The Discovery Of Smurfette Island/Part 5

On board the S.S. Smurf II, Dreamy had Duncan and the crew inspect the ship for any damage after they had safely come out of the storm.

"So far everything's still shipshape, laddie," Duncan reported at the end of their inspection. "I say the old lassie's smurfed up much better than we thought that it would under such a tempest."

"It's too bad Empath isn't here," Dreamy sighed. "I'm not sure that we would even make it to the island in one piece without him."

"I know how you feel, laddie, I know," Duncan said, trying to comfort him. "But we have smurfed through the seas in the past without him before and have managed to smurf back home safely, just with all of us smurfing together as one family, one crew. The thing I'm worried about is how to break it to his wife Smurfette."

"But wouldn't she know already if Empath is gone, the way they are able to be smurfed together with one mind and one thought?" Dreamy asked.

"I don't pretend to understand how that smurfs, but those two have been insmurferable ever since they became husband and wife," Duncan said. "I would expect Smurfette to feel pretty miserable if she were married to me instead and she found out from another Smurf that I never was able to smurf home to her."

Duncan sighed, realizing the helplessness of the situation. "Well, we still have a mission to undersmurf, so we might as well continue on in the name of our departed friend, that what we have smurfed will not be in vain," he said.

Dreamy nodded, understanding. "I appreciate you smurfing on board with me on this journey, Duncan. You help make me and this crew stay strong in our determination to complete the mission when things smurf to be hopeless."

Duncan smiled. "We'll smurf through this, all the way to the end. Just trust me." - Back in the Smurf Village, Polaris Psyche was alone near the outskirts in private meditation, trying to reach out with his mind to find where Empath could be, when Smurfette interrupted him by calling out his name.

"Salutations, Smurfette," Polaris greeted as he opened his eyes to see her calling his name. "What may this one do for you at this particular moment?"

"I know it's too much to ask of you, Polaris, but I was wondering if you could sense where Empath might be at this moment," Smurfette said.

"This one was already trying to search out for Empath while you were busy with your own matters, Smurfette," Polaris responded. "So far, though, this one's search through the use of meditation has been without any results."

"Do you think that he's probably dead...that he may have 'joined with the Ancestors' or have gone to the smurfy hereafter?" Smurfette asked.

"This one honestly does not know what the current status of Empath might be as far as his still being alive or not, Smurfette," Polaris answered. "All this one knows is simply that this one cannot yet make mental contact with Empath, which leaves this one to wonder what has happened that would prevent such contact from happening."

"That's just great...I can't sense anything of Empath and neither can you," Smurfette said, sounding like she was going to cry. "I have a feeling that I may never see Empath alive again."

"This one can understand that the loss of being able to sense Empath at this moment may be distressing, Smurfette," Polaris said, trying to sound comforting. "As one who has had a lifelong mental bond with Empath ever since our day of bondship, the feeling of separation between our minds has been one that this one had to live with ever since Empath left Psychelia for good. The intimacy we shared with our thoughts together has made this one feel so close to Empath that the idea of having to live one day without him being around to be an unbearable feeling. I can only imagine that you feel the same way right now."

"Yes, I do, Polaris, and that's what scares me," Smurfette said.

Polaris gently put his hand on Smurfette's shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. "We will not give up on Empath until it is time for us to do so and move on with our lives, Smurfette," he resolutely said. "There is likely the possibility that we will find Empath still alive and in perfect health."

Smurfette sighed with some relief. "Thank you, Polaris. I think I needed to hear that from you." - As Empath continued to walk with Sympathy, seeing all that there was to see in the Smurfette Village, he found himself amazed by how everyone in the village worked together to make it a place worth living in for all its residents.

"The more I smurf at this place, the more it makes me not want to return home because it feels just like I'm already at home here in this village," Empath said.

"I know, Empath, and saddens me that my fellow Smurfettes may not want to leave this place at all, if we could smurf off this island and return to your village, Empath," Sympathy said.

"But why is it that you can't leave this place, Sympathy?" Empath asked.

"Because of that evil witch Seraphine, who has smurfed upon this island some time ago to become a very powerful sorceress," Sympathy said. "She realized that there is magical power contained within the essence of a Smurf, and in order to get that power, she needs to harvest as many of us as she could smurf her hands on. She hasn't been able to succeed in that, as we have made sure in our many encounters with her, but she refuses to give up and smurf the light."

"But somehow a bird is able to leave this island and deliver a message...a message that had to smurf only from you, which I'm surprised you wouldn't let any Smurf here know about," Empath said.

"Seraphine controls the birds of the island like they were her pets...all except for our stork Icarus, who has been our faithful companion, Empath," Sympathy said. "Mother Smurfette protected Icarus since he smurfed from an egg and smurfed a spell to protect him from Seraphine's magical influence. This containment spell only affects us Smurfs, since she intends to smurf us here until she gets what she wants."

"So you need a Smurf that will help you break that spell so you could leave the island," Empath surmised. "And you were hoping that it would be this smurf that would come to your rescue."

"I know it's too much to ask for, but I always smurfed this feeling that there was a Smurf like me somewhere in this world that has faced many dangers and has conquered them with the same type of power that I have, Empath," Sympathy said. "Granted, I'm a very skilled telepath, and I can smurf things with my mind just as much as I can smurf them with my hands, but you...from the moment I touched you, I could sense that you know a whole lot more about how to smurf your powers that you could teach me."

"This smurf had very good teachers in Psychelia, Sympathy, which is why this smurf is able to do things that most Smurfs would even dream of smurfing," Empath said. "But even so, this smurf had to learn how to rely upon the strengths of this smurf's fellow Smurfs so that this smurf would know to be humble and not assume that this smurf alone can fix everybody's problems."

"I have a feeling that I'm going to smurf so much from you that we're going to never let each other go, Empath," Sympathy said.

Empath smiled even as he sensed that Sympathy was looking at him with longing eyes. "Let's smurf what happens first before we smurf anything the both of us might regret, Sympathy."

To be expanded on.