The Prisoner Of Stone/Part 4

Meanwhile, Vanity was walking home to the village with Cupid, talking about things that were going on in their lives since they had last met.

"I don't understand why you don't like Eros so much, Cupid," Vanity said. "Is he really that bad when he smurfs those flaming heart lust arrows at everyone?"

"Oh, he's the worst among all the cherubs, Vanity," Cupid said. "You see, we as cherubs care about all sorts of creatures having love and compassion for one another, and Eros only cares about creatures fulfilling even the worst of their desires upon one another, even if that means going against what males and females are designed for."

"But I just don't see what's so wrong about my kind of love, Cupid," Vanity said. "I'm not hurting anyone else if the one that I truly care for is myself."

"There's nothing wrong with having love for yourself, Vanity," Cupid said. "But love isn't meant to be just given to yourself alone. It's meant to be shared with others, as brothers and sisters love each other as family, and a male and female who wish to start a family of their own someday share their love with their offspring. I don't see how you can be forever happy with yourself if the only person you can give your love to is yourself."

"It just doesn't seem fair that creatures of the world can't smurf whatever kind of love they want to smurf with whomever they want," Vanity said.

"Neither is it fair to deny other creatures the kind of appropriate love that they deserve, Vanity, even if it's your fellow Smurfs," Cupid said. "Us cherubs envy the kind of love that allows creatures like you to have children, but we can't go against we are created to do as cherubs to do whatever it is we want, or else we would all end up like Eros."

Vanity sighed. "I suppose that you are right, Cupid, that we can't smurf against what we are created for. I only wish that there was more than one Smurfette in the world that can truly appreciate me just as much as I appreciate me."

"You're still a good Smurf, Vanity, no matter what kind of love you have," Cupid said. "I'm sure that you'll find the right kind of Smurf that you can share your love with."

They soon arrived at the village. "Well, at the very least, I hope that you'll enjoy your birthday today, Cupid," Vanity said. "Every Smurf seems to be excited about you smurfing."

Then Vanity and Cupid saw several Smurfs still beating on each other, passing by them as if they were a big blue tumbleweed of violence. "You're certainly right about them being excited, Vanity," Cupid said as he and Vanity watched.

"Cupid, are we glad to see you," Papa Smurf said as soon as he, Grandpa Smurf, and Sassette met up with the cherub. "We were preparing for your birthday party when this thing started to smurf for no reason."

"Oh dear," Cupid said. "I could remember that this was how things were when the clans of Smurf first came to this place, and all it took was a single arrow of love to get them to work together as brothers and sisters."

"Well, this place could sure use a few shots of love to smurf it back to how it used to be since that day, Cupid," Grandpa Smurf said.

"It's a good thing that I'm here to bring back love into the village, on this very day when it was first formed years ago," Cupid said as he pulled out an arrow from his quiver.

"Wait," Papa Smurf said, noticing the tip of the arrow that Cupid pulled out. He came closer to examine the tip and realized what it was. "This arrow of yours has a black heart."

"What?" Cupid exclaimed as he pulled out the arrows and saw that they all had black hearts on their tips. "This isn't my quiver!"

"Smurfadoodles, I can bet you these things are the cause of all the hate in the village," Grandpa Smurf said as he got a closer look at the black-heart arrow.

"That's just what I was thinking, Grandpa Smurf, and that's probably what Empath was smurfing all along," Papa Smurf said.

"But who would want to fill the world with hate, Pappy?" Sassette asked.

Both Papa and Grandpa Smurf had a revelation that made them gasp. "Chlorhydris!"

"Oh my, that evil witch is the one who is behind all this hate being smurfed here?" Vanity asked.

"I'm afraid so, Vanity," Papa Smurf said before he turned to his father. "Grandpa, I'm going to leave the village in your hands and Empath's while the rest of us smurf Chlorhydris a visit. If she's the one who's responsible for those black-heart arrows, then we need to smurf Cupid's love arrows back from her soon or there may not be much of a village left after this day."

"I'll try to smurf my best to get the grandsmurfs settled down, Papa Smurf, but you better smurf those love arrows back soon," Grandpa Smurf said as he watched another big blue ball of violence passing by him.

To be expanded on.