The Wedding Present

"The Wedding Present" is a mini-story that is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series. It serves as the epilogue to the story "Empath's Honeymoon".

NOTE: This mini-story was written before "Empath's Honeymoon" was even started, so elements of it may not jibe with the events of that story.

The Story
It was about a week after the wedding of Empath and Smurfette that they had returned from their honeymoon at a distant island paradise. During the time of their absence, the Smurfs in the village were busy preparing something special for the newlyweds for when they return, working rather diligently around the clock to make sure it was ready for the couple.

Then came the day when Tracker spotted the stork carrying the wicker gondola with Empath and Smurfette in it heading toward the village. “Smurfs, get ready!” he announced. “It’s Empath and Smurfette! They’re smurfing home!”

All the Smurfs gathered around the center of the village where the stork landed, lowering the gondola and allowing Empath and Smurfette to step off and grab their bags. They were rather dressed down from how they appeared when they had left for their honeymoon – Empath was just wearing his star-patterned hat and pants with no shirt on, and Smurfette was in a purple tube dress with her regular white heels, yet still wearing Empath’s hat. But there was something rather different about Empath that went beyond his being this dressed down, and it wasn’t just Empath’s best friend Polaris Psyche who was sensing this difference about him. He wore a rather big smile on his face, and his eyes were a bit glazed with his eyelids at half-mast. It was almost as if Empath was drunk on something, though Polaris sensed that his friend hadn’t taken any substance that would make him look that way. “Welcome home, Empath and Smurfette,” Papa Smurf greeted as he embraced the two of them together. “I trust that you had a real smurfy time enjoying yoursmurfs and smurfing to know each other better on your honeymoon.”

“The island paradise was just so incredible, Papa Smurf,” Empath answered. “Marco Smurf couldn’t have smurfed a better place for us to smurf a week together with just the two of us. The weather was just so wonderful, the beaches are excellent, the food is just so plentiful and delicious…we even smurfed on a hike together up the mountain that oversmurfed the sea.”

Papa Smurf looked at Empath rather strangely, not believing what he was hearing. “Is this my son speaking in Smurf all of a sudden, or did somebody smurf places with him on that island?” he asked Smurfette.

“Honestly, I don’t know how that happened, Papa Smurf,” Smurfette replied. “It just smurfed about three days into our honeymoon, and now I just can’t smurf him to stop. He smurfs that there’s nothing wrong with him that made him smurf like he’s been speaking in Smurf all his life.”

“Maybe it’s smurfing alone with you on that island that’s smurfed that, Smurfette,” Snappy suggested, sounding a bit sly.

“Or maybe that’s just something that’s smurfed to happen, smurfing among us for about ten smurfs straight,” Nat offered, ignoring Snappy’s comment.

“Empath has been known to speak in Smurf language on occasion when he reaches a certain emotional peak, such as being very angry or very scared or even sometimes very happy,” Polaris reported. “However, this one has now detected a new kind of link in his brain that wasn’t present the last time this one has scanned him. This link must have enabled him to access this normal natural ability of a Smurf to speak in Smurf language rather flawlessly. Other than that and his brain being overstimulated by the amount of activity he must have engaged in with Smurfette on this ‘honeymoon’, Empath is functioning normally.”

“This smurf has never smurfed any better, Papa Smurf,” Empath tried to reason. “This smurf is still the same Smurf you know from our years smurfing together off and on, just with this ability to finally speak in Smurf without smurfing like I’m going to smurf something wrong in the process. This smurf could go back in smurfing in Psychelian if that’s what you’re used to, but somehow I don’t feel like I want to smurf back to smurfing that way.”

“I have no complaints about that, Empath,” Papa Smurf responded, chuckling. “I’m just surprised that it smurfed you 160 years of your life to finally start speaking in Smurf, and now in the smurf of a week it just happens right out of the blue. I guess smurfing in love with Smurfette has really smurfed you for the better.”

“Now if I can just smurf him to stop smurfing at me all the time,” Smurfette playfully added. “I mean, no matter where we smurfed on the island or what we smurfed, I just couldn’t smurf him to smurf his eyes off me for a single minute. I couldn’t get changed behind a rock without smurfing like he’s smurfing at me with smurf-through eyes. And personally, I can smurf that he enjoys every single minute of smurfing at me like that!” She looked at Empath, whose facial expression seemed to confirm what she was saying about him, and placed her right hand on the back of Empath’s head, patting him like a dog. Empath’s expression didn’t change.

Now it was Tapper’s turn to look at Empath rather strangely. “Great Smurfiny Crickets, my dear Empath, I never thought that a gentlesmurf like you would be such a voyeur that enjoys smurfing at Smurfette. But then, the Good Book does smurf to married men to let their wife’s smurfs satisfy them at all times, and to let themsmurfs be captured by her love.” He then turned to Smurfette. “I wouldn’t worry too much about him smurfing at you like that, as long as his eyes are only on you and no other female that smurfs across his path – which is a fortunate thing in this village, given that there are only two female Smurfs smurfing here.”

“That feeling Smurfette may be experiencing is that of a telepathic bonding between Empath and herself,” Polaris mentioned. “This could have been caused by their initial intimate activity that has bonded them together as husband and wife. She may be experiencing the same kind of thoughts that Empath has in a way she has never experienced them before this bond took place.”

“Something like what the Good Book smurfed about Adam ‘knowing’ his wife, perhaps,” Tapper guessed.

“It doesn’t mean that Smurfette is turning into a telepath, fellow Tapper,” Polaris responded. “It does mean that only she can personally know what Empath must be thinking at all times, given what this one can sense in Smurfette.”

“You two must be all smurfered out from all that you smurfed on your honeymoon,” Papa Smurf observed after looking at the newlywed couple again. “While you both were smurfing your fun together, I had all my little Smurfs smurfing together a surprise gift waiting for you for when you returned to the village.” He then turned to Handy, who was standing nearby. “Is this surprise gift ready for them?”

“It’s all smurfed, Papa Smurf,” Handy answered. “We just got it finished, cleaned up, and ready for Empath and Smurfette to smurf into.”

“What’s the surprise you smurfed for us, Papa Smurf?” Smurfette asked, curious to know.

“Well, smurf up your bags and we will show you, Smurfette, Empath,” Papa Smurf answered. Empath followed behind Smurfette, carrying their bags with them, as they followed Papa Smurf and the other Smurfs to the eastern section of the village, where Smurfette’s house was located.

To be expanded on.