide across as a city street. Yugi stuck his head out, looked down—

And immediately wished he hadn't.

"What's the matter with you?" Kelsey asked, looking back in at him.

"I…I have a thing about heights," Yugi said, feeling that weird emotion from before, when he had been…angry at himself, for being afraid. That's what that was.

"You're afraid? Of heights?" Kelsey asked in disbelief, her tone aggravating that frustrated feeling. "What kind of Chaos Creature—winged Chaos Creature at that—is afraid of heights?"

"It's not like they work—"

"What?" full disbelief was on her face. "Come on—you're branching. Now."

Yugi dug his claws in. "No, I'm not."

"Oh, it's all right for me to go around jumping on limbs, but not for you? Nuh-uh. Get out here."

"No, Kelsey."

Her retort was cut off by Joey and Tristan barreling into her and tumbling into the hollow.

"We've got breakfast!" Joey said, holding up a large bundle of what looked like bananas. "Hey, you're up finally—you sleep like a log."

Yugi glanced at Kelsey as Joey and Tristan straightened themselves out; she shook her head. He gave her a confused look; she shrugged. Yugi marveled at the fact that he had just held a conversation without actually saying anything.

"Anyway, we found breakfast," Joey said, shoving Tristan away from the fruit. Tristan tackled him and shoved him away, to the point that both of them were fighting.

Kelsey simply took the bunch of fruit and set it between her and Yugi. "You peel it like this," she said, demonstrating. "And you eat this part," she ate the fruit. "And you do this with the peel."

And she tossed it right in Joey and Tristan's way.

They hit it and went skidding.

"Hey, it's just like a banana," Yugi observed, pleasantly surprised.

"It is a banana," Kelsey told him.

"No, it—uh…." How to explain this? "There's this fruit on Earth called a banana, that looks just like this, but it can't be, because Earth isn't here."

Kelsey blinked at him. "Okay, I heard you, you spoke plain Chaos, but I didn't understand any of that."

"Er…remember when I said we came from Earth?"

"Yes—you didn't make any sense then either."

"Well—"

"Where's Earth?" Joey asked, taking a moment from the tussle to listen.

How to explain this? "Earth is…far away from here." He pointed up. "Past the sky?"

"It can't be past the sky," Tristan said. "There's no atmosphere up there—you'd die of suffocation before you got to the moon."

"Some Chaos have done it before," Joey argued.

Yugi stared; okay, he wasn't expecting a working knowledge of the limits of the atmosphere from these two.

"You sound like Wilson," Kelsey opined.

There was that Wilson again. "What's a Wilson?" Yugi asked, deciding if he was going to sound like an idiot, it was best to get it out of the way.

"He's a Lesser Chaos Creature," Kelsey explained. "He travels around, but he always returns here; you'll like him—he brings a lot of stuff."

"Lesser Chaos Creature?" Yugi repeated blankly.

"Hey, come on!" Joey said, leaping on them. "We're wasting daylight!"