Salad Smurfs: The Movie (story)/Part 3

"Oh dear," Smurfette said as she watched Scaredy in the movie run away. "I wonder what it was that he smurfed in the darkness that made him so scared."

"This smurf shares the same sentiment, Smurfette," Empath said as he took a sip of his smurfberry seltzer. "This smurf guesses that we will have to watch to find out."

On the screen was the beautiful view of the sky in which a crane flew high across. It was Feathers carrying Papa Smurf with him as they were heading back to the village.

"Then one day Papa Smurf returned from his visit to the specialists in the hope that everything in the village had smurfed on without a problem," Narrator said through a voice-over. "It would be upon his return that he would discover that something was amiss."

The screen continued to show Papa Smurf on Feathers, though now from behind him, as the crane flew through the trees in the forest and came down for a landing in the village square.

"Home smurf home," Papa Smurf said as he hopped down from Feathers with his bags in hand and then looked around. The whole village looked deserted, with no Smurf around to even notice him arriving. Even worse, there were chairs, tables, and various bits of furniture lying around outside, making it look like the Smurfs had a wild party while Papa Smurf was gone and didn't bother to clean up after themselves.

"Great Smurfness!" Papa Smurf exclaimed as he examined everything that was lying around outside. "What could have happened to my little Smurfs? Are they all gone?"

He went around the village, crying out, "Hey! Is there anyone there?" to see if anyone in the village would respond. But the village remained silent, with only Papa Smurf making any noise in it.

Then Papa Smurf snapped his fingers as he realized something. "Of course! They could all be busy smurfing on the village dam. It couldn't hurt for me to check and see if they're smurfing any work on it."

And so Papa Smurf dropped his bags and raced off to the village dam to see for himself. Sometime later, he returned to the village. "Well, they're not at the dam, and they're not at the Smurf River Bridge, nor are they even smurfing their ease by the lake. So where else could they have gone?" he said to himself. And then he gasped as he thought of something. "Gargamel! Oh, my poor little Smurfs must have been smurfed by him while I was gone."

Fearing the worst, Papa Smurf ran through the forest toward Gargamel's castle and carefully looked through the window without either the wizard or his cat noticing him. But from what Papa Smurf could see, the Smurfs weren't even in Gargamel's lair in cages or anything. More evident was how Gargamel was acting as he was busy looking through his spellbook.

"I swear that I will have my revenge someday on those cursed little blue dwarves, Azrael," Gargamel rambled. "The problem remains, though: how will I ever catch the vermin without knowing the location of their village? I have searched for the answer for years, and yet it still evades me."

Papa Smurf sighed as he hopped down from the window and quickly made his way back to the village. "So much for the hope of finding my little Smurfs with that wizard," he said to himself. "That's very strange, as if Gargamel hasn't been actively smurfing for us lately." He looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning to set. "I'll have to wait until tomorrow to smurf for them, but right now I need to smurf myself something to eat."

He went into Greedy's kitchen and decided to make himself a vegetable stew. As he prepared the ingredients for a one-Smurf stew, he noticed something. "It seems that Farmer has smurfed a wonderful job with the vegetables."

A short while later, the stew was ready. Papa Smurf sat down with a bowl of it and started eating. "Mmmm...these vegetables are not bad," he said. He barely had more than a few spoonfuls before he heard something outside the dining hall.

"That noise," Papa Smurf said. "It sounds like my little Smurfs are returning." He got up from his seat at the table and went outside to look. But all he could see outside was nobody around.

And then he heard. "Psst, Papa Smurf. Is that you?" He looked in the direction of the sound and saw that it was Farmer, Greedy, Nabby, and Smurfette all hiding behind a barrel. "Is it really you?"

"Well, who else do you think I am?" Papa Smurf responded.

The four Smurfs suddenly came out of hiding and embraced Papa Smurf. "Yippee! Papa Smurf has returned!" Farmer cried out.

"We're saved!" Greedy shouted.

"Well, I'm very glad to see you as well," Papa Smurf said. "But tell me, what has been smurfing on here since I was gone? And where are the other Smurfs?"

Suddenly Papa Smurf was bombarded with answers. "There were these vegetable Smurfs! First and second, that was when the Smurfs..."

"Yes, and it was Hefty who had to smurf the smurfhouse, and then..."

"No, it was Brainy who smurfed that, and..."

Papa Smurf couldn't hear what his little Smurfs were trying to tell him. "Please, please, let's smurf this one at a time. Come with me inside the dining hall, so you can smurf me about it smurf and slowly."