#Hmmm I'm nervous about this chapter. feel it's mayhaps a bit Wonky.

[schtroumpf-a-lunettes]

The Smurfs That Canon Forgot, Ch.9

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Previous Chapters: Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3 | Ch4 | Ch5 | Ch6 | Ch7 | Ch8

This chapter’s word count: 2679 (longest chapter so far... way longer than most of the other chapters)

Note: This chapter contains vague references to violent/serious injury.

In the “present”…

Smurfette, Hefty, Painter, Tuffy and Flighty were all out doing some casual smurfberry picking in the forest. After the group had been busying themselves with this for around ten minutes, Flighty motioned the others to come over to him.

“I think I might have heard something, but then aga-“ Hefty clamped his hand over Flighty’s mouth as some figures emerged from nearby, but still at a rather safe distance. They probably wouldn’t have heard Flighty speaking had he been allowed to finish, but it did well to be cautious.

“Eet iz Gargamel,” Painter whispered.

“And is that…?” Smurfette rubbed at her eyes, looking at the figure that walked alongside the mean old wizard, “…Scruple?”

“But he’s so… different!” Hefty chimed in. Scruple was taller now – rather lanky in fact, and less round in the face. He was also sporting a slightly different outfit compared to the one Hefty remembered. He looked to be taller than Gargamel, although Gargamel’s stooped figure greatly helped in that regard.

“Ah, but of course! Scru-pel should be a teenager by now, no?” Painter pointed out.

“Late teens” Flighty confirmed with a mutter, “Now come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Ah, come on Flighty, they’re plenty far away, plenty far!” Tuffy insisted, rapidly picking more smurfberries from the bush they were hiding by, “I just wanna fill up these baskets a little more, or we probably won’t hear the end of it from Greedy.” The village had needed to go back to stocking a lot more food now that the others were back – especially Greedy.

“But Tuffy-“

“Give me two minutes tops, you keep an eye on them and tell me if they get too close.”

They all knew arguing with Tuffy would be more trouble than it was worth if he was going to be so quick, and the last thing they wanted was for Tuffy to get flustered and inadvertently raise his voice, alerting Gargamel to their presence. At least Azrael could clearly be seen trailing along behind Gargamel and Scruple, so there was no risk of the cat sneaking up on them without warning. A few moments of silence passed, Tuffy rapidly picking away at the berries as the other four trained their eyes on Gargamel, Scruple and Azrael.

Gargamel adjusted the direction he was walking in, although thankfully he was still not walking towards where the smurfs were hiding. The change in position allowed them to get a good view of his other side.

Smurfette gasped softly, and Hefty and Painter’s eyes widened. Gargamel’s hand and part of his forearm were missing, as well as most of his ear.

“Whaat, what is it?” Tuffy demanded. He looked up at where the old wizard was along with Scruple and Azrael, now gradually moving further away from them. “Well, what is it?” Tuffy asked again irritably.

“Gargamel – his arm” Painter said simply.

“…And ear” Smurfette added.

Flighty immediately turned away with a shudder at their words. The memories of just how it happened, deeply branded into his mind as they were, were flashing back to the fore.

There’d been so much blood.

“Couldn’t you see it?” Smurfette asked Tuffy as Flighty hugged himself unhappily.

“Uh… Oh-Ohhh, yeah, of course. That.” Tuffy was suddenly looking mighty uncomfortable.

“Let’s get back to the village.” Flighty’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Before they come back.”

Tuffy and Flighty promptly picked up the baskets of smurfberries and set off back to the village, with Smurfette, Hefty and Painter quickly hurrying after them.

“Hey, wait a – wait!” Hefty pulled Tuffy and Flighty to a stop. “You two want to tell me what that was all about?” There was a slight touch of concern to his voice, as Flighty was looking rather pale.

Tuffy let out a short, nervous laugh. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Like smurf there isn’t. You two know something about what happened to Gargamel, don’t you?”

After a pause, Hefty was going to soften the situation with an added ‘we don’t want to pry too much, but…’, yet all he managed to say was “We don’t want to-“ before Tuffy’s response came tumbling out hurriedly.

“It was- It was an accident, I swear!”

Painter, Hefty and Smurfette gaped at Tuffy. “What?”

“I didn’t – we didn’t even do anything, really, it wasn’t our…!” Tuffy cut himself off, collecting himself.

“Tuffy, what are you talking about?” Smurfette implored worriedly.

Tuffy shook his head, “Ah, it’s…” his voice gained more bluster as he continued on, his tough persona flowing back. “It happened a long time ago anyway, so there’s no use talking about it already!” He turned away, signalling the end of the discussion.

Painter frowned. “You cannot just…!” he began, but Hefty was already well in control of the situation.

Hefty spoke firmly and with confidence “Oh, no you don’t.” They all began marching back to the village. “I think you have some explaining to do. Papa Smurf needs to hear about this.”

***

There were many things in life that Clumsy Smurf didn’t understand. This was one fact about life that he understood very clearly. Clumsy didn’t mind; he’d gotten through life just fine as it was. He was content, as long as he had his friends and his rock collection.

But he couldn’t help feeling that lately, there had been even more things he didn’t understand than usual. Life, and the world that he thought he knew well enough, had changed in a myriad of subtle ways.

He could see Dreamy, standing a little bit apart from the smurflings. He looked pensive, almost… sad? That was just one of the many things that Clumsy didn’t understand. Why would Dreamy be unhappy? Hadn’t everything smurfed out fine in the end? The whole situation was beyond him.

Clumsy began making his way over, almost tripping on the way there.

Dreamy looked up and smiled weakly. “Ah, hi Clumsy.”

“Hey Clumsy, we’ve got some good news!” Snappy informed him emphatically.

Clumsy grinned widely. “Oh gosh, really?”

“Yeah!” Sassette beamed, “We want you and every other smurf to know that we smurflings, we’re not gonna let any time differences or separate houses keep us apart! Ya better believe that we’re gonna have plenty of sleepovers, too!”

“I sure am happy to hear that…!” Clumsy’s voice was light and carefree. Everything smurfs out fine in the end.

As Clumsy watched the smurflings all talk amongst each other, it did seem like they were managing to work together cohesively as a group again. He hadn’t understood why they’d seemed to have had some difficulties, but it looked as if they had done a good job of dealing with them.

Clumsy turned to Dreamy. “There seems to be somethin’ on your mind, Dreamy.”

“Oh… me? Yeah. I was just thinking about some things. But… I’ll be fine.” He was looking at the ground rather wistfully as he said this, but then he raised his head to meet Clumsy’s eye. “I’m so glad you’re back, Clumsy. You and everyone else.” Maybe he couldn’t just make certain memories he didn’t like disappear at will. But it was okay. (Or… it would be okay). What mattered was that all of the smurfs were back together again, so he could move on from the past and try to enjoy the present.

“Papa Smurf!”

Clumsy and Dreamy turned around. It was Hefty – he had Flighty and Tuffy with him, who both looked uneasy. Smurfette and Painter trailed behind them.

Greedy spotted the recently arrived smurfs and brightened up immensely, going over to them. “Ooh, goody! You’ve got the smurfberries, now I can-“

“Sorry Greedy, but where’s Papa Smurf?” Hefty asked him.

“Uhh, I think he’s just in his lab…” Greedy watched the group go off in the direction of the lab, startled.

***

“Papa Smurf!”

“Hello – is there something wrong, Hefty?” Papa Smurf turned around as Hefty, Tracker, Flighty, Smurfette and Painter filed into the room.

Hefty quickly relayed what they’d seen in the forest, and how it seemed that Tracker and Flighty knew what happened to Gargamel and may possibly be somewhat responsible.

Papa looked at Tuffy and Flighty, who both looked like they just wanted to shrink away. “Great smurfs! Is this true?”

The two of them both started talking over each other rapidly, the others only able to pick up some snatches of what they were saying.

“The village-“

“I wasn’t even-“

“You should ask-“

“Not just-“

“Alright, alright” Papa Smurf motioned them to calm down, “so the rest of the village knew about this?”

Tuffy and Flighty nodded.

“In that case, I think it’s best to call a village meeting to talk this over. I’ll get Harmony to make the announcement.”

***

The smurfs were all gathered in the meeting hall. Everyone was present, apart from Baby Smurf and the smurflings, as well as Grouchy. Seeing as the topic of the meeting didn’t concern them, Grouchy had been chosen to be excused from the meeting in order to watch over them as they played, and also to look after Baby.

Papa Smurf sat at the front to run the meeting. All smurfs who had not been caught in time travel, but had instead remained at the village, sat in a large group facing Papa, while all of the smurfs present who had gone time travelling sat separately, off to the side but also facing Papa Smurf.

Once Papa Smurf signalled that he was ready to begin, they all quietened down.

“This meeting is now in session, thank you everysmurf for coming. This is how today’s meeting will work: if you wish to speak, please raise your hand and wait to be called upon. I will also be choosing smurfs at random to call upon to respond to questions, and I also ask that you please stand to speak so that you can be more easily heard by all. With that out of the way, let’s begin…” he cleared his throat. “Miner Smurf?”

Miner Smurf stood, awaiting Papa Smurf’s question.

“I’ve heard that Gargamel has had part of his ear and forearm amputated – removed. Can you confirm this?”

A startled ripple went through the room. Miner Smurf appeared to be very caught off-guard by the question. “Uh, yes Papa, I can. It’s true.”

“And can you tell me whether this has any connection to we smurfs?”

Miner took a moment. “…Yes.”

Some of the smurfs from off to the side of the room stirred.

“Miner Smurf, are you able to elaborate on that connection for me?”

“Uhh… May another smurf be called upon, Papa?”

“Very well. Miner Smurf, you may be seated. Timber Smurf?”

Timber stood up rather nervously.

“Do you agree with Miner’s assessment?” Papa asked.

“Yes, Papa Smurf.”

“Can you please tell us all more about the connection between Gargamel’s amputations and the smurfs?”

“Well… They occurred on separate occasions. It’s – it’s nothing too – it wasn’t exactly –“ Timber shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “Well, the ear. Gargamel had captured most of us and, he had this machine to use on us. For… yeah, his usual sorts of intentions. We were all desperately trying to save ourselves, we, including smurfs who weren’t captured who’d come to help, managed to turn the situation around, it was uh, kind of an us or him situation, I guess?” he grimaced. “And it didn’t seem the machine was functioning too well either, making it even more dangerous…”

If it hadn’t have been for Scruple… Well, it would have been a lot worse. For Gargamel.

Timber didn’t mention the part where some of them may have further caused Gargamel to be directly in harm’s way that day. It had been a “him or us” situation. And it had given them all the opportunity that they needed to escape safely, one they probably would not have had otherwise.

“I see…” Papa Smurf replied. “And… his arm?” But Timber was clearly finished, so Papa Smurf allowed him to sit back down again before calling on someone else. “…Reporter Smurf?”

Reporter stood.

“Reporter, if you could tell us about Gargamel’s arm…?”

“Right. Yes. Erm. First, you have to understand… We had to do everything we could to protect ourselves and the village. We built up village defences. They worked well enough, but… They made Gargamel even more determined, if you can believe it. Kind of turned into a bit of an… escalating war…?” he trailed off awkwardly, uncertainly. “Especially after the whole ear thing… Gargamel was relentless. Then…” he closed his eyes. “he lost his hand, thanks to our village defences.”

“Village defences…” Papa murmured. “Reporter, you’re mentioning these “village defences” quite a lot. So you are claiming that Gargamel’s hand was sliced off in “self defence”…? I’m afraid we may have different definitions of the term.”

Reporter straightened, absorbed the comment. “We had to. We had no choice. It’s not like we wanted it to happen. But we were helpless and terrified. He was at the village, closing in on us all. It was actually kind of an accident - one of our defences wasn’t working properly, but we realised at that moment it could be used to… you know. And that’s how we managed to stop him.”

“…Thank you for your responses, Reporter. You may now be seated.”

Once Reporter took a seat, Papa surveyed the room, his expression unreadable. “It sounds like they were not so much village defences as they were weapons… Not so much focused on protecting as opposed to attacking.” Disapproval had slipped into his voice.

Woolly raised his hand; Papa allowed him to stand. He found it very difficult to look up, to look at Papa. “You don’t know what it was like, Papa Smurf. We couldn’t risk losing any more smurfs. We couldn’t.” His words hung in the air.

“…So this was the kind of approach taken to any threats towards the village,” said Papa at length. He wasn’t quite sure he knew what else to say. “None of this has been mentioned when discussing how the village fared in my, Grandpa’s and everyone else’s absence.”

Tailor fielded this question, eyes downcast. “I think I can say that we just wanted to move forward, and not draw attention to what’s already done. We don’t want to focus on-“ he stopped and looked as Farmer abruptly interrupted what he was saying.

“If any smurf’s to blame, it’s-“

But Papa Smurf swiftly cut Farmer off. “No, you are all responsible. You all share responsibility for this village and how it was run. Farmer, I don’t believe you raised your hand to be called upon. In any case, I hope you all understand that there were probably better ways for these kinds of bad situations to be dealt with. As we all heard Reporter state earlier, Gargamel only became more determined in response to aggressive behaviour. Escalating the situation only tends to make things worse.”

Tracker’s hand shot up, and Papa gestured for him to speak.

“Well actually, Papa Smurf… After the incident with Gargamel’s arm, our encounters with him dropped off quite dramatically.” There was the ghost of a smile on his face. “He seemed to be much more hesitant to attack us all. We still had to deal with him occasionally, but…” he gave a shrug. “Word happened to spread about what happened to him too, and that it was our fault. Suddenly, a lot of our other enemies, so to speak, started leaving us alone more too.”

Everyone who wished them harm had all thought that Papa Smurf being gone was the perfect opportunity. They’d swiftly learned otherwise.

The smurfs had come to be more formidable in the eyes of their enemies than they ever had been in the presence of Papa Smurf’s guidance and protection.

Papa Smurf smoothed over his expression, made it blank. “It seems there’s much more for all of us to catch up on than I could have even imagined… I think we can continue to discuss this later. I would like to thank all of you once again for coming.” And then the village meeting was over.