New chapter! Yeah, I'm on another roll again! YES!

Ooh, one thing before we start! There's a surprise at the end of this. If you can guess it before the end, congratulations!

Enjoy!

Guilt hit the kids. They hadn't realized this consequence. Now that they were here… how were they to return? They wanted to be at home for Christmas, Gupta especially. Krishna, he noticed, wasn't present. She must've stayed home with her cold. He hoped she felt better. But even if not, he still wanted to spend Christmas with her. Not just most of his family, but all.

"Well that's easy!" Vixen piped up. "You can ride with us!"

The badger instantly looked nervous. "Oh… no more heights."

"Why?" Anjali teased. But it wasn't the usual nasty taunt. She was grinning and the tone was light and full of laughter. She reached over to tickle him. "Scared?"

He giggled and swatted her paw away. "Yes. And I admit that."

She laughed too, then turned to the deer. "Whaddo you have in mind?"

-Elsewhere-

Krishna sighed sadly as she gazed up at the sky. Her head cold had pretty much cleared up, besides the occasional sniffle or throat clearing, her symptoms had pretty much vanished.

She watched the clouds drifting lazily. It was Christmas Eve, and they still weren't back with her baby brother. She still felt awful about ratting him out, but she had no choice. Her mother wouldn't let her lie. And she just couldn't leave him out there to find his way to the North Pole and back all by him. Well… his little friends were there too, but still. They were just innocent children too.

She sighed and covered her eyes, laying back. "Oh Gupta… please come home."

She stared around at their little valley. It really was tiny. She could see every place. Some were smudged a bit from distance, but she could see. The small forest off to the east, the lake to the south, and then the wide area of grass, lush and green, with occasional patch of color, clumps of flowers.

It was far too quiet without the loud, joyful squeals of the children running around and playing who-knows-what. They were practically the only residents in their valley, only a family of hummingbirds and an old field mouse couple otherwise.

She shook her head sadly; where were the little ones? She impatiently waited her families return, yet she also dreaded it. She was excited to see her little brother, but what if instead they brought news that he was dead? She wouldn't be able to live with herself, knowing she could've stopped him from going.

Krishna, or Krissy, ran her fingers through the grass and coughed slightly. "Please come home…" she fell into an uneasy sleep, dreaming of having her little brother back.

-Elsewhere… Again-

Arrangements had been made, and with the help of some magic (Christmas is a magical time of year, after all), multiple of the animals had been shrunk. Nobody knew how, but all of them found themselves no bigger than Julie or Nathan. "This is still no fun!" Gupta exclaimed. He had decided he didn't like heights. At all. It made him dizzy and nervous and sick to his stomach.

"Oh r'lax!" Raz said, though she looked a little queasy herself from her place in Lalli's pouch. She was used to being bounced around, but not like this. All the jerky movement was upsetting her stomach. She was beginning to regret eating all those sweets earlier. It was definitely coming back to haunt her.

"Whatsa matt'ah Raz?" Tadao asked. "Airsick?"

"Shu'up..." She muttered miserably, sequestering down into her mothers pouch. She almost thought she'd rather have hopped home.

Santa made sure to drop them off before heading around the world. He didn't want anyone getting sick all over the presents.

After awhile, the sleigh stopped momentarily. They all gladly tumbled out onto the ground, instantly growing back to normal size, a couple running off to go be sick in the nearby brush.

Silas smiled as he fluttered down to the ground, feeling the familiar grass touch his webbed feet. There was the flapping off wings, and his parents landed beside him, each putting a wing around their chick, the other around one another, forming a family group hug.

He couldn't stifle a sudden yawn, and Denisha chuckled lightly. "Come on, my dear. It's way past your nest time." She suddenly winced and put a wing on her abdomen. It appeared the holly berry poison was still present in her system.

They went to leave, but before they could go, Flynn bounced up. "Hey Silas! Did you ever figure out what you wanted for Chrissy-mas?"

His grayish blue eyes widened. No, he hadn't! Oh dear… "No matter, sweet love." His mother spoke up upon seeing his worried face, giving him an affectionate nudge. "Santa knows. Even if you do not. Now come along." And the three avians took flight.

They lived on the far most section of the forest, on one of the tallest trees, in a carefully woven nest. While their kind usually lived on rocky coasts, the couple had been forced to flee because of a terrible flood caused by… well, unknown forces. There was a rumor a bunch of ice had melted just about everywhere, and that could possibly be the cause. Who knew?

As they landed, Denisha gingerly touched her abdomen yet again. She gave Andre a look, and he understood. He sighed heavily, nervous. How in the world would this blow over…

"Silas? Dear, it's time for you to sleep." The still slightly fluffy chick (they had no idea why), obediently came and settled next to his mother, who draped a wing over him and carefully picked at his feathers a little, grooming them.

"Mommy?" he yawned, eyes getting heavy.

"Yes?"

"Will you tell me a story? About Noel?"

She smiled kindly down at him. Andre settled near. "Of course."

He snuggled up against her side and prepared to listen. "Once… there was a petite garcon, about your age." She began. "And he loved Noel more than anything else-"

"More than his parents?!" he yelped.

She chuckled. "Except his parents."

He sighed. "Oh, good."

"Anyway, this little boy, one year, couldn't decide what he wanted."

"What happened."

"Patience, my sweet. You see, many of his friends had many, many brothers and sisters. He got a bit lonely sometimes when they couldn't play. So... do you know what his parents gave him?"

"What?"

"A baby sister. So he always had someone to play with."

"Cool…" he breathed in amazement, snuggling into her side and suppressing a yawn. "Sometimes I wish I had a little frere or soeur."

They both chuckled nervously. "Well…"

He managed to lift his heavy eyes a little further. "What?"

Denisha took a deep breath. While it was true she'd been having abdominal pains from accidentally eating a holly berry, it was also something else.

"We're having another chick."

SURPRISE! Sorry, just couldn't resist.

Review please!