Chapter One: The Rock

Clumsy eagerly skipped through the woods as he searched for a new rock to add to his collection. It was cold, there was snow on the ground, and a nippy wind was blowing, but he didn't care. He was glad that winter had finally come, and he was looking forward to celebrating Christmas in a couple of weeks.

He adjusted his yellow scarf and looked carefully at the ground. There didn't seem to be any interesting rocks there, but then again he had only been hiking for twenty minutes. Maybe if he just went a little farther, he'd be able to find something really special. He slowly took a step forward to make sure he wouldn't trip and continued to look around for a rock.

Suddenly, he heard a whooshing sound behind him as if something were falling from the sky. Startled, he jumped to the side so he wouldn't be hit, but he slipped in the snow and fell flat on his belly. "Ouch!" Clumsy yelped. He quickly tried to get up. However, his arms got tangled in his scarf, and he just fell over again.

Desperately, Clumsy looked up to see what was falling and managed to get a quick glimpse of a brownish-gray egg-shaped stone with blue-green speckles. Then something hard hit him in the back of the skull, and everything went black.

The next thing Clumsy heard was the roaring gale whistling in his ears. He moaned and rolled over, wishing that the wind would stop so he could go back to sleep. His head was throbbing. All he really wanted to do was get his headache to go away and take a little smurfnap.

Suddenly, he remembered that he wasn't in his bed at home. He had been looking for a new rock, and a strange brown object had hit him in the back of the skull. He must have fainted after that. But what was that weird thing that had knocked him out?

Cautiously, Clumsy opened his heavy eyes and squinted as the blurry forest opened up before him once more. He blinked a few times and slowly waited for his vision to clear. When Clumsy was able to see again, he noticed that the rock was nestled up against his cheek. Cautiously, he got to his feet, surprised at how wobbly he felt. Stars suddenly began to float before his eyes. He leaned against the rock for support and took a few deep breaths, wishing that his head would stop spinning for just a second.

When Clumsy was able to think straight, he stood up and looked at the rock with growing awe. It was really beautiful, in an alien way. Its pattern resembled a brown plain with splotches of green trees, and it almost seemed as if it were keeping some sort of terrible, tragic secret within itself. "Well, it's definitely special…maybe I should take it home," Clumsy mused as he wandered around the rock and admired its spectral beauty.

After Clumsy was finished examining the rock, he walked around to the back and gave it the hardest shove he was capable of. To his great surprise, it rolled a few inches and stopped. It seemed as though it were waiting for him to catch up with it. "Ok…but wait for me!" Clumsy laughed as he scurried after the rock, tripping a few times before he finally reached it and gave it another shove.

For a long time, it seemed that he and the rock were the only ones in the forest. From time to time, a bird chirped or a squirrel scuttled across their path, but it was mostly just Clumsy and the mysterious stone. After about an hour or so, Clumsy began to feel tired. His eyes felt as heavy as iron, and his feet were sore from so much walking. He kept going, however, because a funny feeling in his stomach was nagging him to get the rock to the village as soon as possible, because something awful would happen if he didn't.

Before long, the magical shield that protected the village from outsiders came into view. "Okay, rock…we're here. Just hang in there and we'll be home in no time," Clumsy assured the rock as he gave it one last shove and prepared to enter the village. However, when he tried to push the rock through the barrier, it wouldn't pass. He blinked in confusion; then pushed it again. It still wouldn't budge an inch.

"Huh. That's odd. Maybe there's something wrong with the shield," Clumsy wondered aloud. Tentatively, he took a step forward and pushed his arm into the barrier. Strangely enough, his arm passed through with no problem.

Clumsy was dumbfounded at the impossible situation. He scratched his head and tried to think of a good explanation, but nothing came to him that would clarify the reason why the rock wouldn't go through. "I don't get it! Even Gargamel can go through the barrier, so how come this rock can't?" Clumsy asked, but the rock didn't bother to give him any answers. It just lay silently on the white ground like a stubborn child and didn't make a movement.

"I guess I'll have to leave you behind…see you tomorrow," sighed Clumsy regretfully as he stepped beyond the barrier and entered the village. He realized that he'd been gone longer than he thought. Dinner would probably be served soon, and he was absolutely starving.

Clumsy started running through the village as fast as he was capable of. He knocked over a couple of objects and Smurfs in his path, but he just ignored the catastrophes he'd caused and hurried on. After a time, as he was rushing towards the dining hall, he caught sight of Handy whistling as he fixed a leaky roof. He skidded to a halt and was about to say hello when he noticed a pile of snow on the ground.

Clumsy looked at Handy, then at the pile of snow. He deliberated for a few moments as to whether he should do it or not. After all, Handy might fall and break his arm, or worse. Then he shook his head, rubbed his mittened hands together, and started to roll some snow into a snowball. It was just too tempting to pass up on.

Smiling mischievously, Clumsy carefully aimed and sent the snowball flying through the air. For a few moments, he wasn't sure if it would hit his target or not. Luckily, the odds seemed to be in the young Smurf's favor today. The snowball sparkled teasingly in the sunlight for a few moments, as if it were aware of the fiasco it was about to create. Then it hit the back of Handy's neck with a crisp smack and burst into a million pieces.

"AAAAHHHH!" Handy screamed as he lost his footing on the ladder and sped towards the ground like a blue meteor. Clumsy winced and closed his eyes, wishing that he hadn't thrown that snowball after all. It seemed to be an eternity before Handy finally hit the ground with a soft swoosh and fell silent. "Oh no….he didn't….did he? Oh, I'm such an idiot; I can't believe I just smurfed that…" Clumsy whimpered in distress.

After a few moments, however, he heard Handy muttering under his breath irritably. Relieved, Clumsy opened his eyes and scuttled over anxiously to Handy's side. Handy was breathing hard and holding a hand to his chest, as if he were in shock. He was sitting on a pile of snow with his legs splayed out like twigs. He seemed to be a little dazed, but he was otherwise unharmed.

"Handy, are you okay? I'm so sorry that you fell….it was all my fault, I smurf!" Clumsy apologized as he helped Handy to his feet. Handy just grunted and rubbed his neck. "I guess so. It could've been much worse, though...what on smurf were you thinking of, Clumsy? I could've fallen and smurfed my neck," Handy said as he gave Clumsy a funny look. Clumsy ducked his head and looked up at Handy with big, apologetic eyes. "I…I'm so sorry that I smurfed that, Handy. It's just…..it was too tempting, and I couldn't stop myself," he sighed, hoping that his innocent look would convince Handy that he was truly sorry.

Handy sighed and rolled his eyes as he walked towards the dining hall with Clumsy. He knew he shouldn't really give in so easily, but there was something about that puppy-dog look of Clumsy's that he just couldn't say no to. He noticed that Clumsy was skipping a little faster than normal and seemed anxious about something. "Clumsy, are you all right? You seem a little antsy about something," Handy asked softly as Clumsy skidded to a halt.

Clumsy looked cautiously to the left, then to the right. He wanted so badly to tell Handy about the rock, but he wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

He and Handy had never been really close friends. He'd always been Best Smurf Friends with Brainy since he was little, and Brainy was usually the one he confided in when he had a secret he needed to smurf off his chest. Still, he'd always thought Handy was a really smurfy guy, and he at least seemed to be okay with his eagerness to help. Since Brainy had come down with a case of the sniffles, Clumsy hadn't really been chatting as much with him and had found himself clinging to his frail friendship with Handy.

"Handy….if I told you something that I wouldn't want you to smurf to anyone, would you give me your smurfy promise that you wouldn't tell?" Clumsy finally said. He'd just have to cross his fingers and smurf for the best. Handy stopped and looked Clumsy gravely in the eyes. "Of course I wouldn't! At least, not unless it was something that would put another Smurf in danger; in which case I'd tell Papa and we'd work it out together," Handy replied.

Clumsy sighed in relief and began to tell his story. "Okay; thanks, Handy. So anyway, I found this rock…" Handy raised his eyebrows suspiciously. From the tone of Clumsy's voice, he had guessed that he was going to tell him some sort of personal inner secret. Oh well, I guess everyone has something that's important to them that nobody else thinks is so smurfy, Handy thought. He tried to pay attention as best he could, as he knew that Clumsy would be upset if he didn't.

"So….I was walking in the forest when I found this rock, but I didn't find it in a normal way. I was just walking around when something started to fall from the sky. I panicked and tried to leap out of the way, but my arms got tangled in my scarf and I fell down. I was able to get a glimpse of this brown stone thingy, but then it hit me in the head and I smurfed out," Clumsy continued.

Handy was starting to wonder if perhaps Clumsy had imagined the whole experience. "Are you SURE the rock was falling from the sky? Maybe you fainted when you fell on the ground, and the whole stone thing was just a hallsmurfination," Handy suggested tentatively. Clumsy adamantly shook his head. "No, I know it wasn't, because when I smurfed up, I had a smurfing headache."

Handy suddenly felt an almost brotherly concern for Clumsy. "Are you sure you're all smurf, Clumsy? I mean, you didn't get concussed or anything when the rock smurfed you in the head, did it?" Handy asked worriedly. "Really, Handy, I'm fine! Can I smurf on with my story now?" Clumsy protested.

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry; it's just that I wanted to make sure that you didn't need to get your head checked out or anysmurf like that," Handy reassured him. Clumsy sighed and resumed telling his story. He would never tell Handy, but sometimes he thought that the inventor was a little bit obsessive about things like leaky roofs sometimes. Or in this case, his aching head.

"So after I woke up, I found the rock right up against my cheek, like it was cuddling with me or something." Handy laughed, but he stopped when he saw Clumsy's hurt expression and nodded encouragingly. "Then I rolled it through the forest and started to take it back to the village. But when I tried to shove it through the barrier, it wouldn't budge."

Handy suddenly turned a pale shade of sky-blue, and his eyes went wide with surprise. "It wouldn't go through the barrier? Are you sure about this?" he asked. Clumsy nodded. "I'm sure. I even stuck my arm through the barrier to make sure it was smurfing properly, and it went through."

"Hmmm…perhaps I should be smurfing this to Papa after all. If this rock really couldn't go through the barrier, then that means it's either a creature of pure evil, or it's carrying some sort of terrible magic secret in it-something that even a Greeneyes like me shouldn't know," Handy said, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

Only a couple of months ago, Handy had washed up on a desert island and discovered a whole tribe of nymphs, who claimed he had a strange magical ability called Greeneyes. As it turned out, Handy actually did have this gift, and he was able to use it to save the inhabitants of the island from being obliterated by a stubborn ghost called Capricorn.

Handy didn't really know much about it yet-so far, he only knew that it had turned his eyes a strange shade of green, which seemed to be permanent, and that it gave the user tremendous magical powers. Still, Papa had told him that Greeneyes were some of the most powerful mages in the known world, and that any kinds of magic that a Greeneyes didn't know how to do were considered to be potent and dangerous enchantments that nobody should ever use.

"You really think it's that bad? I didn't think it was evil….I just thought it was a smurfy rock," Clumsy said softly. He hung his head and kicked at the snow; disappointed about his discovery. He had been hoping that Handy would tell him that he was being silly and that it was nothing to worry about. But then again, if it was really something that a Greeneyes didn't control, then he might be putting the whole village in danger.

"Tell you what," Handy said gently as he put a hand on Clumsy's shoulder. "How about you show me the rock, and I check it over before I tell you whether it's really something bad or not?" "Okay. In that case, follow me!" Clumsy replied eagerly as he skipped across the snow. Handy reluctantly followed him; unsure of what to expect. In all likelihood, it was probably just a normal rock, and the barrier was just acting up. But if it was something else…..

Handy shuddered and pulled his scarf a little tighter around his neck. It's probably nothing to worry about. There's no way that Clumsy found something so bad that even I couldn't figure out a way to tame it, he thought uneasily to himself. It didn't make him feel any smurfier, though. Handy swiftly wiped some sweat off his forehead and tried to look as calm as possible as he and Clumsy stepped through the barrier. Acting like a nervous wreck wouldn't make the situation any easier.

"Okay…here it is. You go ahead and do your Greeneyes jigamabob now," Clumsy whispered as he backed away from the stone and shot Handy a worried glance. "Ummm…you mean thingamabob, right, Clumsy?" Handy asked, giving out a nervous laugh as he stopped near the stone and touched it hesitantly. It was very cold, and it had an unusual mottled pattern across its surface. Something about it gave him the feeling that it wasn't really a rock at all-it seemed more like an egg, or some sort of arcane magical artifact.

"I guess…" Clumsy trailed off as Handy closed his eyes and tried to probe the essence of the rock. He sent out a stream of energy to it; surrounding it in a sphere of pulsing green light. He tried to scan its depths unsuccessfully. There was no smurf about it: It was definitely hiding some deadly secret. Come on; you can trust me. I'm a Greeneyes; I won't hurt you….Handy thought as he tried to coax out the secrets of the stone.

The rock still refused to reveal itself to Handy. Oh well; I guess it's just a normal rock….boy, did Clumsy sure get smurfed up for nothing, Handy thought in relief as he slowly opened his eyes and prepared to tell Clumsy the news. However, he didn't get the chance to even speak one word before a strange sensation ripped through him.

As soon as he started to pull away from the rock, a jarring convulsing sensation that was not unlike being electrocuted charged through his veins. Handy gasped in pain and shut off his magic, wondering if it was some sort of delayed response to using his powers for too long. The weird throbbing shot up from his toes to his head. His vision blurred; his muscles went stiff; and his heart began to beat wildly and push against his chest like a dove in a cage.

He thought he heard Clumsy shouting, but he wasn't entirely sure if he was imagining it or not. Elenbyr! You've come at last. Break me free and let Tiber feel my rage! The weird new voicerasped in his head as he fell towards the ground. He squinted for a moment; feeling confused. It definitely wasn't Clumsy's voice, but it wasn't his own inner voice either.

I knew this wasn't an ordinary rock….it must be an egg after all. Strangely enough, it almost sounds like a female….Handy thought dazedly as Clumsy caught him mid-fall. He heard the klutzy Smurf shouting again, and this time he could make sense of it. "Handy! Are you all smurf? You almost fainted!"

Handy looked up at Clumsy and managed a very weak smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Clumsy's voice began to echo in his ears; slowly at first, then faster and faster. The words in the sentence blurred and meshed together until they gradually faded away, and the only thing he could hear being repeated was his name.

Handy….Handy…Handy…Handy…

Over and over again, he heard Clumsy's voice saying his name. He knew there was some hidden meaning in what he was saying, but he was too groggy to figure it out. He started to fade away into blackness; overcome by the new emotion and too feeble to fight against it. His last thought before he lost consciousness was that Clumsy should never, ever see this rock again, or else the Smurf Village would be thrown into utter chaos and bloodshed.