The Castle At The Crossroads/Part 3

At Wild's treehouse, Papa Smurf was using the telescope Dreamy had given Wild to spy on Grandpa Smurf, who had his magic balloon parked in a clearing out in the forest. Grandpa looked like he was getting ready for a trip, as he was checking off the items he was going to bring with him. "I just hope I haven't forgotten anything...," he muttered. "Let's see, hmmm...roller skates...rope...suction cups..." He threw them all into the gondola of his balloon. "Looks like I'm all smurfed to go!"

Sassette was there along with Brainy, Hefty, and Snappy. "Hidden hedgehogs, Pappy...what do you smurf Grampy smurfing out there in the forest?" Sassette asked, curious.

"Hmmm...I see Grandpa getting ready to smurf off in his magic balloon somewhere, Sassette," Papa Smurf answered, turning away from the telescope. "That means we better smurf a way that we can follow him."

"With that kind of wind out there, Grandpa is going to be in for a rough ride," Hefty commented. "I don't like to smurf this, but this is the time when we really need Empath's help."

Soon they saw Grandpa Smurf take off in his balloon as it rose up into the sky. True to Hefty's words, the wind was so strong that it was shaking the elderly Smurf around in his gondola, causing him to fall hard on his rear end.

"Well, I'd better smurf those magic words right now if I want to smurf through the rest of the trip without smurfing down," Grandpa Smurf said to himself. He went right ahead with the incantation: "Abracadra, allakazoom, listen to me, old magic balloon,..."

As Grandpa went through the incantation, the shifting wind caused the anchor line to drop out of the gondola and down into the forest. Wild was watching the balloon in the sky when he saw the anchor drop.

"Papa Smurf! Fellow Smurfs! A curved hooked object has fallen from the sky!" Wild shouted.

Then the anchor burst through the roof and latched itself there, yanking Wild's treehouse from where it was situated on the tree and causing it to rise into the sky along with the balloon. The Smurfs inside the house barely had time to react as they were jostled around when the house was wrenched away.

"Well, my little Smurfs, it smurfs like we're going to be following Grandpa after all, whether he wants to be followed or not," Papa Smurf said as soon as he picked himself up off the floor.

"I just hope we won't be airborne like this for too long," Hefty said, clutching his stomach as he was trying to get used to the swaying around. "I'm smurfing to feel a bit queasy."

"Don't be such a big wimp, Hefty," Snappy groused. "You can smurf it out!"

Soon the balloon was carrying Wild's treehouse over a great distance to a place where Sassette saw many roads gathering together, and where those roads gathered, a giant castle was situated in the middle. "Look, Pappy...Grampy is smurfing straight toward that castle up ahead," she remarked.

"He may be smurfing toward the castle," Hefty shouted, "but we're smurfing toward a big tree!"

"Smurf for impact, my little Smurfs!" Papa Smurf warned.

Soon the treehouse collided with the tree and got snagged by its branches. The house shook as the balloon's anchor line became taut and wrenched the anchor out of its place through the hole in the roof, causing the balloon to continue onward unhindered.

Papa Smurf sighed with relief as the house settled. "Is every Smurf in here all right?" he asked.

"I'm all right, Papa Smurf," Wild answered, "but smurf at my house! It's not only a mess, but it's now too far away from the village!"

"Don't be sad, Wild," Sassette consoled. "Empath will smurf your house back home in the forest where it belongs, and you'll be back with the squirrels, I promise you."

"We'll worry about Wild's treehouse later," Papa Smurf said. "The important thing is that we're close enough to the castle to follow Grandpa Smurf so that we can smurf him whatever help he needs inside."

"Just smurf us what you want to do, Papa Smurf," Brainy said, as he, Hefty, and Wild gathered around the village leader, eagerly waiting.

"The five of us will smurf in as a group to follow Grandpa Smurf," Papa Smurf stated. "Snappy, you smurf here and watch over the treehouse in case anything happens to us."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Snappy shouted. "How come Sassy gets to smurf into the castle with you Smurfs, and I just get stuck babysmurfing a house?"

"Snappy, I don't have time to argue with you about my decisions!" Papa Smurf said firmly. "Now I want you to be a good little Smurfling and smurf what I say. The fewer Smurfs we have smurfing in such a dangerous place, the better."

Snappy sighed. "Yes, Papa Smurf." - At this point, Grandpa Smurf woke up in the gondola of his balloon and looked down. "Well, I'm here at the Crossroads Of The World, just as the message..." He then noticed the castle in the center of the Crossroads. "Smurfaruskie...I don't remember that castle smurfing here the last time I smurfed this place! If this is where the message smurfed from, I fear that she must have been in a really bad place for all those years. Now all I need is to find a good smurfing spot for this balloon."

The balloon now sailed over a high tower, where the drifting anchor now latched itself onto a spire with a hand on top of it. The hand then grabbed the line, pulling Grandpa Smurf out of the gondola and causing him to fall down. He soon found himself rescued by one of the gargoyles that just came to life. The gargoyle examined its paw to see what it just captured.

"Unhand me at once, you stone golem," Grandpa Smurf shouted at the gargoyle.

The gargoyle then flung Grandpa Smurf into a far window of the castle, with bars coming down after the elderly Smurf passed through the window. "Welcome to Castle Captor," the voice of the castle spoke again, "where there's always room for one more! Guests and visitors are always free to check in, but they can never check out of here, so just sit back and relax, and let me make you feel more comfortable!"

Grandpa Smurf passed through a series of doors that all closed behind him and landed on a big chair, where its arms grabbed him and tried to smother him.

"Smurf your big smurfin-picking arms off me, you oversmurfed ottoman," Grandpa Smurf grunted as he struggled to break free of chair arms' grip.

"You don't like the chair?" Castle Captor jested. "Maybe you'll like the floor better." The chair then flung Grandpa Smurf off, causing him to land on the rug in the middle of the room.

"Smurf and tarnation!" Grandpa Smurf ranted as he picked himself up. "This crazy castle is more than just haunted...it smurfs to have a mind all of its own!"

"Indeed," Castle Captor spoke again, "and I have a mind to keep in here...for the rest of your life!"

Grandpa Smurf looked behind and saw that the rug was rolling itself up behind him. He tried to outrace the rug, but it was too fast for him as he got rolled up into it.

"Looks like it's time for me to roll you up and shake you out," Castle Captor said as it carried Grandpa Smurf rolled up in the rug. "And I know just the place to shake you out into."

The rug then brought Grandpa Smurf to a set of stairs where it unrolled itself, causing him to bounce down the stairs into a jail cell door that opened before him.

"You'll have plenty of time to catch up with an old friend of yours that I picked up along the way," Castle Captor remarked as the cell door closed behind Grandpa Smurf.

He finally stopped bouncing and landed face first on the floor. As he picked himself up, he looked and gasped as he saw an elderly female Smurf with gray hair and glasses, wearing a purple robe and a pink scarf while carrying around a dark purple knitting bag. "Well, what smurfed you so long to smurf here, you old timer?" she said. "It isn't like I was smurfing any younger waiting for you to smurf here."

Grandpa Smurf recognized who it was. "Nanny Smurfette...is that really you after all those years?" he asked. "You smurf like you haven't smurfed a day older since I last smurfed you."

"Of course it's me, youngster!" Nanny replied, tugging at Grandpa's whiskery cheek. "Were you expecting to find young Wendy Smurfling in this place...because I haven't smurfed by that name since you smurfed eyes on my young daughter and married her. But even with the beard, you still smurf like Smurfling Pan to me."

"That was a long time ago on Smurfling Island when I smurfed by that name mysmurf," Grandpa said. "I smurf by the name of Grandpa Smurf now. The question is, what are you doing smurfing in a place like this?"

"I don't know, Grampers," Nanny answered. "It just smurfed out of nowhere when I smurfed here." Her friendly expression suddenly turned fierce and accusing. "Of course, if you hadn't been so stubborn and decided to smurf off on that important mission of yours, smurfing your young son Culliford behind in the village with only his mother to smurf after him, I wouldn't have been in this smurf-awful place in the first place!"

"Stubborn!" Grandpa Smurf flung his pack on the floor in anger. "You're the one who's so darn stubborn, Nanny...thinking that this is just another one of Smurfling Pan's adventures, and you have to smurf along like you're Wendy Smurfling. You knew how important my mission was to save the Neverstone on Smurfling Island from losing its power. You should have smurfed home like a good Granny Smurfette and watched after Culliford and his mother. But you also smurfed Culliford behind in the village and smurfed after me! I want to know why!"

"You're the only childhood friend from Smurfling Island that I still have outside the island...and I didn't want to lose you," Nanny said, picking up her knitting needles and doing some knitting. "Besides, I had to smurf for a special kind of yarn for my knitting, and you know how much I love knitting...even when I knitted your favorite blankets years ago, for you and for all the Lost Smurflings."

"Well, you sure smurfed an odd place to smurf for yarn, Nanny," Grandpa Smurf said. "I smurfed high and low for you at the Crossroads Of The World for about 100 years, and I have never smurfed this ding-dong castle being here during that time." His angry expression melted into one that expressed a sad longing. "Truth to tell, Nanny, I thought I had lost you all those years ago, and that I would never smurf your kind loving face ever again."

Nanny put a hand on Grandpa's shoulder to console him. "Well, youngster, your old Nanny Smurfette has smurfed back and is still smurfing. And even though you're an old Smurf now, I can still see the Smurfling Pan that you once were in you...still brave enough to smurf to my rescue."

Grandpa Smurf chuckled, remembering those times. He remembered the first night he set eyes on her, back when she was still known to him as Wendy Smurfling. She and her brothers were sound asleep in her Papa Smurf's house when he as Smurfling Pan flew in through the open window, looking for his shadow because it wouldn't stick to him. He saw that his shadow had entered the bedroom ahead of him, and so he tried to quietly stalk after the shadow and capture it, but the shadow was just too quick and escaped him. He ended up falling onto the floor, crying.

"Little Smurf, why are you crying?" a young female Smurfling asked as she awakened from her sleep, seeing him.

He looked and saw what appeared to him as an angel in the form of a Smurfling. He didn't know how to respond.

"I wasn't crying," he answered. "I was smurfing for my shadow, because it wouldn't smurf to me."

"Here, I will help smurf for you shadow and smurf it back onto you," the young female Smurfling promised.

"Do you believe in a place where Smurflings never grow up?" the boy Smurfling asked. "It is where I come from, and I can take you there to smurf you what it's like."

"That would be a really smurfy place to live," the female Smurfling answered. "May I ask what's your name?"

"My name is Smurfling Pan. And what's yours?"

"Wendy Moira Angela Smurfling."

They soon found the shadow and Wendy captured it. She used her sewing needle to sew it back onto Smurfling Pan. As promised, Smurfling Pan took Wendy on a night flight to a place called Smurfling Island. All she had to do was think happy thoughts and fly with him to the second star on the right and straight on until morning. It was a happy place that made the Smurf Village seem so boring by comparison. It was there Wendy found a ragtag group of boy and girl Smurflings like herself that never grew up. They called themselves the Lost Smurflings, and every day they had on the island seemed like an adventure.

But there also on the island were adult Smurfs that never grew old. They became pirates and hoodlums, and their hearts were cold and lustful, only seeking to satisfy their own desires. Their leader was Captain Smurfhook, so named because he lost a hand to a crocodile that he got into a fight with and that hand was now replaced with a hook. Smurfhook hated Smurfling Pan with a passion and sought to destroy him and the Lost Smurflings. He had kidnapped Wendy in the hope that Pan would fall into his trap, but Pan always managed to get the best of him, even taunting him with the crocodile that took his hand...a crocodile that haunted his every waking hour because he had swallowed a clock and now when it approaches, the crocodile could be heard tick, tick, ticking away.

Wendy visited Pan on the island many times until she became an adult Smurf who was too old to go with him. Then Pan came one night and saw Wendy's daughter for the first time, and from that day on Smurfling Pan was no more. He grew up and became a Papa Smurf himself, wanting to pass on the thrill of adventure to another generation.

"We smurftainly had fun times together as young Smurflings, Nanny...smurfing Captain Smurfhook time and again on board his pirate ship," Grandpa Smurf said, smiling at the memories. "I wouldn't smurf those moments together for anything in the world."

"I'm glad that you still remember!" Nanny said, also smiling. "Even though I still wish you would have been at my wedding night to smurf me from the altar, I'm still happy that you chose to smurf outside of Smurfling Island when you did."

"Now let's find a way that we can smurf out of this smurf-forsaken crazy place!" Grandpa Smurf said. "It's smurftainly no Smurfling Island by any smurf of the imagination."

"Easier smurfed than done, Gramps," Nanny said. "Castle Captor will smurf anything to keep us here for another 500 years! Besides, I don't want to leave this place until I free my friends in here!"

"Smurf here, Nanny...we don't have time to rescue oursmurfs, much less your friends," Grandpa Smurf said. "We've got to smurf out of here before this smurfed castle decides to smurf out of here with us."

With that, Grandpa Smurf had pulled out of his pack a giftbox. "Why, you old codger, you," Nanny said. "You even thought of smurfing me a present while I was gone!"

Grandpa Smurf pulled the present away before Nanny could even touch it. "Smurfadiddle, Nanny...are you out of your ever-smurfing mind?" he asked. "I didn't smurf here to smurf you a present...and smurftainly not this one!"

Nanny responded with a cold look. "My, you smurftainly have changed over the years! I wait 500 years for you to rescue me, and I don't even smurf a present from you."

"I promise you, Nanny, that when I smurf you out of here, you can smurf all the presents you could ever want," Grandpa Smurf said as he went over to the cell door to place the giftbox. This is one of Jokey's surprise gifts, he muttered to himself. I can't wait to smurf the look on Nanny's face when I open this for her.

Grandpa Smurf pulled the ribbon on the giftbox as he raced out of the way. The giftbox exploded, causing the cell door to fall flat to the floor.

Nanny chuckled. "Why, you still have the spirit of Smurfling Pan in you, old-timer! I couldn't smurf of a better present that you could smurf me other than a way of escape." She headed toward the open door. "Now let's get smurfing! I want to find my friends so they could smurf out of this place before it disappears from 500 more years!"

"'Your friends' again," Grandpa Smurf sighed as he picked up his backpack and placed it on his back again. "Well, let's make it snappy if we're going to find them." He quickly joined Nanny as she headed up the stairs. - Papa Smurf, Brainy, Hefty, Wild, and Sassette were now outside the castle gate. They could still see Grandpa Smurf's magic balloon still tethered to the spire on the highest tower. "Gee, Pappy Smurf, I wonder why Grampy smurfed his balloon all the way up there," Sassette said.

"I honestly don't know why at all, Sassette," Papa Smurf answered. "But whatever is in this castle must be important enough for Grandpa to smurf all this way to find...and that is why we're smurfing in after him."

As they walked across the drawbridge to the castle gate, Brainy had a feeling of foreboding crawling up his spine. "Er, Papa Smurf," he said, "maybe it would be better for one of us to smurf out here with Snappy...just in case something happens to you Smurfs."

"No, Brainy, we five are smurfing in together," Papa Smurf said. "Snappy will remain out here and wait for Empath if we should smurf in any trouble."

Brainy gulped as he followed the other four Smurfs. "That's what I thought you were going to smurf," he muttered.

"Oh, come on, Brainy," Hefty encouraged. "Be a real Smurf about it and let's smurf inside! It isn't like castle is going to smurf you up alive!"

Suddenly the drawbridge had raised itself up at such an angle so quickly that it caused the five Smurfs to slide down into the gate. As they approached the gate, Brainy fearfully watched as metal bars began to close down on them like teeth.

"This place is going to smurf me alive," Brainy yelped, "and swallow me whole!"

Soon the five Smurfs slid all the way inside, with the metal bars and the drawbridge closing behind them. "See, what did I smurf you, Hefty?" Brainy complained. "This castle was going to smurf me alive, and it did...but you wouldn't listen to me!"

"Oh, put a smurf in it, Brainy!" Hefty shot back. "You survived it, didn't you?"

Papa Smurf looked back at the gate. "Hmmm...this castle just seemed to smurf us in here like it was expecting us to smurf in here," he pondered as he stroked his beard. "This place may be more dangerous than I smurfed!"

"What kind of castle would smurf this, Pappy Smurf?" Sassette asked.

As if to answer, the castle spoke by using the gate's door as its mouth. "Welcome to Castle Captor, where there's always room for one more! I hope you visitors will have a pleasant stay in here, because you'll be inside me forever!"

Brainy was even more creeped out. "I had a feeling that my smurfing in here with you Smurfs was a bad idea! Now I really should have smurfed outside the castle with Snappy Smurfling!"

Papa Smurf sighed. "Well, let's get smurfing, my little Smurfs. The sooner we find Grandpa Smurf, the sooner we can smurf on smurfing out of this place."