A Smurfmas Carol
Chapter 1
The forest was a wonderful sparkling tapestry of white. Snow and frost coated each branch and they sparkled with an orange hue in the soft glow of the setting afternoon sun.
Deep in the forest the same sun glinted off a myriad of tiny little mushroom houses, all decorated for the season of joy and goodwill to all Smurfs.
Mid winter had been and gone. The soothsmurfs had been chased out of the village and everysmurf felt more relaxed now that the world had not ended. They could all get on with the important business of preparing for 'Smurfmas', one of the most important dates in the smurf year. The little blue people looked so happy and carefree. What could possibly spoil their fun?
On the edge of the forest, out of the shelter of the trees, the wind blew strong and froze everything living solid with its bitter, frigid breath. But even the North wind would not win a bitterness contest against the occupant of a little run down hovel that stood on a small rise above a lifeless pond.
"I hate Christmas Azrael, I hate it!" growled a hunched, black clad, middle aged man who was trying to warm his large knurled hands on a pathetic looking fire. He was also covered with a red blanket whilst his companion a large rough looking tom cat looked on with disgust at the dying fire.
"The woodsmen charge so much for seasoned wood and the twigs from the forest are just not enough. We need some proper logs but that will mean paying out money. Bah! I'll just put on another blanket if I have to.
He sat for a while deep in thought whilst his cat tried to get closer to the fire.
Most years his own mother would come over on Christmas day and they would share a badly cooked meal, but it was food even if a couple of years before they had suffered bad food poisoning from mummy's attempt at making a 'moist' Turkey dinner. He much preferred the dry, cremated offerings of unidentified fowls. At least they were cooked.
But this year his mummy was visiting friends abroad and he would have to spend the festive season alone with his cat. His mood darkened and he wondered what life would have been like if he had been married and had children. How different things would have been, he would have even enjoyed giving and receiving gifts. He would have been a husband and father.
But then a thought popped into his head.
"Of course I'm a father!" he shouted out, startling his cat who almost burnt his paws on the dying embers.
"Smurfette can join us this Christmas, I'm sure she'll enjoy our company and we could have so much fun!" Azrael looked at his master with a look of shock.
He gave an evil smile and rubbed his hands together when he realised something else,
"And best of all. I will get to ruin the little blue pests 'Smurfmas', what joy and sweet revenge that would be!" he cackled to himself and threw a few more twigs onto the measly excuse for a fire, before picking up a trap and heading out into the snow. His cat Azrael just curled up and pretended to be asleep, he knew it was all going to end in disaster and he was not going to have any part in it. He was very wise for a cat.
Back at the Smurf village, Baker Smurf was emptying the oven of mince pies and arranging them on cooling racks all around his bakery. He must have been at it all day, there were hundreds of them all ready for the big day, which was going to be tomorrow morning as today was Smurfmas eve.
It was already getting dark and a party of Smurfs were returning from foraging for holly berries and mistletoe. Smurfette had insisted in going along and as usual she was trailing behind all the others. Brainy Smurf noticed her dawdling and started to tell her off.
"Come on, Smurf up! You know what Papa says about being out so late, we must get back to the village straight away!" he shouted.
Smurfette just waved and smiled at him. It was all she needed to do to make him stop bugging her. She then caught sight of something red and shiny under a bush. Her curiosity was aroused, she could not help herself and had to go and look. It was a big mistake, she heard a clunking sound and found herself well and truly trapped. She heard a familiar laugh and saw Gargamel leering at her through the bars of the camouflaged trap.
"Let me go right now! Papa and the others are going to make you wish you were never born!" she screamed at him, but before she could utter another sound the evil wizard threw some dust over her cage and she fell fast asleep.
"That's the plan my dear! The more the merrier for Christmas at Gargamel's!"
Just before leaving the place where he captured Smurfette, he left a 'Smurfmas' card for her friends. It was Smurf sized and covered in pretty ribbons. Gargamel had actually made it look quite tasteful.
Once in the village the other Smurfs had a feeling that something was wrong. Brainy started to say that he had told Smurfette to hurry up but Papa cut him short and said that he should have stayed with her at all times.
It was properly dark now and they got together a search party to look for their lost female. They retraced their steps using flaming torches to light their way. In a little while Clumsy smurf came stumbling towards Papa, Brainy and Hefty who were standing in a group. He was holding an envelope in his hand.
"My word, what is this?" exclaimed Papa as he opened the decorated envelope. Inside was a card with a hand draw picture of a Christmas tree, not a very good drawing but it looked like a tree at least. Papa started to read.
'My Dear Papa, that time of year is upon us once again and this year I've decided that I would like my daughter 'Smurfette' to stay at my hovel over the festive season. So that she does not feel too lonely I'm inviting you, Brainy Smurf and Hefty Smurf to join in the festivities. I'm sure the other Smurfs can manage without the four of you this year.
If you try to organise a rescue party then I will make sure she will never see another 'Smurfmas' again. Only the three of you are to enter my hovel and you must come tonight before midnight or else.
Best wishes, Gargamel '
"How dare he!" said Hefty, he still had feelings for Smurfette and now that the evil wizard had captured his sweetheart he just wanted to go over there and punch his lights out. Brainy was trying to think as to why Gargamel would want to invite any other Smurfs. Papa knew why.
"He wants us to come along so that he can humiliate us and ruin our Smurfmas. There can be no other reason. We'd better do as he says and play along with him until we can find a way of rescuing her," replied Papa and the other nodded.
Papa sent the rest of the search party home with orders to stay in the village and not do anything until they got a signal from Papa. He was not sure what the signal would be but they would know once they saw it.
The three Smurfs then made their way through the dark, cold snowy woods towards the hovel of their arch enemy.
Gargamel was waiting by the window of his home and soon enough he saw the little bobbing lights of the Smurf's torches. He hurried to the door. It made a pleasant change to welcome Smurf guests. He always had to drag them through the door kicking and screaming in the past.
Papa and the others saw the evil wizard standing on the threshold and they stopped at a safe distance.
"Gargamel! This is not in the spirit of Smurfmas and you know it. Return Smurfette to us and we will be on our way. Keep her and you will be in a world of trouble!" shouted Papa.
Gargamel looked at the three little pests and suppressed the urge to retaliate with words. He stood to one side and gestured for them to enter.
"Come inside my little blue friends, its much warmer in here and I have some mulled juice heating up on the fire,"
It did not really make them feel at home, just heightened their nervousness at what this human was planning to do with them. They started to go over the threshold when Hefty put out his arms to hold the other two back.
"Wait a minute! Where is Azrael? We aren't taking another step if your flea bitten cat is waiting to pounce on us!" growled Hefty looking up at the giant before him.
"Don't worry about my cat, you're safe enough. He's locked away in the cellar with some food and water for now. Can't have him chasing and eating the guests," said Gargamel and flashed a toothless grin at the strong smurf.
Hefty shuddered inside, the wizard smiled at him, that must mean trouble!
Once inside they looked around furtively for Smurfette. Cages were hanging from the rafters as always but every single one was empty. The shelves only contained bottles and boxes of potions and herbs and the table was bare apart from a few Smurfmas crackers. It was then that they noticed the tree in the corner of the kitchen. It was a nice looking tree with red candles set in black candle holders, the wax dripped along the pine needles and onto the flagstone floor looking like blood. Their eyes travelled up the tree and that was when they spotted her.
Smurfette was the angel atop the Smurfmas tree!
She was tied to the top of the tree. She seemed oblivious to her plight as she was sleeping soundly but her eyes were fixed wide open.
"What have you done to her Gargamel! I demand that you get her down from there this instant!" bellowed Papa smurf, his little blue face going purple with rage. Hefty smurf was cracking his knuckles and Brainy Smurf kept adjusting his glasses as that's what he did when he was angry. They climbed onto the table.
The human just laughed at them
"Mwa,ha,ha! Not so fast little ones. First you must win her back. Don't try anything foolish or the tree will tear her apart limb from limb!" sneered Gargamel. And to emphasise his threat he took a wand from his sleeve and pointed it at the tree. It glowed green and started to move. Each branch became a limb and the ends of the branches turned into fingers. They started to take hold of the unconscious Smurfette.
"OK, ok! What do you want us to do Gargamel? How can we win her freedom?" asked Papa, feeling weary at having to humour the deranged human.
"Just spend some time with me, pull some crackers, have a drink and make merry. I'm all alone this holiday season and you are my closest neighbours. Well apart from Big Mouth and I don't have enough food for him. At least you Smurfs don't eat or drink much," said Gargamel sitting down at the table they were standing on.
"Why kidnap Smurfette? Was it to ensure that we would follow?" quizzed Papa.
"Well, do you seriously think that you would have come along unless I provided a reason for you to be here?" said Gargamel raising an eyebrow.
"Anyhow, she is the only other family I have apart from Mummy. Her friends abroad did not want me to come along so I'm feeling a bit angry, I suppose and what better way to deal with my disappointment, than by making your little blue lives as miserable as mine?"
The three Smurfs just glared at him. They would have to be careful and do everything that the evil wizard said or they would not live to see another Smurfmas.
"Come, lets pull some crackers and start the festivities," said Gargamel in a mock cheery voice. "I'll make a deal with you, if you three manage to win two crackers out of three, I'll let Smurfette down from the tree at least, what do you say to that?"
The three friends nodded and they moved towards the crackers laid out on the table. Gargamel held onto one end then Papa, Brainy and Hefty held onto each other and pulled the other end. It was hard work pulling a cracker and Hefty was doing most of the work. All the time they were pulling Gargamel just leered at them and Papa glared at the human.
All of a sudden all three of them went tumbling across the table and they were left holding the bigger portion of the cracker.
Inside there were three little Smurf sized party hats, some party poopers and some Smurfeberries.
Brainy thought that at least they had some food now. Pulling one cracker was hard enough, now they had two more to get through.
"One to the Smurfs," shouted Hefty
They grabbed the next cracker and pulled with all their might. Again they all fell over but this time Gargamel had the larger part and it contained a human sized Santa Claus hat except that it was black with white trim and the words 'Bah Humbug' written on the headband. There was also a party pooper and a mince pie.
"One to me, " gloated the wizard as he bit into the pie as he pulled the hat onto his bald head. "You'd better put your party hats on, this is going to get interesting.
"We don't feel like wearing your stupid hats," shouted Hefty smurf. Gargamel just shrugged his shoulders "As you wish, but it just proves that you don't know how to have fun!"
This annoyed Papa and he retorted " We have fun by being kind and generous and not making fun of others at their expense!"
"Even you would say that I'm being kind. I've not put you in a cage, you are free to leave at any time, just without Smurfette. I even had to do something as unpleasant as collecting Smurfberries. They always bring me out in a rash!"
Papa just shook his head and said "Gargamel I sometimes wonder if you will ever know the true meaning of Smufmas. I feel sorry for you sometimes. I truly do, but you are not endearing yourself to us in the slightest!"
"Let's carry on and pull the last cracker shall we?" said Gargamel with a sarcastic smile.
The human and the Smurfs pulled the last cracker and this time the Smurfs had the biggest end.
"Two to one for the Smurfs! We win! You're a failure as always, now let Smurfette go and we will be out of your miserable shack!" shouted Hefty jumping for joy around the table giving Papa and Brainy smurf hugs.
The evil wizard just watched them, his eyes glinting a little. He waited a while until the Smurfs stopped celebrating and he had their full attention.
"Papa, have you not noticed something about Smurfette?" jeered the wizard.
The Smurfs ran to the other side of the table and they could see that she was still asleep, but she seemed to have shiny skin. Hefty was the first to start climbing the tree. He scaled it as quick as lightning and once at the top he could get a good look at her. She was hard to the touch. Hefty was horrified to realise that she was made of painted wax! He shook her, trying to make her wake up but although he could see she was breathing, he could not feel any warmth from her.
He screamed down at the human.
"In Smurfs name! What have you done to her Gargamel?"
"Just a fiendishly complicated spell to turn her into a wax doll, if you look carefully there is a wick at the top of her hat. She would make an excellent candle don't you think? She would light up the night and maybe even 'warm' her attitude to me. I'm quite proud of myself!"
That was the last straw for Hefty, he could not help himself and he launched at Gargamel from the top of the tree and landed inside the evil wizard's cassock collar.
The strong Smurf took out his little knife that he carried in his pants and started to slash at the human's bare back. Gargamel cried out in pain but could not reach the Smurf with his hands. Brainy and Papa were egging Hefty on, it seemed that they were going to escape, until the evil wizard started to slam his body against the wall and this mean that Hefty was knocked out. He tumbled out of the bottom of the black tattered cassock.
The little Smurf was out cold on the floor and covered in the human's blood.
"Right, that does it! You just can't play nicely can you? You little blue devils!"
Gargamel picked up the unconscious Hefty and dangled him between his index finger and thumb. For a moment the other two Smurfs thought that their friend would get thrown into the fire but the wizard took out his wand and waved it at the empty third cracker.
"I was going to have a party and be nice, but no, you had to go and spoil it all! Now you will stay here forever!"
The empty cracker suddenly exploded with a shower of sparks and smoke and a smurf cage stood in its place. Gargamel moved towards the cage, opened it and threw Hefty inside. Brainy and Papa were running across the floor of the hovel. The evil wizard pointed his wand at the fleeing Smurfs and they were caught up in a magic silver thread that tied them up and put them in the cage as well.
Wincing in pain, Gargamel lifted up the cage containing the three captured Smurfs and chillingly told them.
"Did you know that when Smurfs are turned into wax candles and a flame is lit, they will feel every little thing. Just think about it. That will be the fate of your precious Smurfette if you try to escape!"
He started to laugh "Mwa,ha,ha! And if you don't behave you will ALL become wax candles to adorn my dinner table! Mwa,ha,ha!" he cackled and then took off his cassock to examine his wounds.
Hefty had done a good job. The wizard would be in great pain. That satisfied Papa for now. But he would have to think fast or all would be lost!
To be continued...