Gargamel's First Catch/Part 2

The story began about five years before Empath's final return from Psychelia, when the evil wizard known as Gargamel first settled in the Smurf Forest. On the day that he moved into the rundown hovel that was left by his father with the promise that it had a very special book that could help him whenever he needed it, he saw a flock of cranes flying over him that made him wonder where they could all be going. He then just dismissed the thought altogether, telling his cat Azrael that they have more important matters to deal with. Primarily, Gargamel wanted to be the first wizard who could assemble the legendary Philosopher's Stone, which would grant him the power to change base metals into gold, something that would make him rich as well as the envy of every wizard that ever thought that Gargamel would never amount to much in his profession. No sooner did Gargamel get settled in did he start reading from one of his spellbooks.

"Here it is...the Philosopher's Stone," he read aloud to his cat. "Hmmm...when the Sun is in Aries and the Moon in Taurus, you must grind mandrake roots and soak them in a solution of serpent venom. Salt, sulfur...not the vulgar type, but the philosophic...will be added, as well as mercury, which is purified as it is indicated here. When the first rays of the sun heats this liquid, we will take it to a boil over a fire of oak coals. At that time, there will dissolve a little Smurf..." He pondered at the last three words he read. "A Smurf? What in the devil's name is a Smurf?"

His cat Azrael meowed a response that sounded like "I don't know".

"Maybe this book about mythical creatures can help me with this problem," Gargamel said, looking through his bookshelf and pulling out the book in question to read from. "Smurf...Smurf...ah, here it is! 'Intelligent small beings, living in the land of Smurf, but sometimes found in our regions...they speak in a special language called Smurf. They are said to be very fond of a plant called sarsaparilla...Aha!" He came across an inscription that he felt he had to show to Azrael. "This engraving here shows us what a Smurf looks like." Azrael saw the picture and tried to swat at it, but Gargamel suddenly closed the book, making Azrael retract his paw. "Good! Then I, the sorcerer Gargamel, will finally achieve the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. All I need to do now is to capture one single Smurf...and if sarsaparilla is what will draw one to me, then so much the better."

Azrael watched as his master gathered some things he intended to use to capture a Smurf.

"Come along, Azrael," Gargamel said. "It's time for us to set up a trap."

Azrael reluctantly followed along as his master stepped out into the surrounding forest at night with his plan. - By morning, two Smurfs were walking in the forest. One of them was Brainy, the Smurf wearing glasses who felt it was his moral duty to share his words of wisdom to his fellow Smurfs, and the other was Nabby, a Smurf who loved eating more than he did listening to Brainy, and who also loved stealing food from his brother Greedy's kitchen when he wasn't looking.

"We're not smurfing back on this, Nabby," Brainy said as he and Nabby passed through a patch of tall grass. "If Papa Smurf wants us to smurf after nuts, then we are going to smurf that, because Papa Smurf says..."

"Papa Smurf this, Papa Smurf that...smurf, you're so annoying," Nabby said. "If Papa Smurf wanted nuts so badly, he should be smurfing them himself."

"That's the problem with you, Nabby...you have no respect for authority, most of all Papa Smurf's authority," Brainy said. "It's because of your antics with Greedy that you smurf into trouble all the time and