Days Of Future Smurfed/Part 1

It was the year 2005. A lone small blue figure flew around a town in the outskirts of Belgium looking at all the houses that were built in the country since humans have increased in population and the forests have dwindled to make room for humans. He remembered a time when there weren't so many humans living near the forest, when the air, the land, and the water were still relatively clean compared to what has happened up until the present time, when factories and wars such as the two World Wars that the nation had lived through ravaged the land and made the once majestic forest of his ancestors look like a pale imitation of its former beauty.

And yet for some strange reason, the blue figure saw that the humans were knowing who they were, although in a form that he didn't expect them to remember them by. It started off as a cartoon by some obscure artist who was dabbling in the stories of a young teenage knight and a boy who was his companion. He intended for them to be the main stars, not the creatures that they would meet in one of their stories about a magic flute they discovered.

The blue figure felt that his great-grandfather would be at least proud to know that the humans now know of them by the name the creator of the cartoon had given them -- the Schtroumpfs. Yet there was a sadness about the whole thing, that among all the stories that would appear both in books and in a form called animation, his great-grandfather would never be mentioned. It felt as if history has denied him any chance to be known by anyone in this strange era he was now living in.

The blue figure returned to the forest where he had come from. He felt great sorrow for what it had become over the years, and that very few of his kind existed to stop it from becoming what it is now. They cared for the forest as if it were their very own lives, because the forest was their life. There was a village in that forest that was the center of their lives, and now it doesn't exist anymore.

He flew into a hole at the bottom of a tree stump, where he knew that his great-grandfather was waiting for him. He had to take care of him for the past hundred years, seeing that he has gotten weaker and sick from how much the forest has changed. There were no smurfberries left to eat, and sarsaparilla leaves were very hard to find. How could they manage to continue surviving in such a world that was becoming increasingly hostile towards them -- and not just towards them, but towards all creatures, including other humans?

Through the hole he had seen that everything inside was different. There was a village that was thriving with more of his kind -- the people that he called the Smurfs. Everything was as if the young man had stepped back in time to a world that existed when what seemed like fantasy to the modern world was more real than they could ever imagine. All the Smurfs in that village greeted the blue figure, referring to him as Polaris Smurf -- a name that was given to him in memory of his other great-grandfather Polaris Psyche.

Polaris knew that nothing in this village was real. It was all being recreated by his great-grandfather as the last living memory of a world that he was proud to call his home -- the Smurf Village.

He entered a place that his great-grandfather called Tapper's Tavern, which was his favorite place operated by a friend of his that has now become a memory, hopefully to be in a place called heaven with the being called the Almighty. There he saw his great-grandfather sitting at the counter talking to a being that looked like he hadn't aged a day over 150 years old.

"Greetings, my good Polaris," the being behind the counter pleasantly greeted. "I hope you're here because of the smurfday celebration of your great-grandfather."

"This one wouldn't miss it for the world, Tapper," Polaris said.

Polaris' great-grandfather wore a purple robe and a black star-patterned hat that looked rather worn and tattered. His face was covered with a long beard and the back of his head was crowned with white hair growing along the sides underneath his hat.

"This day is very special to me, Polaris," his great-grandfather said. "Not only is it my 1,150th smurfday, but it also happens to be the thousand-year anniversary of my leaving the place called Psychelia."

"This one knows of the place you've been talking about, Great-Grandfather Smurf," Polaris said. "This one only wishes to have seen it for myself like all the other places in this forest that used to exist years ago."

"You will see them, Polaris, I promise you," Great-Grandfather Smurf said. "And please, call me Empath. That's a name that I taught you so that you will remember who I am when I am gone from this earth to join my fellow Smurfs in the hereafter."

Just then, a Smurf wearing a chef's hat, whom Polaris remembered as being Greedy, came into the tavern carrying a birthday cake with lighted candles on it. "Okay, Empath, it's time for you to smurf out the candles and make a wish," Greedy announced.

"What to wish for...what to wish for," Great-Grandfather Smurf muttered, wondering what he could ever hope to wish for in an age where it seemed that there was no hope left. "Hmmmm...there is just one thing I could wish for..."

"Whatever it is, Empath, you don't need to say it, and you shouldn't say it, or else the smurfday wish wouldn't come true," Tapper reminded him.

Great-Grandfather Smurf took in a deep breath and then blew out all the candles of the cake that was set before him. The other Smurfs in the tavern cheered together.

And then suddenly everything but Great-Grandfather Smurf and Polaris Smurf vanished from sight, replaced by the bare surroundings of being inside a tree stump, which has become their home.

"Great-Grandfather, you should know not to exert your energies to create these fantasy worlds of yours," Polaris said. "The more you create these worlds of yours to live in, the weaker they make you become. In fact, I had to gather as much food as I could from the forest to keep you alive and healthy from all the times you keep creating these worlds."

"That's quite all right, Polaris," Great-Grandfather Smurf said. "Today was a very special day for me to create this world. It is the day that I now relieve you of the burden of taking care of me for the years that I have taken care of you in a world that I wish you never had to live in."

"You're speaking of joining your fellow Smurfs in the hereafter, Great-Grandfather," Polaris said. "This one doesn't wish it would take such a thing as your death to ever be reunited with the fellow Smurfs that you loved."

"Our time in the world as living beings is finished, Polaris," Great-Grandfather Smurf said. "People are not interested in the things of yesterday being in their world today. They must live for the times that are ahead of them. Your role, however, is to help preserve our history so that the others will know who we are and how important we once were in anybody's lives."

"But haven't we already achieved that, Great-Grandfather?" Polaris said. "That boy we found in the forest years ago...by the name of Pierrot...we were the ones who gave him that amulet that contained all the memory of our history. He's made a good deal of that history be known to the rest of the world, even if parts of it were fabricated for the entertainment of humans."

"And that he has done a good job of, Polaris, even if there are things that he has and will never mention of us," Great-Grandfather Smurf said.

"This one knows that you are never mentioned by any of the humans," Polaris said. "In fact, some think that you go by the name of Alchemist or Magician Smurf or something."

Great-Grandfather Smurf laughed. "I can't blame them for thinking that way, Polaris. Still, whether I am mentioned or not doesn't matter to me, as long as I am confident that we will always be remembered in some way or another."

"That still leaves the mystery of how this one will be important in preserving the history of our people, Great-Grandfather," Polaris said. "If our task of handing over the amulet of memories has been accomplished, then what more does this one need to do?"

"It's time for you to know of a day that I haven't told you about, which happened when I was still a young adult Smurf barely having time enough to enjoy the freedom of living outside of Psychelia," Great-Grandfather said.