The New Shop In The Village/Part 5

Empath woke up to find that he is in a stone-lined chamber with a chain around his ankle. He tried to break free of the chain, but he was unable to because of his strength being weak. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You're in my chambers," a female voice spoke. He looked and saw that Beguiler was sitting in a window with two hideous birdlike creatures perched next to her. "And I'm sure you're familiar with the object that's sitting next to you."

Empath looked at it. "The Orb of Euphoria," he said, recognizing it from the last time he saw it. "You're going to have this smurf touch it so you would bring this smurf under your control."

"That's right," Beguiler said. "You can feel your own strength getting weaker because of it, and soon you'll be wanting to touch it so that you can feel strong again. But when you do, you won't need to feel anything but the desire to keep touching it so that you can be my slave."

"You'll never get this smurf to touch that orb, you witch," Empath said. "This smurf would rather die than let you ever have control of this smurf for anything."

"Such a strong will you must have," Beguiler said mockingly. "In time that strong will will be broken, and I will have you right where I want you. I'll leave you alone to contemplate whether you will give in to me, because I do desire to keep you for a very long time."

And Beguiler left the window laughing, leaving Empath alone in his imprisonment, struggling as hard as he could to break free before temptation would set in. - Soon Psycheliana and Miracle showed up at a place that Psycheliana only recognized from her father's memories. "This is Allura's hideout," she said.

"You mean that old witch who tried to capture Uncle Poet and his friends with that Orb of Euphoria?" Miracle asked.

"That very same one, Miracle," Psycheliana answered. "We must be careful if that's who we're dealing with here. Who knows what she has planned for anyone who tries to rescue Papa?"

"Just smurf us down here at the entrance," Miracle said. Psycheliana lowered herself and Miracle down onto the snow-covered bridge before they both entered Allura's hideout very carefully.

They saw nobody in the main chamber except for Empath, who was still chained to the wall next to the Orb of Euphoria. Empath then saw who entered the chamber. "Liana, Miracle, is that you?" Empath asked.

"Yes, it is us, Papa," Psycheliana said. "We're going to smurf you out of here!"

Just then, chains began to appear out of the walls. "Liana, watch out!" Empath cried out.

The chains suddenly grabbed Psycheliana and bound her fast. "Miracle, help!" she cried out.

"Abracadabra, alakazam!" Miracle said, extending his right hand toward Psycheliana. Suddenly the chains that clamped around her wrists and ankles were broken, but soon he found himself dealing with chains trying to bind him as well.

"Get your smurfs off my friend!" Psycheliana said, using her strength to rip the chains right out of the walls and break them to pieces.

"Well, well, who do we have here?" Beguiler said as she returned to the window. "Intruders in my lair, trying to free my prisoner! Birds, attack them!"

"Uh oh, we've got company," Psycheliana said as she saw a flock of birdlike creatures suddenly swooping down and attacking them.

"You get Uncle Empath out of his chains, I'll deal with these creatures," Miracle said, using his magic to turn the horrible creations into harmless-looking ones.

Psycheliana used her strength to break Empath's chains around his ankles. Already he could feel his own strength returning. "Let's say we end this the way Poet did so many years ago, Liana," Empath said.

"But how?" Psycheliana asked. "We can't touch the orb, or we'll come under its power."

Empath found the handle of a broom lying nearby. "This should do the trick," he said as he stuck one end of the handle under the orb in its resting perch and used his strength to dislodge it.

Beguiler saw what Empath was doing. "No! Don't break my orb!" she cried out.

But soon the orb was dislodged, and it began bouncing down a set of stairs until it again broke into pieces at the bottom.

"I'll get you for this, you miserable Smurfs," Beguiler said in an angry voice. "Just you wait until I restore my orb, and then I'll..."

"Abracadabra, alakazam!" Miracle said, aiming his magic hand toward Beguiler. Soon she was suddenly turned into a harmless toad who hopped away.

"A fitting fate for somebody following in her grandmother's foosteps," Empath said, watching what had happened to Beguiler.

"I have sensed that the breaking of the orb has also restored our fellow Smurfs to normal again," Psycheliana said.

"That's good news," Miracle said. "Let's get out of here and join the others."

To be expanded on.