The Smurfs That Canon Forgot, Chapter 4

“What are you doing in Papa Smurf’s lab?” Nosey Smurf asked abruptly, causing Dabbler to almost drop everything that he was holding.

“Nosey! Don’t scare me like that. I don’t want to damage any of Papa Smurf’s things!”

“So… what are you up to?”

Dabbler sighed. “We’re about to go into the new year and Papa and everyone else still aren’t back – so no one in the village knows how to use magic. I figured… Maybe I could try my hand at learning a couple of spells? Just in case. And if someone gets sick and magic is required to cure them, even with my knowledge as Doctor Smurf, I can’t help much if I don’t know how to use magic.”

“Hmm… If we need any magic help we can just go to Homnibus” Nosey pointed out.

“Yeah, but… What if there’s no time? What if the village is in danger and we need to use magic fast? We gotta make sure there’s still a village for them all to come back to.”

***

Father Time’s voice shook. “I promise, I really tried, but I just can’t find any trace of them. It’s been months, but I have no leads. I don’t know what I can do.”

“Keep searching!” Tailor yelled back before breaking down into sobs. “Just – Just keep searching!”

They could still come back. They could still come back. But if they were able to return, wouldn’t they have returned before now? Why would they wait several months? The margin of error for the time crystals’ ruby key is long past…

“I’m so sorry...”

***








The seasons changed.









***

Dreamy Smurf was in the midst of enjoying a warm, pleasant evening to himself outside. It wasn’t night just yet – the sun was still preparing to start making its way down past the horizon, and so it hung low in the sky. The air was so clear, and Dreamy breathed it in deeply as he closed his eyes. He could smell the sweet scent of the nearby flowers.

The wind must have picked up suddenly because he heard a whooshing and a – a faint chiming sound? He cracked an eye open.

A rainbow blur.

A – tornado?!

A rainbow tornado had materialised down out of the sky above the village.

He could see – blue blurs – being thrown out of it unceremoniously -

WAS THAT-

“NORMAL CLOTHES,” he heard a familiar voice shouting in joy, and Dreamy was up and running  before the shout was even over.

“LOOK, OUR NORMAL CLOTHES!”

“The village!! Oh my smurfness, we’re here!”

“IT WORKED!”

“We’re back!!”

__

Papa Smurf was at risk of being crushed by the barrage of smurfs that rushed at him.

“Be careful! Be careful of Baby!” Lazy could be heard saying as he struggled to move among the sheer density of the crowd.

“I hate “careful of Baby”!” Grouchy said, despite doing an excellent job of protecting the little smurfling from the crowd’s onslaught.

“Smoogle!” A dark-pink blur went flying through the air and attached itself to Nanny.

“Is it really you, Smurfette?” Poet asked between sobs. The blonde-haired smurf was also being overwhelmed by smurfs on all sides.

“Well, of course it is!” Smurfette’s face shone, “Who else would it be?”

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen” was all that the stunned Poet could muster in reply.

“Well, I never! Poet, you’re saying that to the wrong smurf!” Vanity injected pointedly.

Weakling, Tuffy and Weepy clutched at Hefty from within the crowd, all teary. Hefty, for his part, was speechless. Everything around him was so overwhelming. He gradually managed to find his voice again. “I – I missed you all too!!” tears slipped down his face, his voice drowned out by the other voices coming from all directions.

“Aw, I knew I should’ve eaten that cupcake before we left” Greedy said sadly as he looked at the crushed mess on the ground that the excited smurfs were stepping all over, it having been thrown from his hands when landing. Sweepy Smurf’s arms were wrapped around him tightly and his grin was wide. “Never mind, mate! We can make you all the cupcakes you want, a whole feast of them! Can’t believe you’re all finally back!”

Finally? Confusion flickered briefly over some of the faces of the returned smurfs who overheard this.

At last, the intensity of the crowd subsided somewhat so that everyone had a bit of breathing space once more.

“Well, that’s a warm welcome if I ever saw one, you all absosmurfly swamped us!” Grandpa remarked. He had drawn Clumsy close so that he wouldn’t get hurt or trampled in the crowd.

“I hate swamped!” Grouchy agreed.

Nanny Smurf firmly bonked Grandpa on the head. “You all have some explaining to do!” she choked out.

“Explaining?” Jokey repeated.

“It’s been – so long!” Weepy howled, “We thought you all were…!”

The returned smurfs exchanged some startled looks.

“What in smurf happened to you all?” Sweepy added.

“Hmmm.” Papa Smurf frowned. Looking around at the smurfs who hadn’t gone time travelling, there hardly seemed to be any dry eyes. A couple of small things had been nagging at him… But everyone had all gotten so swept up in the reunion. Of course all of the formerly time travelling smurfs were extremely happy to be back home in their own time and place, but in fact none of them had been prepared for such an intense and emotionally-charged reception upon being back in the village again. “We’re very sorry for worrying you all like that, my little smurfs, but...” he suddenly realised one of the things that was bothering him. Hadn’t it been winter when they first used the time crystals?

He cleared his throat. “You say it’s been, ehem, “so long”? How long has it been… exactly?”

Dozens of eyes stared at him.

“Papa Smurf, it’s been...” Tailor Smurf thought to himself momentarily, “Well it’s got to have been well over six years since we’ve last seen you all.”

Papa Smurf froze.

“Sacré bleu!” Painter couldn’t believe his ears.

“WHAT!” Brainy yelled incredulously, “SIX YEARS?! SIX YEARS?!”

“...Well, more than six years really, if we’re being exact-”

“That can’t be right!” Handy gasped, “It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long!”

“Heeey, what kind of a joke is this to play on us?” Jokey asked, rounding on Tailor. “Give me a break! We’ve been through a lot, you know!”

“You’ve been through a lot? You’ve been through a lot?!” Dreamy exclaimed angrily, “We thought you were all dead!”

Brainy was busy bouncing about indignantly. “SIX YEARS… Ooooooh, that wizard! That good-for-nothing wizard!!”

“Err… what wizard?” said Sweepy.

“...Gargamel?” asked Timber, equally baffled, but Brainy wasn’t listening.

“That no-good wizard!” he abruptly spun around, facing the other returned smurfs once more, “I warned you all, but did you listen?! Papa Smurf, you should have let me double-check his calculations! He messed up, just like I thought he would!”

“That’s quite enough, Brainy... I think the important thing here is that we all did get back, albeit a little… late,” Papa said, ignoring Brainy’s continued angry muttering, “But I suppose it’s better late than never. I think we all have quite a lot to catch up on.”

“I’ll say!” Sassette stepped out from deep in the crowd. “Now that ya mention it, there seems’t be somethin a little different about Slouchy and Nat!”

Sassette, Slouchy, Nat and Snappy had all naturally managed to find each other in the chaos during the initial reunion. They’d been too busy embracing and exchanging exclamations to take much note at the time, but now it was clear that there was a bit of disparity among the smurflings. Not a whole lot, but it was there. When they all stood together, it was plain to see that Slouchy and Nat were now taller than the smurflings who had gotten caught up in time travel.

“I guess I’m not the shortest smurfling anymore” Slouchy said with a smile.