Scaredy was a busy smurf, but he still paused to allow Nanny to address him nonetheless. Who knew? Maybe she was actually seeking to see him about something different this time.
"Scaredy. I've come to ask you once more – let's focus on concealing the village, and keeping it hidden, instead of your… current projects."
No, still the same kind of request, it seemed. "N-Nanny… I appreciate your suggestion. But there's nothing stopping you from taking up those measures to ensure that the village continues to remain hidden. In fact, I encourage you to. As I've said before, however, even with the village kept out of sight, there are ways that it can be found. And when it is found again, as it surely will be, we have to make sure that everyone in this village can be kept safe."
Nanny looked rather defeated. They'd run through similar conversations a few times before, after all. "Are you really going to continue to ignore the way things have been done throughout smurf history?"
As always these days, the words seemed to come to Scaredy so readily – a response ever at hand. "We smurfs need to be able to make decisions for ourselves, in the here and now, in order to move forward i-into the future. We shouldn't automatically follow the smurfs that came before us – what was best for them is not necessarily best for us and our village in the present."
"…And you think you know what's best for the village then, I suppose?" Nanny eyed Scaredy warily. At last, he appeared to be taken off-guard, at least momentarily, by the comment.
"N-Nn. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't rely so much on the past when circumstances are always changing. I don't claim to know what's best… I'm just trying my best to smurf the village safe any way I can."
Nanny turned away. And who smurfed you in charge? "Thanks for speaking with me again, Scaredy." She then took her leave of him.
In the "present"…
Grandpa found and approached Nanny after the rather grim village meeting at the first opportunity he got. He stayed to listen to what Papa Smurf had to say, but when he caught sight of Nanny he went over to her.
"So" Grandpa began, falling into step beside Nanny. She was apparently in the midst of completing some errand or other, but did not appear to mind Grandpa's presence. "Pretty unsmurfy news in the village meeting today."
"Yeah." Nanny agreed sombrely. "I don't think the last few years have been very… smurfy."
"So why…" Grandpa did his best to keep his voice measured. "Why didn't you stop them?" Why didn't you do anything to prevent things from turning out as they did?
Nanny stopped and looked at him seriously.
"This isn't right! This isn't how it should be." None of them had ever seen Nanny get so upset before.
"Says who?! Just because you're older than us doesn't mean you have any authority over us!"
"…You think I didn't try?"
She let the words settle in, then continued walking. "They wouldn't listen to me. You know, I'm an old lady and, besides. I'm only a pretty recent addition to this village relatively speaking anyway. Even moreso than you."
"Well that shouldn't mean anything" Grandpa protested, "You're still a smurf like any other - an equal member of this village."
"Of course. And it shouldn't mean anything, but it does. Can't really be helped – I just happen to not be a smurf they grew up with, not a smurf that they have known for as long as they remember. And a lot of the time it's not even intentional…"
Grandpa sighed. "Guess I understand. 'Course, you didn't choose to be in Castle Captor for five hundred years… It ought to go without saying that your voice is just important as anyone else's."
"It's not such a big deal, so there's no need to worry. I am listened to and treated with respect, it was just, sometimes some differences slipped through – which is only to be expected. You wouldn't treat a smurf you've known your whole life exactly the same as a smurf you just met a few years ago. It's just that sometimes, it does things like stand in the way of my being able to really do much of anything about what happened."
"Makes me wonder if I'd have been able to make any difference."
Nanny shrugged. "Well, there's no real way of telling. But I guess, maybe we all have a tendency to overestimate how much difference we really could have made in how a lot of events turn out."
"Ya hurt Pappy Gargamel?! But… But how?!" Sassette sounded so distraught.
"Well" Nat began haltingly, "Most of the smurfs in the village created this really big mechanism which-"
"That's not what I meant!" Sassette snapped, holding back tears. "I meant, how could you! How could anyone…?" she glanced sidelong at Slouchy and Nat accusingly. "You didn't do anything to hurt him, did you?"
Nat and Slouchy both gave her a horrified look.
"Of course not!"
"It was only most of the grown-ups who were involved in that stuff."
Sassette wasn't supposed to find out about the topic of the village meeting, but it was hard for her not to when just about every smurf was talking about it. What had been the point of leaving the smurflings out of the meeting if the adult smurfs so carelessly failed to prevent word of its contents from reaching the now deeply-hurt Sassette?
Sassette sniffled, causing Snappy to nudge Nat and Slouchy urgently. "Say something!" he hissed at them, "Hurry! We gotta try and make her feel better, at least a little bit!"
"It uh… happened very fast. It was quick and not drawn-out-"
Sassette started crying and Snappy swiftly gave Slouchy's arm a punch, signifying him to stop. "Ugh, you're hopeless! You listen to me Sassette. It's not all bad. Gargamel is just fine right now, right?"
"Uh, well, yeah. He's still the same old Gargamel living his life, I guess…" Nat replied.
Slouchy could see what they were getting at. "Yeah. He's had to adjust a few things but he seems to have adapted to having one hand pretty well. You don't need to worry about him too much."
Snappy nodded. "See, Sassette? Now stop bein' so miserable already. I don't think Gargamel deserved what happened to him… But he's still a bad person and he doesn't deserve your concern or your tears either."
Sassette looked up at Snappy. "Worryin' weasels! If I'm not feelin' any concern for him, then who will? He's not all bad, I won't believe that, and as for all the smurfs that helped hurt him… I hope they at least feel a little bad about what they've done!"
The other three smurflings sighed internally. Sassette had such a big and caring heart… Her trust in Gargamel was so misguided, misplaced. But she never had listened to anyone who tried to tell her otherwise.
And to think, we smurflings were kept out of the meeting and weren't supposed to be involved! Now we're the ones helping to clean up after the grown-ups who just can't keep their mouths shut! Snappy thought to himself.
Slouchy and Nat's thoughts largely concurred with his, although they also asked an additional question: Why bother separating and keeping us out of it anyway, if we were there and already know full well what happened?
"Such a smurfy morning! Wouldn't you say, Dreamy?" Papa asked cheerfully as he, Dreamy and Dabbler all walked through the forest together.
"Ah, I guess, Papa Smurf" Dreamy offered, trying to sound enthusiastic. Some smurfs like Papa and Dabbler had noticed Dreamy's rather apathetic disposition as of late, and now they seemed determined to make him feel better. It was the whole reason he'd been invited to come along with them into the forest as they collected potion ingredients, after all.
Dabbler still had a lot to learn when it came to the world of healing and magic, and Papa was more than happy to share his knowledge. In that sense, Dreamy couldn't help but take note of the fact that his presence with them was totally unnecessary. Although, he supposed, there was no overt harm in tagging along if it would make them happy.
Things had been relatively uneventful in the village for the past few weeks. The unrest following the village meeting had calmed down, and with Papa carefully overseeing everything, everyone was able to breathe easily again, almost like old times.
As always, Dreamy was getting lost in his thoughts once more when he was brought sharply back into the present moment, colliding with Papa's outstretched arm keeping him back. Papa and Dabbler had stopped walking. Gargamel was right up ahead – uncomfortably close, but thankfully he had not yet caught sight of them.
"It's Gargamel!" Dabbler blurted out, stating the obvious a little too loudly. Gargamel spun around.
"Thank you, Dabbler" Papa sighed.
You'd think all those years Scaredy spent trying to drill caution into us all would have made Dabbler a little more careful in front of Gargamel, but no, Dreamy thought to himself. Then again, Dabbler always had been one to stay firmly away from Scaredy's endeavours.