Wild Smurf (Empath stories)

Wild Smurf is a character that appears in the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series. While his personality is similar to that of his cartoon show counterpart, his personal history varies in that he was reported to be Tracker's brother, whom his father had accidentally lost while flying over the forest with him when a thunderstorm had erupted. A stray lightning bolt that the crane had dodged caused Tracker's father to lose his grip on his infant son as he fell into the forest below. The adult Smurfs of that time went out into the forest to search for the lost baby Smurf, but were unable to find him, and Tracker grew up never knowing about the brother he had lost.

Unknown to the Smurfs, the baby Smurf that would someday be known as Wild was picked up and raised by a mother squirrel, who cared for the child until she was too old to do so, causing the slowly-aging infant to go from one adoptive squirrel mother to another along the way.

Empath first met Wild during his first visit to the Smurf Village from Psychelia. When Empath fell into a hole in the forest during winter and was injured, Wild brought him to his home and cared for the blue being similar to himself. Although Empath was frightened at first by Wild's appearance (since at that time Empath still had the Psychelian mindset of nudity being a taboo), he eventually became friends and tried to teach the wayward Smurf what he knew about being a Smurf, even to the point where Wild made his own Smurf hat out of leaves. When Papa Smurf and the other Smurfs were looking for Empath, Wild Smurf was fearful of the other Smurfs and refused to appear with Empath when they encountered him again. By the same token, Empath refused to let any Smurf know about the Smurf he met out in the forest.

A few years after Empath had left Psychelia for good, Reporter was getting random eyewitness reports from various Smurfs about a mysterious "wild Smurf" they have seen in the forest. Some of them were eager to capture him and bring evidence that this "wild Smurf" actually existed. As fortune would have it, Wild was found in a trap set up by Malgamer the Smurf hunter and brought to the Smurf Village, where he recognized Empath after years of never seeing him again. He also had met his actual brother Tracker for the first time.

As with his cartoon show counterpart, the Smurfs tried to domesticate Wild Smurf so that he would be more like his fellow Smurfs in the village, despite Empath defending Wild's right to just be himself. However, Empath used his minds-eye abilities to enable Wild to eventually speak in Smurf language for the first time in years, since the only way Wild could communicate to anybody was through squirrel noises and hand signals. Over time, Smurfette found herself attracted to Wild Smurf, which started to make Empath feel somewhat uncomfortable and a bit jealous. However, even with knowing that he now has a family of Smurfs in the village who care about him, Wild chose to return to the forest and live with the squirrels, which no Smurf objected to, though Papa Smurf had let Wild know that he can always return to the village should he ever need to for anything.