Smurfette In Charge: A Narrator's Story/Part 6

"Oh dear," Smurfette said during that part of the story. "I'm not sure that I'm going to like hearing where this is smurfing."

"It's okay, Smurfette," Empath said consolingly. "We can listen to the rest of the story sometime later if you're not comfortable with it right now."

"I don't want to be that protected, Empath," Smurfette said. "If I'm going to be here listening to Narrator's story about me, I want to make sure that I hear everything he has to smurf."

"This smurf apologizes, Smurfette," Empath said. "If that's your wish, then this smurf will stay with you so that we'll both hear the rest of the story together."

"I'm not sure that I like the sound of these two individuals' names, Madame Blackthorne and Elder Winters," Tapper said. "If these two are the smurfers of dark mysterious arts, then they certainly must be up to no good."

"Blackthorne and Winters...they sound no more menacing than Hogatha or Balthazar or Chlorhydris, if you ask me," Brainy said.

"Names don't scare me, Brainy, and neither do those who smurf those names," Duncan said. "They'll have more to worry about when they have to deal with a Smurf who won't smurf away from a fight."

"So what happened to Smurfette when she got taken by Blackthorne and Winters?" Chatty asked. "Did she manage to escape her captors or what?"

"I was just getting to that part, Chatty," Narrator said. "You see, Blackthorne and Winters weren't very familiar with the roads that led to Gargamel's hovel, and that gave Smurfette perfect opportunity to confuse them by telling them of a sorceress that they haven't smurfed before." - As Narrator continued his story, Empath and his fellow Smurfs saw Smurfette being carried to the carriage that Madame Blackthorne and Elder Winters traveled in. "She'll amuse our master, my dear, this little Snurf," Elder Winters said as he placed her near the seat of the carriage.

"I'm called Smurfette, you idiot," Smurfette snapped.

"The return trip will be very long, Elder Winters," Madame Blackthorne said as she settled into her seat and Elder Winters took up the reins. "One would have to take the broom."

"You know, my dear, with my rheumatism...," Elder Winters began to say.

"I don't want to hear about your physical problems," Madame Blackthorne said. "I just want to return home and put this sorry business behind us."

Elder Winters sighed. "As you wish." He coaxed the horse to start moving, and so the carriage proceeded down the same road that they came. Soon, though, they came to a fork in the road. "I have a question...what path did we take getting here?"

"I do not know, Winters," Madame Blackthorne said. "All these roads somehow look the same to me. I did not come on this journey to be a navigator...that's why you were brought along."

Smurfette then suddenly came up with an idea. "Oh, for pity's sake, whatever you do, don't smurf the road to the left," she pleaded.

"And why should we not go that way?" Elder Winters asked Smurfette.

"Because that path leads to the house of a wicked witch," Smurfette answered.

Madame Blackthorne laughed. "Oh, she is so funny," she said.

"You have nothing to fear, Smurfette," Elder Winters said. "You happen to be in the company of sorcerers who will protect you until we meet our Grand Master."

"I know, but Pustula is really scary," Smurfette said, making herself shiver at the very mention of her name. "Every time I even think of her, it smurfs me goosebumps."

"Pustula?" Elder Winters said, sounding curious. He went into one of the books to look up the name. "Pustula...Pustula...hmmmm, the name doesn't ring any bells. And I can't even find her in the Order's directory."

"And yet she is well known," Smurfette said. "People have smurfed her far and wide to buy her potions and poisons."

"She's not registered with the Order, and yet she sells her preparations?" Madame Blackthorne said, sounding a bit displeased.

"Without paying her dues," Elder Winters added, not liking the thought of a rogue sorceress. "And neither has she the Tax of Published Witchcraft. We will have a few words with this Purula...er, Pustula, whatever she's called." With that, he made the horse turn and go down the road to the left, galloping as fast as he could make the horse go.

"Oh please, I smurf to you, don't smurf to her home," Smurfette cried out. "She is very terrible when she smurfs angry."

"Really?" Madame Blackthorne sneered. "That just makes me quake with fear." She and Elder Winters both laughed at the warning.

Soon, though, the road that they traveled on came to a dead end. Elder Winters brought his horse to a complete stop as there was nowhere else to turn to. "Now what?" Elder Winters asked.

"Now we travel on foot, and the land around here is dangerous," Smurfette responded. "We must smurf around."

"We are NOT going back!" Madame Blackthorne sternly told Smurfette. "You will guide us to Pustula right now!"

"But first, let's make sure that you won't escape from us," Elder Winters said, as he reached into the back of the carriage to get some rope to tie around Smurfette's waist. Soon Madame Blackthorne was holding Smurfette on a leash as they stepped off the carriage.

"Come on, show us the way, or you will have to deal with us," Madame Blackthorne warned.

"Don't say that I didn't warn you," Smurfette said, as she led them down a path that took them deep into the forest.

"This Pustula lives far from it all, my dear," Elder Winters commented as they followed Smurfette's lead. "It astonishes me that people will come to her up to now."

"Yes, most curious it is," Madame Blackthorne said in agreement. And then soon, they came to a stop. "I don't see a path anymore," she told Smurfette.

"It's this way," Smurfette said as she led them through some thick grasses. The two humans followed her until suddenly they found themselves sinking in the ground.

"By Beelzebub, it's the marshes!" Madame Blackthorne cried out.

"Oh no! My files!" Elder Winters shouted.

"See, what did I smurf you?" Smurfette said as she grabbed the rope that Madame Blackthorne had suddenly let go of. "The land around here is dangerous, and with your weight..." She undid the knot of the rope that was tied around her waist and loosened it enough to slip out. "But don't worry...the marsh it not deep. You will end well by smurfing out of there. And by the way, I made one little mistake: there really is no witch called Pustula."

"Oh, you little blue demon!" Madame Blackthorne snarled, raising a fist toward Smurfette as she saw her former captive now run away from her and Elder Winters. They now started to trudge their way through the swampy mire with Winters carrying his file case above his head. "Quick, Winters, what is the formula for rising into the air?"

"Do you think that I know that by heart?" Elder Winters said. "Next time you want to find an unregistered sorceress in a marsh, find some other elder to help you!"

"Believe me, Winters, I will!" Madame Blackthorne shrieked. "Eeewww, this is so disgusting!"

To be expanded on.