The Prisoner Of Stone/Part 6

Along the way to Chlorhydris' observatory, Vanity and Tapper told Manfred that it had been twenty years from the time that he was supposed to marry his beloved, and that his daughter was now a young woman named Priscilla, whose youth had been taken away from her and which was eventually restored with the help of Grouchy and Jokey.

"Twenty years?" Manfred said, sounding as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Oh my, I can't believe that I was that late for the wedding, and that my daughter is all grown up. But that shouldn't matter anymore, if my beloved was still thinking of me in all this time. Oh, to think that in a few short moments, I shall be reunited with my sweet buttercup, my angel in dark blue, the woman of my dreams."

"I can't believe that he is even talking about Chlorhydris like this," Sassette said to Vanity and Tapper.

"I guess there is just no accounting for taste when it smurfs to some people," Vanity said.

"The poor man has already smurfed through enough, knowing that he's been apart from Chlorhydris for so long, my friends," Tapper said. "We don't need to smurf him things that he doesn't need to know about."

"But I thought you were the Smurf who believes in total honesty with your faith, Tapper," Sassette said.

"There's a line that you must be careful not to cross when it smurfs to being honest with people, my little Sassette, and that line is when you smurf from being honest to just being excessive with your honesty," Tapper said. "The Almighty will let you know what you will need to say when it smurfs to telling the truth."

Meanwhile, Chlorhydris was watching the path leading to her observatory from a window, patiently waiting for the Smurfs to return with Manfred. She had applied lipstick, mascara, and eye shadow to her face in anticipation for the moment when he would arrive when she saw the man coming up the path toward her main gate. "Here he comes!" she exclaimed, feeling her heart rush with anxiety. She went over to the mirror to look at herself one last time. "Oh dear, oh dear, I wonder if he will still love me after all this time."

"That's entirely up to him when he sees you, my dear," Cupid said. "If he truly loves you, then you'll know for sure."

"I wouldn't smurf your hopes up if I were you, Chlorhydris," Papa Smurf said. "After all, it's been twenty years since the two of you last smurfed each other."

"Well, he'd better still love me for your sake," Chlorhydris said to Papa Smurf. "If my heart gets broken again, I will have no one else to blame but you, Cupid, and the rest of the Smurfs."

Then the door opened, and Manfred stepped inside with his arms wide open. "Yoohoo, Chlorhydris," he called out.

"I'm coming, my dear," Chlorhydris said, as she headed for the door, carefully stepping forward to reveal herself slowly so she wouldn't scare him off. Then she saw the man and exclaimed, "Manfred!"

Manfred took a look at Chlorhydris and was surprised to see that she had gotten older since they had last seen each other. Tapper, Vanity, and Sassette didn't like the feeling that this was going to turn out to be anything but a happy reunion for the couple.

But then Manfred raised up his arms and cried out, "Love muffin!"

"Poopsie-woopsie!" Chlorhydris replied, and the two of them ran toward each other and embraced, giving each other a very long affectionate kiss.

"Eeewwwww, I can't even look," Vanity said as he averted his eyes, not wanting to see the two sorcerers kiss.

"Thank the Almighty that this moment has finally smurfed to pass for the two sorcerers," Tapper said, smiling as he watched.

"Oh, Chlorhydris, you look more radiant than ever," Manfred said as soon as the kiss ended. "I can't believe that the years have made you age so well."

Cupid let out a sigh of relief when he heard this. "Thank the heavens for true love finally coming through," he said with a smile. - With Cupid and Papa Smurf released from the cage, Chlorhydris and Manfred showed the cherub and the five Smurfs to the main gate. "And to show my gratitude and my sincerest apologies, I shall give you back your arrows," the witch said as she handed Cupid his quiver.

"Oh, thank you," Cupid said gratefully.

"We can only hope and pray that the two of you will smurf happily ever after, Chlorhydris," Tapper said. "For all that you suffered through the years, I think that you deserve some happiness in your life."

"Only time will tell, Tapper, only time will tell," Papa Smurf said. "For now, it's time for us to return to the village."

"Or what's left of it," Sassette added.

"Farewell, my little blue friends," Chlorhydris said, as she and Manfred watched Cupid and the Smurfs head back into the forest.

"And remember that you're all invited to the wedding," Manfred said, turning to look into the eyes of his beloved.

"Oh, why should we wait any longer, my dear?" Chlorhydris said as they headed back inside the observatory. "We should start planning for the wedding at once."

"Anything for you, my sweet, but first I need to sit and rest," Manfred said. "After all, I've been standing on my feet for twenty years." He went to the chair that Chlorhydris had dropped the black-heart arrows on and relaxed, not knowing what he had sat upon until he suddenly felt the effects of the arrows piercing his heart.

Chlorhydris went into her old chest and pulled out the wedding dress that was stored in it. "I wonder if I could still fit into this old thing?" she asked herself as she lifted up the dress to take a good look at it.

"You've got to be kidding, you fat cow!" Manfred snarled. Chlorhydris looked at Manfred and saw that his eyes were now blood red and full of hate. "I wouldn't marry you if you were the last woman on the face of the earth," he added as he headed for the door.

Chlorhydris saw that Manfred had sat upon the black-heart arrows she had dropped on the chair. "Oh no, my arrows!" she cried out. "Manfred, come back!"

To be expanded on.