Empath The Bandit Smurf/Part 7

Lord Caravellan and his entourage were waiting in the dining hall in anticipation as the Smurfs came back for another performance, this time wearing different costumes. However, they noticed something else that was different. "Where's the female elf who's part of this troupe?" one of the court members asked.

"I don't know," said another court member. "Maybe she's playing the same part as her fellows."

"Oh, this fake beard itches, Empath," Smurfette muttered as they leaped onto the table.

"Try not to think about it, Smurfette," Empath said. "You'll do fine if you focus on your acting."

Brainy stepped before Lord Caravellan to do the introductions. "Noble lord, we will smurf on a small theater production that will be smurfed by my companions here, and will be narrated by yours truly, I, Brainy Smurf, in person." The court members all clapped, eager to see to show start, but then Brainy just continued on. "Which is also normal, given that I, Brainy Smurf, have a talent for smurfing dramatic narratives, since I smurf a diction that's more clear and comprehensible than any of my fellow Smurfs, and that I have a talent for smurfing classic works of tragedy and comedy, and that I was the only one who..."

"LET'S SMURF ON WITH THE SHOW, BRAINY!" the other Smurfs said in unison.

"Oh...very well," Brainy said, clearing his throat before he began. "'Smurf the sad story of two people who have been smurfed away from their families...'"

"Hmm...a sad story," Caravellan said to himself as he sat and watched. "I would rather see them do their juggling acts."

"'Once upon a time, there was a little Smurf who had been smurfnapped by two smurfs who had smurfed him in a cage...'"

Empath appeared, holding up two sticks as if they were prison bars, looking really sad. "What are they going to smurf with me?" he moaned.

"'At first they smurfed him on display with the company of a mouse who has smurfed his misfortune...'"

Then Empath appeared, rolling the mouse around with his feet as he laid on his back.

"'Soon, however, a malicious fellow with mysterious plans appeared...'"

At that point, Grouchy appeared in the costume and form of Vincent Devereaux. "I hate malicious fellows with mysterious plans," he muttered.

Devereaux noticed this while watching from behind the curtains. He had a feeling that something funny was going on with this play. In the meantime, back in the guest room, Papa Smurf continued to talk to Simon, persuading him to do the right thing.

"'...the poor Smurf was forced to smurf at night inside the homes of honest smurfs, smurfing their jewelry...which has smurfed confusion among the population...'"

Empath appeared this time in the form of the Bandit Smurf, giving the impression of a stealthy thief. This was followed by Hefty and Smurfette's characters all reacting as if they have been robbed.

"Tell me, Seneschal," Caravellan whispered, "do you think these little blue men are trying to tell us something?"

"Indeed, Sir," the seneschal replied. "There has been a lot of noise made of unexplained thefts..."

"Excuse me, gentlesmurfs," Brainy said, interrupting Caravellan's private conversation. "If I am bothering you, you need to smurf me. If you're going to smurf while I'm narrating, then I'm going to tell this to Papa Smurf, because Papa Smurf says that you should never smurf while somebody else is smurfing, even when he's smurfing a narrative. Are we clear on that?"

Caravellan just sat with his face cradled in his hands, trying to keep himself from lashing out.

"Good, then I shall resmurf," Brainy said, clearing his throat again before continuing. "'Now then, after smurfing the population, the robbers decided to smurf the treasure of the Lord...'"

Devereaux noticed what was said in the narrative. Cursed dwarves, he thought, they're going to expose me! I must do something.

"'The latter, a generous Duke, who loves his smurf dearly, languished in despair...'"

Smurfette appeared in the costume and form of Lord Caravellan, giving her best impression of his depressed mood, which the seneschal noticed. "That dwarf is doing a great impression of you, Sir Duke," he said, which made the face of Caravellan start to turn red with fury.

"'The sadness was great because his young son was gone, and no one knew what happened to him...sniff...'"

"Oh, smurf is me!" Smurfette cried out, doing her best impression of a male voice. "Oh, great despair!"

"'What he did not know was that the son he was crying for was smurfed by a smurf who claimed to be his best friend...'"

At that point Hefty appeared, and Lord Caravellan noticed that Ganelon was spitting out the wine he had just drank, because he now noticed that Hefty appeared in the costume and form of his friend.

"ENOUGH!" Caravellen roared, pounding his fist on the table. "THIS DOES NOT AMUSE ME AT ALL! You, Devereaux, what is this really all about? And you, Ganelon, why does this elf look like you? I want some explanations!"

Ganelon looked rather nervous. "Sir, you...you offend our friendship! All this is just pure invention!"

"Uh, absolutely, Sir," Devereaux added, also getting nervous. "These elves have a vivid imagination, that's all. It's just simply theater."

"LIES! ALL LIES!" another voice broke in. Everyone turned to see that it was Papa Smurf, who was being carried into the dining hall by Simon. Stanley looked from behind the curtains at his partner, looking rather fearful. "What my little Smurfs are trying to tell you through this theater production is the truth, Sir. This vile character called Devereaux was only here for the sole purpose of stealing your treasure, while he was busy extorting money from his two former tenants by having them commit robberies. As for your so-called friend Ganelon, his ambition was to trick you into paying him an exorbitant ransom in exchange for the release of your son, Geoffrey. The boy is held prisoner in the basement of the usurer, his accomplice."

"Don't believe him, Sir!" Ganelon said defensively. "It's all just slander!"

"It's easy to prove these statements are true, Sir," Papa Smurf said. "You need to only go down to the village and check with the usurer."

"Then that's what we will do," Caravellan said. "Ganelon, would you be kind enough to show us the way?"

"With pleasure...sir...," Ganelon muttered, making it look as if he was complying to his master's desire. Then suddenly, he pushed a guard right into a wall by his face as he started to make a run for it.

"TRAITOR!" Caravellen growled. "You revealed your duplicity! STOP HIM!"

But Ganelon pushed past more guards as they tried to block his escape from the dining hall.

"Follow me!" Caravellan ordered his guards. "He must not leave the castle!"

Devereaux watched as the guards all followed Caravellan in pursuit of Ganelon. He was surprised that his former friend had forgotten all about him...but then he suddenly had an idea.

Meanwhile, the Smurfs were cheering, glad to see that Ganelon is getting his just desserts, and also glad that Empath is back among them as his normal self. "Oh, Empath, it's good to see you smurfing like yourself again," Smurfette said, kissing him through his fake beard.

Empath smiled. "You did a very good impression of Lord Caravellan, Smurfette. However, this smurf isn't sure about wanting to be kissed by a furry face."

"You don't have to worry about that from me, Empath, though I'm very happy to smurf you again," Papa Smurf said, giving Empath a hug.

"This smurf apologizes for all the trouble this smurf has brought you and everyone else, Papa Smurf," Empath said.

"It wasn't your fault anyway, Empath," Papa Smurf said. "The important thing is that we found you and you're back to being Empath again, and now that we've got this whole matter smurfed away, we can all smurf back home like happy Smurfs."

"I don't think so," Devereaux said, snatching Papa Smurf from the table.

"You're still here?" Papa Smurf said to Devereaux. "You just don't know when to smurf up!"

"Not when I'm this close to getting my hands on the treasure, elf," Devereaux said. "You're going to lead me to the treasure room, and fast." He then turned to Stanley and Simon. "As for you two, I'm going to make you so indebted to me that you're going to wish you were dead just to escape paying. And don't try to follow us, thinking that I owe you anything, because at this moment my association with you has ended."

Stanley looked really steamed as he watched Devereaux take off with Papa Smurf. - Throughout the castle there were two crazy chases: Ganelon trying to find a way of escape while avoiding the guards, and Devereaux trying to follow the Smurfs as they claimed they knew the way to the treasure room.

"Are you sure it's around here?" Devereaux said as the Smurfs turned a corner. He stopped as he took a look around. "Now which way do we go?"

"Uh...over here, Master Devereaux," Empath said, as the Smurfs raced off ahead of him.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Devereaux said, as he tried to keep up with them.

"Why are we smurfing all over the castle, Empath?" Brainy asked.

"To keep him from figuring out that we don't know where the treasure room is, Brainy," Empath replied.

"Great strategy, Empath," Hefty said. "Let's make him think he's smurfing somewhere."

And so the Smurfs raced through winding staircases and a maze of hallways, always telling Devereaux that they're getting closer. "This treasure had better be worth the effort," he said to himself.

Then soon, as they were turning around a corner again, they heard a voice coming from the other side of the corner. "Yes! The escape route is..."

Suddenly Devereaux and Ganelon collided with each other, causing them to collapse in a daze.

Then Caravellan showed up with his guards. "Aha! We got two birds with one stone! Take them away and lock them in the dungeon!" - Empath's personal journal.

''With Devereaux and Ganelon captured and placed in Lord Caravellan's dungeon, Geoffrey was reunited with his father and a celebration commenced with great festivities held in the castle's dining hall. Stanley and Simon were cleared of any charges against them concerning the robbies and were made members of Caravellan's household, with Simon adopted as the duke's protege. As the protege, Simon was granted the privilege of having his own personal servant, and so, either as revenge or as maintaining a friendship, he made his former business partner Stanley his personal servant -- a decision that apparently hasn't made Stanley happy.''

''Upon this smurf's return to the Smurf Village, this smurf burned the mask and costume of the Bandit Smurf so that this smurf would never be reminded of what happened during the time of this smurf's amnesia. However, this smurf is made aware of all that has happened while this smurf was in that state, which has made this smurf feel rather uneasy about ever having that alternate personality in the first place. Polaris Psyche is currently helping this smurf cope with this unfortunate circumstance.'' - Empath sat alone with Polaris Psyche in the dining commons talking privately about Empath's feelings.

"This smurf feels like everything this smurf did as the Bandit Smurf was all my fault, as if this smurf had no control over that personality, Polaris," Empath said.

"This one can sense the blame you place on yourself for something you had no control over, Empath," Polaris said. "It is understandable that you would feel that way. However, this one can sense that, even in your alternate personality, there were elements of your original personality such as the empathy this one senses you displayed with the young human boy when you discovered him in the cellar."

"That part really did feel like this smurf, Polaris, given how similar our life situations were," Empath said. "This one does feel relieved that we brought justice to the boy's captor, not to mention liberating those two entertainers who were being manipulated and used by Devereaux for his evil ends."

"One can only hope that their latter end will now be better than their former state, Empath," Polaris said, sounding like he was in agreement with Empath.

Just then, Century came into the dining commons to talk to Empath alone. "We will talk more about this later, Empath," Polaris said as he got up from the table and left.

"Empath, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for smurfing you in the back of the head," Century said. "If only I knew what leaving you to be smurfed by those humans would cause."

"Century, there's nothing you need to apologize for, and if there is, this smurf forgives you," Empath said. "What you did was still the right thing in that you informed Papa Smurf what had happened so that he would come and rescue this smurf. Don't let anybody say that you have no courage just because you have fear."

"I just wanted to smurf how better a fighter I've become, Empath," Century said. "I guess I smurfed about it more than I realized that I ever wanted."

"What you showed this smurf that day was that even this smurf could be caught off-guard, Century," Empath said. "It's a rather humbling experience, and one this smurf appreciates you for showing."

"Anyway, you want to smurf some practice with me around the village?" Century asked. "I promise that I will smurf easy on you."

Empath chuckled. "This smurf will offer you a worthy challenge."

THE END