#I wonder what Glaring Errors in this chapter I didn't notice hhhhh

[schtroumpf-a-lunettes]

The Smurfs That Canon Forgot, Chapter Thirteen

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Previous Chapters: Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3 | Ch4 | Ch5 | Ch6 | Ch7 | Ch8 | Ch9 | Ch10 | Ch11 | Ch12

In the “present”...

"Smurfs!" Gargamel exclaimed.

Papa and Dabbler quickly dived back into the bushes from which they had just emerged. Dreamy remained, standing alone in the open, right in Gargamel's line of sight.

“Dreamy!” Dabbler hissed. Dreamy was motionless.

"I thought I saw..." Gargamel shook his head in confusion, then turned his eyes to Dreamy. "Well, what do you want?? I know there were more of you pests just now!"

As it turned out, Dreamy having been left out in the open was currently the least of their worries. It was only at the last moment that Papa Smurf sensed a presence behind him and dived out of the way as Dabbler, not so fortunate, was swept forward with a swipe of Azrael's paw. He landed outside of the bushes, a little ahead of where Dreamy stood – closer to Gargamel.

Papa hit the ground hard, spraining his ankle in the process.

Azrael triumphantly strolled forward, the smug cat leaving the two stranded smurfs the option of either allowing Asrael to come closer to them or to move towards Gargamel... Dreamy and Dabbler tensed.

"Not today, Azrael" Gargamel grumbled. "Today I don't want to have to deal with those pesky blue beasts. Come along!"

Azrael meowed insistently in complaint as Gargamel began to walk away. Away from them. Azrael was then casting a confused glance at the smurfs and making one last swipe at them before hurrying after Gargamel. Dreamy and Dabbler barely managed to dodge the half-hearted strike, Dabbler still clutching the deep scratches already embedded in his side thanks to his previous encounter with Azrael's claws.

Gargamel didn't seem to be paying much attention to his surroundings, and that's when they saw it – they noticed how the ground stopped abruptly up ahead. He was heading right towards where the ground dropped off sharply. "Gargamel!" Dabbler called, following after him. "Watch out!" Gargamel looked back coldly, quickening his pace to hasten away from Dabbler. "And just what do you think I'm doing, you little blue vermin? I'm getting myself away from you." "Wait, stop, there's...!"

"Can't you just leave me in peace?" The old wizard didn't know it, but he was playing with danger, walking by the edge of a swift fall as he currently was, and he was about to lose. He took another step forward, but found nothing beneath his feet.

He went forward at an angle. Managed to somehow grasp onto the edge with his one good hand after a desperate scramble, but now that was the only thing keeping him from falling.

Dreamy and Dabbler ran over, Papa Smurf also making his way over from behind them with some effort.

“Gargamel!” Papa Smurf arrived at the edge where Gargamel could see him.

“Papa… Smurf? Oh, noo, I’m delusional!” Gargamel cried.

"No, you’re not delusional. Now... Give me your arm, Gargamel. We'll help you up." Papa Smurf’s voice was calm. He gestured to the arm that was dangling by Gargamel’s side. "You can't lift me up - you're too small” Gargamel shot back. "Dabbler and I will use a spell. But we need you to reach out your arm." "…You're not Papa Smurf. This is all just cruel trickery! I won’t let you-“

“Gargamel-“

“You’re not the real Papa Smurf!”

“Gargamel, we’re not trying to trick you, you need to listen-“

“Just for one single day, I wanted to be left alone!” he said miserably. “I��� I wasn’t even trying to catch any of you!”

“You need to give us your arm or you’re going to fall!”

Gargamel fell silent, hesitating. But mistrust was still written all over his face. And in the meantime, he was starting to slip. His arm shook from the exhaustion of holding on.

He was slipping… and then he slipped.

They watched him fall.

Several metres he fell, into a stream so shallow it did nothing to lessen the impact.

…Maybe there was a chance he’d be alright? Pained noises rose up from where he lay.

"Come quickly. We must go and help." Papa urged.

"But how? We can't exactly jump after him, Papa Smurf." Papa tried to set off at a run, but couldn’t get far on his still sprained ankle. Dabbler ran up, with some herbs they’d collected in their basket earlier. “These should be good for a sprained ankle, right?”

Papa nodded, and soon Dabbler and Dreamy were following after him as he led the way, leaving the stunned and anxious Azrael.

“We can reach him.” There was a long, but safe way around to get to where Gargamel had fallen.

At length, they arrived. Azrael’s cries could still be heard from up above – the cat had elected not to move, not knowing the long way around to reach Gargamel.

Dabbler walked about briskly, examining the suffering wizard.

“His legs seem to be broken… He’s still conscious…”

"What do we do...?" Dreamy muttered. "We need to get him out of the stream. We need to get him help” said Papa Smurf. "None of us can hope to lift him" Dabbler pointed out. Dreamy looked at Dabbler. "A spell?" Dabbler shook his head. "No, that spell's only good for a second or two at best to lift him up."

"Scruple... Where's Scruple?" Papa Smurf looked about. He turned to Gargamel. "We'll go get Scruple. Where is he?" "What do you... Care?" Gargamel breathed out. "Gargamel, we're trying to help!" Dabbler exclaimed. "Gargamel..." There was a rare sharpness to Papas voice and his expression was very serious. "Where's Scruple." No reply. "Dreamy, go to Gargamel's hovel. It's the most likely place he'll be." "You won't... Find him there." "Then tell us where he is!"

“Why…”

"...You might not trust us, but you're going to have to let us help you, unless you want to continue to stay here stranded with little chance of anyone else finding you." Gargamel strained against the pain to speak again. "He moved out... He's staying in the village..." "The human village" Papa Smurf frowned.

"Papa Smurf, the closest human village is much too far, I can't smurf there quickly on my own." Dreamy pointed out, and Papa Smurf nodded. "Of course not. Dreamy, I need you to go back to our village and then take Feathers there. Dabbler and I will stay here and see how we can help Gargamel in the meantime. And take some smurfs with you - I don't want you going into a human village alone." "Yes, Papa Smurf." Once they confirmed again with Gargamel where Scruple could likely be found, Dreamy set off running steadily back the way they’d came, and back to the village. He'd been jogging for some time when he saw Brainy come flying through the air and promptly land some metres in front of him. "Smurfed out of the village again, huh?" Dreamy quipped as he ran by. "H-hey! Wait for meee...!" Brainy called after him and raced to catch up. "Don't you know that Papa Smurf says not to run, that it can be dangerous?" He asked as he ran alongside Dreamy. Wow, my lucky day, Dreamy thought to himself dryly before replying. "Really? I think you're confused, Brainy. Landed on your head again, I see. Hefty goes for jogs all the time and it's not an issue." I think he means, and got mixed up with Papa Smurf saying we shouldn't run indoors... But he wasn't about to smurf Brainy that rope in the conversation. "That's, er... Well I-I say that running is-" "Besides, Papa told me to be as quick as I could." "And I remember Papa Smurf saying... What I mean is..." finally, Brainy abandoned the thread. "Why are you... Why are we running?" Dreamy's voice took on a more weighted tone. "Gargamel broke his legs. He's back there in a stream…” Brainy looked concerned. "Did we-" "No! We didn't do anything!” Dreamy snapped. “Gargamel didn’t smurf where he was going!” "Oh. So then... Well, it doesn't really smurf as part of our business…?” Brainy trailed off. "Ah, yes, so we should just leave him out there to suffer. What a smurfy idea! You should have been the one left behind at the village while I had the chance to go on time travelling adventures. You would have fit right in." "I don't find your tone very smurfy" Brainy replied crisply. Dreamy was saved from having to reply as they had arrived back at the village.

***

“Scruple, huh? That scrawny little kid?” Grandpa mused.

“Oh, he’s not a little kid anymore” Dreamy pointed out between pants. And he never was ‘little’ by our standards anyway!

“So Vanity, you coming along to go seek out Scruple?” Brainy asked. “After all, he can hardly go alone!”

Vanity shrugged. “Well… I did have plans. I’d set aside this afternoon for reflection gazing in the River Smurf, but… I guess I’ll come along.” As long as he had his mirror, after all.

“Great! So that’s the three of us, then.” Brainy nodded.

Dreamy frowned. “Now wait just a- Brainy! I didn’t say you could-“

Brainy held up a hand. “Dreamy, Dreamy, Dreamy. Papa Smurf would obviously want me to go with you! You need a brave and ingenious smurf to smurf by your side! Now don’t you worry. I won’t let you smurf there without me.”

Dreamy groaned. So two smurfs were now coming with him, neither of which he’d actually asked. “This isn’t some fun adventure, Brainy! Gargamel’s seriously injured…” And the more time he stood around wasting words on the brick wall that was Brainy Smurf, the more time he was wasting.

“Grandpa?” Dreamy asked hopefully. “I think you’d be a big help-“

Grandpa Smurf held up his hands. “Ohh, no. You don’t need me; I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Grandpa had already had enough travelling around and listening to Brainy’s bluster for a lifetime. Otherwise, he probably would accompany Dreamy.

Dreamy sighed. “Well, there is room for one more smurf… I’ve already wasted enough time as it is…” he turned to Hefty, who sighed.

“Sure, I’ll come with ya, Dreamy.”

Safe in the knowledge that at least one smurf going would not liable to be distracted by his own thoughts or reflection, he got Feathers ready and they all seated themselves atop promptly.

Before Feathers took off, Brainy made sure to give Dreamy a grin. “As you can see, you were wrong about me earlier. I, Brainy Smurf, am more than willing to help Gargamel our enemy if he is in need, therefore-“

Dreamy held up a hand. “Okay, okay! If you say so, Brainy…” He made sure to have Feathers take off before Brainy could start up again, or even change his mind.

***

The trees cleared, and the human village began to come into view. Feathers began to descend so that they could get a better look, circled around a little bit until they managed to identify the building that matched Gargamel’s description.

“This is where he must be staying” Dreamy told the others. Feathers flew up, perched on a windowsill. The window was already open, but the shades were drawn.

“Okay… here we are, then” said Hefty as they hopped down from Feathers.

“I’ll wait outside” Vanity suggested, “And keep watch?”

Hefty frowned. “Keep watch for what?”

Brainy cast a glance at Vanity. “His own reflection, no doubt.”

“Okay, that’s enough chit-chat” said Dreamy, wearing a determined expression. “Are we going to get Scruple or not? I’m going in.” He swiftly slipped past the blinds and stepped into the room beyond, before Hefty knew it. Not wanting Dreamy to be in there alone, Hefty quickly followed after. Brainy and Vanity reluctantly stepped into the room too.

“It’s so dark in here, I can hardly see myself” whispered Vanity, gazing earnestly at his mirror.

“…Scruple?” Dreamy called out.

“What if he’s not here?” Hefty wondered.

“Well, that would just be annoying. He better be here. What are we to smurf if he’s not-“

A loud curse and sudden movement came from off to the side of the room as Scruple began to sit up. He swore again as he began to make out the smurfs in the darkness.

“Scruple! Gargamel, he-“ Hefty quickly dodged out of the way as something suddenly went flying right at him. It missed him, went past the blinds, past the window and out into the street beyond. Scruple had already grabbed another nearby object to throw.

“Stop, Scruple! Stop!” Dreamy insisted. “Just let us speak!”

“Urgh… What the hell do you guys want?! Do you mind? I’m trying to sleep here!” Scruple’s voice was much lower than the returned smurfs remembered.

“…It’s the afternoon” Hefty said simply.

“Yeah, it’s also Saturday” Scruple shot back.

“Gargamel’s badly hurt. He can’t walk, he needs assistance, that’s why we’re here” Dreamy said quickly, before Scruple could throw anything else at them.

“Gargy? What the-“

“He had a nasty fall.”

Scruple paused. “Okay, yeah. Ever since his mother died…” He suddenly seemed to realise something, and started swearing heavily. “Today…! Today must be the… it’s the anniversary.”

He got up, stepped across the messy floor, let some light into the room with a wince.

“Okay, whatever, I’m up. I’ll grab a doctor and then let’s go to wherever Gargy is.”

“You’re going to go outside, looking like that?” Vanity coughed, looked away from Scruple’s immediate glare. “I mean, if you insist…”

Scruple was looking rather dishevelled.

“I’m sorry, but not all of us just have flower hats lying around” came his reply. “And I don’t think we can afford to waste any time- wait, wait.” He caught sight of Brainy. “You’re wearing glasses.”

Brainy didn’t know how to reply to that.

“You’re… hold up, hold up. You’re that, oh my god… You’re the one who doesn’t know how to shut the hell up.”

“I haven’t said anything to you this entire time!” Brainy protested.

Scruple ignored his words, nodding. “I remember you. Wow, haven’t seen you in a while. Thought you must have been one of the ones that died with Papa Smurf or whatever.”

“Um, hello? You haven’t seen me in a while either” Vanity pointed out, then gestured to Hefty as an afterthought. “…Or him.”

“Huh? Okay… If you say so. I thought that flower was a new thing you must have been trying though. Whatever.”

“We have to get going” said Dreamy, trying to bring everyone back into focus for once. He could see by the expressions of Vanity and Hefty that they were rather displeased that Scruple could remember Brainy but neither of them, but he could not allow them to start on it – they’d already wasted enough time. Scruple had swiftly managed to upset all three of the other smurfs, and there was no use waiting until it was Dreamy’s turn.

Scruple hurried to fetch a doctor, and then the smurfs rode on Feathers, leading Scruple and the doctor on their way to Gargamel.