Part VI

"This is it, Azrael! Father Time's cave. Ooh," Gargamel shivered, shielding his eyes from the wind and sand that seemed to swirl around and past the cave's wooden door. "It certainly is chilly."

Azrael just glared at him, his back arched and his fur puffed out in nervous agitation. There was something very strange about this cave. It felt…unnatural. Azrael shuddered and hunched his way behind his wizard's shoes. Even Gargamel seemed a little unnerved. He looked down at his cat.

"All right, Azrael, you know what to do," he said, balling up the old burlap potato sack he'd had slung over his shoulder as if it were a knee sock. "When Father Time opens the door, you act as if you've been hurt. The old fossil will surely come out to help. That's when I'll capture him in this sack. Once he's tied up, he won't be able to stop us from collecting that magic sand for our Time Locket!"

"Mreah." Azreal nodded, ready for action. Gargamel made a fist and gave the door a light tap. There was no sound from inside. He and Azrael shared a look, then Gargamel knocked again, harder this time. They waited.

"I don't think he's in, Azrael," the failed wizard said at last. "Shall we…?" he gestured to the door. Azrael backed away a few steps, deeply unnerved. But, seeing his cat's fear seemed to turn on Gargamel's stubborn switch. After some grumbling about good for nothing fraidy cats, he reached out a hand and tried the latch. The heavy door swung open onto darkness. Gargamel stepped in…and disappeared.

"Mrah!" Azrael cried. The wind was picking up now, pulling and swirling all around him. Terrified, Azrael dashed through the doorway after his wizard—

Only to find himself in a warmly lit room crammed from floor to ceiling with clocks. A tall grandfather clock tocked against the wall while at least two dozen smaller clocks ticked away on a low wooden table. The dirt floor had been recently and conscientiously swept, and everything was neat, tidy, dusted, polished and in its rightful place.

Gargamel was hunched over the table, working to pry the flat wooden top off a large hourglass.

"Yipe!" he cried as Azrael streaked past him. The top of the hourglass popped off and flew across the room. Gargamel gasped and fumbled the glass, catching it only just in time to keep the sparkling sand inside from spilling all over the floor.

"Useless fool of a cat!" he cried. "Watch where you're going!"

"Mrah!" Azrael snapped back, just relieved to be out of that creepy wind. He jumped up onto the table to watch what Gargamel was doing.

"We won't need much, Azrael," he said, sticking his fingers into the glass. "Just a pinch or two should be enough for our purposes. Although…"

He looked to his cat, his beady eyes gleaming. "Consider this, Azrael. Why should I settle for a few mere grains of magic sand when I can possess the hourglass itself?" he asked. "Where's the lid to this thing?"

Pressing the wooden cap back onto the dowels that held it in place, Gargamel tossed Father Time's hourglass into his sack and slung it over his shoulder. "Well, Azrael, I'd say this was a successful trip. Time to go hom—wait!"

Gargamel rushed across the room and pressed his back against the wall, just out of sight of the open door.

"Did you hear that, Azrael?" he hissed as his curious cat wove his way between his legs. "I thought I heard…" He paused for a moment, a hand cupped to his ear. His greedy eyes brightened and he smiled. "Yes! It's Smurfs, Azrael! I'd know those putrid little voices anywhere!"

Azrael tilted his head and pricked his ears, straining to pick up any sound. Sure enough, the high-pitched tones of a Smurfling argument came through loud and clear. The hungry cat smiled and flexed his claws, ready to pounce the instant the Smurflings crossed the threshold.

Brainy's emotions were spinning all around and through his head. He'd been stomping through the forest for at least an hour, not really caring where he was going, and it hadn't helped calm him one bit. His arms were still shaking, and the ache in his chest was even worse now that the guilt from losing his temper and yelling at Clumsy had been dumped into the mix.

Brainy had never felt so hurt before, and he didn't know how to deal with it. Just the idea that Smurfette and Hefty would be so cruel as to take advantage of him like that… Not to mention the destruction of his book! All the time he'd put in, all the anticipation of finally getting to share something he'd planned out and researched and created just for them… He'd been so proud of that work. And now it was all just…just…

He couldn't think. Tears kept leaking from his eyes; no matter how many times he wiped them away they just kept falling. He wished he were small enough to curl up into Papa Smurf's lap and just fall asleep—but at the same time he didn't want Papa Smurf at all. He didn't want to have to run to him to fix his problems, he wanted to handle this hurt himself, like a real grown up Smurf. But what could he do?

"I don't know what to do!" he yelled at the trees, the rocks, the cliff side above. "And I don't know how to go back," he added, more quietly. "I meant what I said to Clumsy. I don't think I could look at anysmurf right now…or ever again even! I'm just so…so angry! Does that mean I'm a terrible Smurf?"

Brainy sniffled and rubbed at his eyes. His hands came away wet and stained with ink. He growled and wiped them on his ink-smeared pants.

"Maybe I am a terrible Smurf," he moped. "Hefty and Smurfette wouldn't have pulled a prank like this on a Smurf they respected. Nosmurf would. That's probably why the other Smurfs always ignore me and make fun of me and kick me out of the Village. I—I'm just not smurfy enough. Nosmurf respects me, or even likes me. I'm a joke."

He sniffed again, still angry but now at himself. "This is the proof. This, right here, what I'm smurfing now. Running away, abandoning my responsibilities at the Village." He shook his head in disgust. "They're all better than me. If one of Handy's inventions breaks down, he doesn't smurf about it. He fixes the problem. If Smurfette's flowers get broken or crushed or dry out in the sun, sure she's upset, but she plants new ones right away. The others don't smurf away when things get tough. They don't yell at their best friends. No, that's me. Ooohhh!" he groaned. "Oh, Papa Smurf, I'm glad you're not here to witness this moment! Never in the long history of Smurf has there ever lived a Smurf so petty and immature as I, Brainy Smurf! I'm not fit to bear the Smurf name!"

Sulking and slump-shouldered, the spectacled Smurf climbed up onto a rock and stood overlooking the ridge and the cliffs above. After a long, silent time of blank staring, his puffy eyes began to focus and he gradually realized where he was.

"Wow," he said, "I smurfed farther than I thought. Isn't Father Time's cave somewhere in these cliffs?" He sighed. "Now that's a power worth having. Knowledge and control over Time."

Brainy straightened, struck by a sudden thought. "Hm," he said, "Since I can't go back to the Village, I wonder if—whoop, what's that!"

Brainy dived behind his rock just in time to miss being seen as the four Smurflings walked by in a group, their attention fully focused on Snappy's map. Brainy watched them until they'd turned the bend that led to the cliff face. Then he climbed back over the rock to the path.

"I wonder what those four are up to. And with Papa Smurf's map! Papa Smurf will be out with Grandpa until well after dark, so they can't have smurfed his permission."

Brainy frowned. "Well," he said, "now I guess I'll have to go back. But when I go, I'll be smurfing those sneaky map-smurfing Smurflings along with me!"

"Looks like we're just about there," Snappy said uncertainly, looking up at the dark, intimidating opening to Father Time's cave. He held up the wrinkled map and squinted. "At least, I think we are."

"Let me see that map, Snappy," Sassette said, poking her head over his shoulder. "Wallowing walruses—of course this is it! See, look! There's a little sundial carved into the ground here, right into the threshold of the cave—just like the map says!"

"Why is it so dark in there?" Slouchy asked, rubbing the goosebumps the eerily whistling wind had caused to rise on his arms. "Do you think he's home?"

"I don't know," Nat said. "But we've come this far. Shouldn't we at least give it a shot?"

"Oh no you don't!"

The Smurflings turned in alarm. "Brainy!"

Brainy stepped forward, his arms crossed, his glasses gleaming, and his white clothes splotched with black ink. "I don't know what you Smurflings are up to, but there's no way you're smurfing in that cave, or anywhere else. You four Smurflings are smurfing back to the Village with me. Right now!"

The Smurflings were still too stunned by his presence to react to his words. They backed themselves into a cluster and started whispering.

"It's Brainy!"

"How did he get here?"

"How should I know, you hickory nut! He must have tracked us from the Village!"

"But how could he track us? We took his glasses!"

"Well, obviously he found them again."

Brainy hesitated, his self-righteous attitude fading as he fell once again into that swirl of painful and conflicting emotions.

"Wait— You? You took my glasses? But I thought—"

"Now, Azrael!"

"Brainy, behind you!" Nat cried. Brainy turned, only to find the cave entrance was now blocked by two all-too-familiar faces.

"Gargamel!" he shrieked. "Run for the trees!"

"Run all you like! You're not getting away!" Gargamel growled, digging into his sack. "Not this time!"

Brandishing Father Time's hourglass, he shouted, "I order you Smurfs to freeze!"

Nothing happened, but the racing Smurfs had almost reached the forest edge; Azrael close on their heels.

"Blast!" Gargamel grunted. "How does this fool thing work? Maybe if I…" He pried the top off the glass and stuck his fingers into the sparkling sand. As he did, the howling wind picked up, swirling around him in ever tightening whirls. Within moments, four tiny tornadoes had formed by the failed wizard's patched heels. As he watched in alarm, the four tornadoes became three, then two, then one mini storm of dust and rocks and wind, pelting and enveloping both him and the open hourglass.

"Nooo!" Gargamel cried. "No, my sand!"

As the wizard watched, helpless, the tunnel of wind pulled the magic sand into the air. There was a blinding flash, so bright and so powerful it stopped the Smurfs and Azrael in their tracks. The flash was immediately followed by a fierce BANG! The trees quaked, birds screamed, and the cliffs rumbled.

And then, there was only silence.

To Be Continued…