The New Shop In The Village/Part 4

Empath had a pleasant sleep that night, but in the morning was woken up by his friend Polaris Psyche paying an urgent visit.

"Polaris, what an unexpected surprise," Empath said as he greeted him by the door of his house. "What brings you to our village on this morning?"

"It's an urgent matter that this one has sensed, that this one's lifemate Sympathy has alerted this one of," Polaris said, his tone having a hint of grimness to it.

Empath realized that that the situation was serious. He let Polaris take him to the village infirmary, where Doctor Smurf was watching over a group of patients that seemed to be very sick, almost like they were near death.

"This smurf senses that there is a serious illness that has befallen these Smurfs, Polaris," Empath said.

"You are correct in that assessment, Empath," Polaris said. "It has occured to these Smurfs overnight, which this one has sensed came from something they have ingested on the previous night."

"The moonberries," Empath realized. "Chatty and Nosey were handing these out to the Smurfs at his Wake N Bake Shop last night, and they were behaving rather strangely, trying to eat the roof off the shop."

"This one has detected that particular substance in their systems, but fortunately that is not the cause of their current health problem," Polaris said.

"Is there any way that we can heal these Smurfs of whatever it is they've came down with, Polaris?" Empath asked.

"The matter is beyond what our own minds-eyes are able to heal, Empath," Polaris said. "This one has tried, but it is too powerful. It seems to be magical in nature, which is why this one is unsuccessful in restoring them to full health."

Empath nodded with understanding. "See what you can do to help those patients, Polaris. This smurf is going to see if we can find any answers behind the existence of the moonberries."

"May the Ancestors guide you with wisdom in that particular endeavor, Empath," Polaris said. - Fiona was shocked when she heard from her friends what had just happened.

"Great Smurfiny Crickets, we have allowed our fellow Smurfs to eat those moonberries and they became sick?" Fiona said.

"That's just what happened, Fiona," Meaghan said. "I thought that serving those moonberries in place of smurfnip was a bad idea, but did Chatty and Nosey even listen to me? Nope, they just went ahead and smurfed it."

"That's really sad," Psycheliana said. "I hope we can find a way that we can counter this sickness before it gets much worse."

"That's why Chatty and Nosey had to close down the Wake N Bake," Miracle said. "Those Smurfs were acting so weird smurfing those moonberries that they started eating the roof of the shop."

"I knew that that place was very unsmurfy from the time it had opened up until now, my fellow Smurfs," Fiona said.

"Oh, please, sister, don't smurf me about the ungodliness of smurfing a place to have smurfnip," Meaghan said.

"I'm not going to back down from my position on it, not now and certainly not ever, Meaghan," Fiona said. "No Smurf should ever have any business polluting their bodies with that evil plant."

"Please, let's just focus on what we can smurf for our friends who are lying sick in the infirmary," Psycheliana said. "We've got to know where those moonberries even smurfed from."

"My father thinks they are probably magic in nature," Sophia said. "Grandpa Smurf is currently studying them in his lab right now, so we should know soon what their origin actually is."

"And then what are we going to do?" Goofy asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea what we are going to do, Goofy," Sophia said. "But I'm sure that Uncle Empath already has a plan smurfed in store."

To be expanded on.