Hi! I am so sorry loyal readers for making you wait so long m(_ _)m , I really don't have an excuse, I've been lazy. I hope my neglect hasn't put you off reading. Here's chapter 11. Enjoy.

Pips was fuming and was trying exceedingly hard trying to hide it. Zack had butted in…again and after he stormed off with Crysta following him like a lost puppy he was swarmed by Crysta's new found followers.

'What do we have to do?'

'Where is she going?'

'Is the human going to help too?'

Pips raised a hand for silence and Pips thanked Magi's wings that they quieted down. Now what? Crysta's flown off and left him with the hard work. Since he didn't know what to do with them he told them to take the day off and they'll have another meeting tomorrow morning.

Pips took off and searched blindly for the overgrown blonde chimp and Crysta. He followed a trail of broken vegetation and was confused when it suddenly came to a stop. Pips covered his face with his hands and withheld the urge to scream. Crysta had shrunk him again hadn't she?

Pips breathed in deeply and regained his composure, now if he was a wingless bimbo with an energetic woman, where would he be? Pips looked around for inspiration but annoyingly nothing came to mind.

Ok let's try rearranging this, if he was an energetic woman with a wingless bimbo, where would he be?

A sudden thought hit him and he took off into the forest.

Zack pouted grumpily as Batty rolled along the ground laughing hysterically. Once the initial shock of the fact that Zack had wings and pointed ears wore off, Batty for some reason found it unexplainably funny. He stopped abruptly when a menacing shadow hovered over him and he opened his eyes nervously to see Zack glaring down at him with his arm raised.

Batty quickly flapped his wings to escape the immediate danger and lifted himself into the air. He headed for the nearest branch and settled himself upside down beneath it.

'NO!' he cried, 'I've had enough of this animal abuse, do you see me going around and whacking the antennas on innocent creatures? Nooooo, do you know why? Because I'm not a violent hominid! Batty score 1! Homo-freak 0! Ha ha!'

'You seem to have failed to notice that you are the only creature with an antenna sticking out of your skull, so you're just as much as a freak as me.'

Batty blinked.

'Batty 1, homo-freak 1,' Crysta scored.

'Crysta!' Zack whined.

'What?'

'CRYSTA!!!'

The sudden noise caused the three to jump in shock and since Batty was hanging upside down, he fell like a ripe piece of fruit.

Crysta looked around to find the owner and Zack rolled his eyes. He too began searching around, but not for the angry Pips who was bound to show up. He perked when an idea came to mind and grabbed Crysta's wrist.

'Zack what are you do-' Zack pushed a finger to her lips and then imitated the action to his own.

Zack took off clumsily into the air and Crysta gracefully followed. Zack quickly scanned the ground for the forest of mushrooms he had bumped into earlier and once spotted, he began to descend. Still a little shaky with landings Zack once again collided with a swollen, fat stemmed toadstool and accidentally broke the umbrella shaped dome.

'Oops.'

Crysta hovered beside him and shook her head disappointedly at the damage.

'Sorry,' Zack muttered quietly.

Zack once again took hold of Crysta's hand and led her into the labyrinth of tree-like fungi. Once they were fairly well in, Zack stopped beneath a fairly wide stretched mushroom and sat down against its stem.

'Zack, what are we doing?' Crysta whispered.

'Hiding' Zack grinned.

'Why?'

'Because the first thing that moody red head is going to do is whisk you away and work you 'till you drop and then when will you get the chance to see me next? I have nothing to do right now but that could change in a heart beat, because like you, I'm the leader.'

'Right,' Crysta says drolly, 'And for me, like you, things could change in a heart beat so that was a rather pointless argument.'

'Yeah,' Zack says uncertainly, but conviction returns to his eyes, 'But the difference between you and me is that I have a limited time here, I have…two weeks, three weeks maybe. You have all the time in the world.'

'You could stay here,' Crysta says suddenly.

Zack's eyes widen in surprise and his mouth goes dry. He swallows. The offer was tempting him with wide green eyes and a plump lip being slowly massaged by perfectly white teeth. Zack mentally shook his head to clear it of rather…naughty thoughts and tried to think it out rationally.

'I-er ah-hem, I have an organisation to run now and…'

Zack caught a flicker of green out of the corner of his eye and he motioned for Crysta to get further under the mushroom.

'Crysta,' Pips said darkly, somewhere above, 'I know you're in there.'

Zack saw Crysta shiver at Pips's tone and he had to admit that he sure didn't want to be the one on the receiving end of Pips's anger.

'Crysta, if you're not out in three seconds I'm coming in to get you.'

Crysta turned to Zack but he shook his head.

'One'

Zack quickly but quietly crawled to the brim of the shadow the mushroom created and peered into the space above.

'Two'

Pips's voice was closer and Zack ducked his head back in again, it could just have been the rush of adrenaline that made it seem like Pips was directly above them. There was a thump of something landing.

'Thr-'

Zack ran into the stem of the mushroom, startling Crysta and effectively knocking the whole thing over. Zack didn't waste any time grabbing Crysta's hand and leading her in the opposite direction.

Pips didn't expect the perfectly stable toadstool to suddenly fall and therefore fell with it before beating his wings madly. Shooting up into the air, he saw glimpses of something moving between the gaps of mushrooms. He had them now. He dived down and effortlessly manoeuvred around the stems, gaining distance with each turn. Pips grinned triumphantly.

However as Pips gained up, something didn't seem right. They were heading for the edge of the mushroom forest and would soon be clear of it so Pips shot upwards and waited. He groaned in embarrassment and disappointment as a large beetle scurried away from the mushrooms and into the forest growth. How the heck did he lose them?

'CRYSTA!!!'

Meanwhile somewhere further back, Zack and Crysta were sniggering under a bell-like blossom.

'I can't believe that worked.'

'Yeah, he flew right past us and didn't even notice.'

The two fell into a fit of giggles and began imitating Pips reaction when he found out it was a dung beetle he was chasing. They eventually ran out of breath from laughing so much and lay down to rest on the warm earth.

As they caught their breath with the occasional giggle escaping, they gazed at each other, pleased with themselves.

'You know I'm going to be in so much trouble when Pips does find me,' Crysta said with a small unworried smile.

'Then we'll have to prolong the scolding as much as we can then, won't we?' Zack grinned back.

They fell into another fit of giggles and Zack rolled over unwittingly. There was a small cry from Crysta as Zack accidentally rolled into her and he turned around to make sure he didn't hurt her. However he found himself in a bit of a predicament when he did.

Half his body was hovering over her and he was supporting his weight on one elbow beside her head. Their faces were close enough for the few strands of blonde locks that had escaped his ponytail tickled Crysta's cheek.

She was staring up at him with wide bright green eyes and Zack's sudden closeness had her unconsciously biting her lip nervously. The way he was looking at her had her heart fluttering like startled butterfly and she self-consciously drew her hands up to her chest. She observed the way his dark brown eyes trailed her face and lingered obviously on her lips. His own lips were parted as breathed silently and for some reason Crysta was mesmerised by them.

They simultaneously raised their gazes to meet the others and at an unspoken signal, Zack lowered his head until their lips met.

Again I'm sorry for the wait. Please review.