I will get this story finished before I die, smurf it all.

I'm sort of glad it took me so long, though. Looking back over my outline for the story, if I'd written everything the way my 12 (or so) year old self wanted, things would have been VERY bad. And Thoughtful doesn't deserve that. I'm happy I was able to improve on her story a little.

Actually, this entire story, from beginning to end, sort of showcases an evolution in my writing. It's cool to look back and see how far I've come.

Emolife3000- Yes you have. Everyone has. I apologize.

La Perla- Not lost faith, just severely procrastinating. :P Enjoy!

Farmerfansmurfsl- Here you go. As for the pairing...

Smurflover210134- I've thought about her romantic interest quite a lot recently, and I have to say, I stand by my choice. Whomever it may be. ;)

Limi- See above.

FreakingCrazy- ...well, it wasn't for 5 months *sheepish grin*. Thanks for sticking with me, though, and thank you for your encouragement!

A serious, serious thanks to all my readers, though. You guys are the best. Thanks for hanging around as long as you have!

ALERT- This story had been plotted out in June 2012 (yikes). Every similarity is coincidental, and I guarantee I copied off of no one. Everything with the exception of Gutsy is based off the cartoons.

Thoughtful is property of me, Benny.

Without further ado... Smurf y'all later!

Benny


Thoughtful halted at the tree line, allowing her fellow Smurfs to flow past her, and surveyed the place everyone called Firework Hill. The slanted grassy area led down to a small, quiet creek running lengthwise across the bottom. Lanterns lit the hill, driving away the darkness and cold with bright, inviting warmth. Smurfs had blankets spread out over nearly every inch of the grass, talking and laughing amongst themselves or watching two small figures crouched across the creek, barely visible in the blackness of the evening. They seemed to be fiddling around with some type of long, cylindrical objects. A grin crossed Thoughtful's face as the lantern light briefly illuminated a white beard and blue overalls. Papa and Handy must be preparing the fireworks show.

Over the general din of the assembled Smurfs, Thoughtful perked as she heard her name called. Peering through the dim light to her left, she saw Brainy kneeling on a blanket and waving her over. Thoughtful made her way around other blankets to plop down beside Brainy. From her spot she could see the entire valley, and the white stars peppered the inky sky above her. "This is a very beautiful spot, Brainy."

He puffed up with pride. "Isn't it? I spent hours doing complicated equations just to figure out where the fireworks would look best."

She looked at him in awe. "You did that for me?"

He turned to face her. Were his cheeks slightly more red than usual, or was that just a trick of the lantern light? "W-well, of course, it wouldn't do for your first Fireworks Festival to be spent in a less-than-ideal area. Your neck might get cramps from craning your head to see above you. And I don't want to deal with you complaining for the entire night." He finished his thought with a semi-annoyed huff, looking so perturbed that Thoughtful couldn't help but crack a smile.

"That's very considerate of you," she humoured him. "I'm sure I'll have absolutely no reason to complain."

As Brainy opened his mouth to reply, the lantern glow quieted. Fireflies, Thoughtful figured. But how did they know to dim themselves? She turned to Brainy, fully intending to ask him, but his expression made her pause. He was staring so expectantly at the bottom of the hill, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted, that Thoughtful wondered if he was aware of his own expression. She followed his gaze to where Handy and Papa resided.

There was the flicker of fire, and an ear-splitting noise filled Thoughtful's whole body. Muscles locking unintentionally, her stare shot upwards to follow the thin beam of light headed for the sky. There was an instant of silence, then a gargantuan boom!

The sky filled with exploding colour, vibrant greens and passionate reds, popping through her senses in magnificent arrays. There was a mushroom! And the shape of a Smurf head! Even a stork that flapped its wings once before vanishing in a spray of blue sparks!

"Magic..." She hadn't realized she said it out loud until Brainy answered.

"Half magic. Papa supplies the movement, and Handy controls the technical aspect; the colour and general shape."

"It's wonderful," Thoughtful breathed, fixated on the sky.

She felt Brainy glance sideways at her, and then look back to the magnificent array of sparks. "Yes, I... I suppose it is."

More shapes went by as the two Smurfs lapsed into quiet. A bluebird swished by on feather-light wings. A live cricket supplied sound effects for its airborne likeness. The forest sped by due to a rapid succession of tree-shapes, giving the impression of flying through the woods. It was so real that Thoughtful's hands lifted from the blanket, floating at her sides like featherless wings. "It's like... like I can fly."

Brainy smiled and reached to the sky with one hand. "It is rather impressive."

"Though not like a stork," Thoughtful admitted, letting her hands settle on the blanket.

"Agreed." Brainy followed suit, but jerked back again when his hand accidentally rested on hers. "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to~"

"No, it's all right, really," Thoughtful protested. Brainy wasn't watching the fireworks anymore, gaze solidly on her hand.

"It's so cold."

All at once, she was aware of the cool night biting into her skin through her poncho. She watched as Brainy hesitantly set his hand over hers again, light as thistledown. Not that she minded: his hand was warm.

Then she looked into his eyes, the fireworks reflecting off his glasses like a private show, just for the two of them. Maybe the light was reflecting off hers as well? Was that what he was watching so intently? The reflection shimmered, distorted, as Brainy inched closer. An invisible thread pulled Thoughtful towards Brainy, like she was being controlled...

A bang, a flash, and the hill was alive with screaming. Jerked back into awareness, Thoughtful located the source of the commotion: Gargamel leered on the opposite side of the creek, advancing with sinister purpose. Azrael prowled close at his heels, licking his whiskers in anticipation.

Brainy was up in an instant, along with the other spectator Smurfs. Full panic mode, he screeched, "I knew it! I knew it would lead to this! Every Smurf for himself!" And he was off in a blue blur, as per typical Brain fashion. Mass chaos descended on the hill as Smurfs fled for cover in a crushing wave, Gargamel right behind them with a malicious grin and a net.

The Smurfs' terror, more contagious than any plague, spurned Thoughtful into action and she raced in the direction of the village. All tentative alliance with Azrael gone, every bit of her energy was poured into getting as far away from the human as possible. Around her~ close, too close~ others were snapped up by Gargamel's oily hands and vanished, screaming, into the net. Instinct overrunning strategy, Thoughtful leaped into a dive roll as the hand swooped towards her like a vulture. Her trajectory carried her through a screen of bush and into the cover of the undergrowth.

She ran for what felt like ages, only stumbling to a stop when the mushroom houses of the village loomed before her in the darkness. She pulled oxygen to her lungs, mind gradually returning with her breath. She... she left them. She left the entire village to fend for themselves, like a coward. What if they were all captured? What if they were, Smurf forbid, killed? The only family she had ever really known, mass murdered because she ran... No, attacks from Gargamel came all the time, surely other Smurfs avoided capture.

But... what if they hadn't?

Answers came in the form of a cannonball hurling her to the ground. Further inspection revealed the cannonball to be none other than Scaredy Smurf, drenched in a cold sweat and trembling so hard Thoughtful feared he might fall apart. He uttered a little scream at the sight of her beneath his weight, and scrambled to his feet so she could stand. "T-Thoughtful! You es-escaped!"

She grasped his hands in a near-desperate fit of relief, clinging to them like lifelines. "Scaredy! Thank smurfness, I thought I was the only one to get back to the village!"

"M-maybe we a-are the only one-ones." Scaredy stammered, wild eyes darting about as if anything could jump from the shadows. His anxiety made Thoughtful twitchy, and she found herself scanning the surrounding brush as well.

"Let's get deeper into the village. It's not safe out here on the outsmurfs."

Together, too nervous to let go of the other's hand, they wove their way through the dirt paths, on the lookout for Smurf escapees. "P-Papa Smurf's mushroom," Scaredy stuttered. "Everyone would g-gather at Papa's mushroom."

His instincts proved to be correct. When they arrived at the center of the village, Papa's mushroom glowed dimly from the inside, a welcome change from the rest of the dark houses. Silently, Thoughtful and Scaredy slipped through the door.

The image that greeted them both lifted a weight on Thoughtful's chest, and compressed it further. Only half dozen other Smurfs greeted their arrival. Not everybody was caught, but on the other hand this meant over three quarters of the village lay in Gargamel's clutches. She scanned the gathered Smurfs. Those she noticed at the top of the hill, such as Gutsy and Hefty, or the small, quick Smurfs like Timid and Jokey huddled around a lantern like refugees after a disaster. Thoughtful and Scaredy integrated, welcomed into the circle where Hefty and Gutsy were already planning a break out.

As they fired ideas back and forth, Thoughtful's eyes glazed out of focus. The background noise quieted, the world faded to her senses until she finally looked up to realize that the mushroom had taken the odd sepia colour that always cloaked her 'visions'.

The gathering wasn't unlike her current location. More muted colours than blue and white, though, dull greens and smudged browns and rusty reds adorned the Smurfs that now surrounded her. There were far more, at least twenty, huddled around a tiny candle. The shadows danced, not like at her memory of the campfire dance, but eerily shuddering like the fear of their owners was projected into them.

"~and we all get out through the window. Easy."

Hefty's final words tore Thoughtful, blinking, from her memory. She shifted nervously and rubbed her hands together. Why was she so cold all of a sudden?

"Sounds like a plan," Gutsy agreed. "Simple. In, out, no fuss. Let's go now." The two of them moved towards the door.

"Wait!"

All eyes turned to Thoughtful before she realized she'd spoken. With all attention on her, she fidgeted a bit. "It's just that... it's barely been ten minutes since the attack. What if there are other Smurfs hiding in the forest? Shouldn't we wait for them before we go?"

A beat of silence. Hefty came up to put a strong arm around her shoulders, a sympathetic grin on his face. Thoughtful relaxed marginally. "Always thinking of others first, huh?"

"That's our Thoughtful." Gutsy nodded firmly. "I say we wait another twenty minutes, that should give ol' Sausage Nose time to fall asleep. If no one else shows their face by then, we head out to the wizard's hovel." General agreement all around, and the Smurfs settled down to wait.

Five minutes passed.

Ten.

Fifteen.

The door to the mushroom didn't open once.

Twenty minutes on the mark, Gutsy stood and brushed off his kilt. "That's it then, lads. And lassie. Off we pop." He started the expedition into the dark forest, the moon his only guide.

Thoughtful hung near the back of the group, her hand in Scaredy's as emotional support, and her mind wandered. A hundred Smurfs had been captured. How on Earth had Gargamel managed to capture the entire village sans seven? She'd heard of him catching maybe five or six at a time, smurf, even SHE'D been captured once or twice in the time she'd been here, but never had she seen anything to this degree. Not in a simple run-and-snatch, anyway. Maybe he'd heightened his reflexes with a potion, or made himself faster with an evil spell. Did he accomplish this task naturally? Was he just getting faster, more experienced, in his old age? Thoughts plagued her head until she bumped right into Dreamy. Only upon his startled hiss did she glance up. They stood before the looming figure of Gargamel's abode, moon appropriately behind a cloud to make the shadowed silhouette even more imposing. Thoughtful half expected lightning to burst behind the stone tower.

With a growled command from Gutsy, the group surged forward, crouching as low as possible in the limited cover of the clearing. Seven silent shadows, they crept into the building by way of the rotted hole Azrael used as a cat door. Thoughtful just hoped he wasn't waiting on the other side. Upon entry, they paused to allow their eyes to adjust to the darkness.

No wizard in sight. Nor his cat.

"T-they're lurking here. S-somewhere," Scaredy stammered, voice barely a whisper. Thoughtful patted his hand, trying to reassure him. She could feel him twitching like a cornered animal even in the blackness.

Sensing his brother's distress, Timid came around and took his other hand. "No, they're over in bed. Listen."

Absolute silence as the Smurfs strained their ears for any sign of the wizard. Deep, rumbling breaths, along with croaking sleep talk, rose from the corner bed like thunderclouds. Smaller, hissing sighs and tiny mews verified that Azrael was dead to the world as well.

"Perfect," Hefty pumped his fist a bit, celebrating a small victory. "Now does anyone see the~"

Jokey interrupted with a tug on Hefty's arm, pointing to the table in the center of the hovel. "There, there's a cage. See it?"

Straining her eyes, Thoughtful could just see the outlines of a cage near the edge of the table. There was no way every Smurf in the village could fit inside comfortably, and Thoughtful supposed there was quite a lot of feet-treading going on.

"I see it," Hefty confirmed. "Okay, perfect. Now, Jokey, you and Scaredy get the window latch open so we have another escape route if needed. Dreamy, you and Timid keep watch over Gargasmell. Gutsy, Thoughtful, you're with me. We're getting the others out of there."

Thoughtful balked. "What? Me?"

Gutsy came up at her side, winking roguishly. "I'll protect ye if need be, if that's what yer worried about."

"Come on, we don't have much time." Hefty jerked his head in the direction of the cage, and the split groups separated.

Thoughtful couldn't remember ever being so tense as she snuck across the stone floor. Exposed. Like a nerve. Every muscle coiled to the snapping point. Was this what hunted prey felt like? Suspended constantly in the moment right before the predator pounced? She prayed Timid and Dreamy were keeping an eye on the predator.

They reached the cover of the table and scaled a leg, crouching like statues on the top in case their movement had been detected. When the lump that was Gargamel didn't stir, they moved to the cage door.

The rest of the Smurfs, while no doubt thrilled to see them, kept almost totally silent. Hefty embraced Handy best he could through the bars, and the two of them set to work on the lock. Gutsy began to scan for the key if needed. Thoughtful, at a loss of what else to do, began to make her way around the cage perimeter. She would try to offer words of comfort and encouragement to those inside. At least, until a hand grabbed her wrist.

Her first instinct was to pull away, but she found herself staring into the open, frightened face of Brainy Smurf. Her heart flooded in relief, a burden lifting that she wasn't even aware had been present until now. "Brainy," she risked a whisper, "you're okay."

"Thoughtful, I'm sorry."

She blinked. "What?"

"I'm sorry I ran. I really am. I promise I won't run if this ever happens again. Just please, please get me out. I'm so sorry."

The poor Smurf trembled in terror, hands shaking on the bars of the cage. He wouldn't meet her eyes. Oh, Smurf above, could she blame him? When a monstrous giant ran towards you and you ran, was that a crime? Of course not, it would be like blaming a rabbit from running from a wolf. It was just how life went on.

Thoughtful lurched forward, grasping his shaking hands in hers. If there was any way on the earth she could comfort him, she would. "Brainy, it's all right. Really. You did nothing wrong."

He finally glanced up, shyly. "Y...you're not angry?"

"I can run perfectly well on my own, thank you." A wry grin wormed its way over her mouth. "But next time, you should run a little faster."

Brainy stared at her for a beat, like he couldn't quite believe her, but then straightened. He drew his hands from hers in order to cross his arms indignantly. "Well. The only reason I really got captured was because I turned around to look for you."

Some things never changed. Letting him believe what he wanted to believe, Thoughtful continued her patrol around the cage. She frowned. Some of the Smurfs were injured. How did that occur? And why was there a knot of Smurfs in the middle of the cage?

She grabbed for an arm in the throng of blue bodies and hooked an elbow. She squinted, trying to see who she'd dragged up. The light of the grimy window didn't reach to the far side of the cage. Luckily, her captive gave her a pretty good clue as he tripped and fell into the bars with a strangled oof.

"Clumsy! Thank smurfness." She pulled him to his feet.

"Thoughtful? Is that you?"

"It's me. Are you okay? Why are the others hurt?"

His voice developed an unnatural waver, speaking so quickly it seemed like his words launched without direct input from his brain. "I-it was a new spell. He- Gargamel - was s-so fast. Grabbed some and knocked some into trees and rocks and I was running and I tripped and fell but I'm okay but some other Smurfs were hurt real bad a-and Papa... Papa..."

Thoughtful soothed her brother best she could, whispering encouragement until he calmed down a little. "Clumsy, what happened to Papa?"

"H-he hit his head." Still shaken, but Clumsy attempted to get his breathing under control. "Knocked out. Trying to help me. Golly, Thoughtful, if he doesn't make it because of me~"

"He's survived worse," she reassured, though none of the 'worse' she'd seen personally. From stories of Papa's heroics, the elder was more robust than anyone gave him credit for. She would have said more, but as she looked to Clumsy again, her head swam. He transformed into a different Smurf, delicate hands and dull pink clothes draped over a frail, thin body. Unseen light glinted off tear trails on the Smurf's face, mouth set in a hard line. Dark shapes swarmed on either side of the figure, like phantoms of other creatures.

The vision couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds, but it left her stomach churning like a lake in a storm. The back of her head began to throb. To quench her nausea, and conceal her sudden loss of reality, she quickly asked, "is anyone else hurt badly?"

Clumsy shook his head, none the wiser. Thank smurfness. "Greedy's foot got caught in his picnic basket. Dabbler thinks he pulled something. But everyone else is okay that I heard. We're getting out of here, right Thoughtful?"

She smiled fondly. "Clumsy, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that Hefty and Gutsy will get all of you out safely. Don't you worry."

"I'll try not to, but it's awful hard."

Bless the innocent Smurf. "I know. I'll go see if they're almost done, okay?" Pulling away, she rounded the corners to the front again. Gutsy stood on Hefty's shoulders, picking the lock through Handy's direction. They'd better finish soon. The longer she waited in Gargamel's hovel, the more she felt like a sitting duck. It was all she could do to keep from squirming, occupying her hands with massaging the back of her head. When had this pounding migraine started?

"Perfect. Now grab the second wire, not the first, and pull hard," Handy relayed.

"Aye, I feel it..." A quick tug, a metallic clank, and the lock sprung open.

"Lift it out of the loop. Carefully!"

Gutsy eased the lock upward, muscles straining. He couldn't quite seem to get it high enough to remove. With a mighty heave, it came up and out of its loop.

Unbalancing both Gutsy and his leg support.

Thoughtful watched with baited breath as the whole tower came tumbling down slow-motion style. Gutsy's breath released upon impact, a sharp grunt escaping his lungs. The lock bounced once on the tabletop, ear-splittingly loud after such a long, tense silence, and thumped to the floor.

Azrael shot awake in an instant, master following suit. "What the- What is the meaning of~" Upon sight of the cage door open and Smurfs rapidly scrambling from the hovel, the wizard's thought deteriorated into an outraged screech. "No! You can't escape from me! Get back here, you wretched blue beasts!"

The stone hut descended into chaos, wizard and cat lunging for their escaping quarries. Whatever spell he must have cast before had worn off, because the human moved like he always had.

As much as Thoughtful wanted desperately to run, she stayed rooted to her spot by the cage door, ushering the other Smurfs to freedom. Luckily enough, Gargamel seemed interested only in the Smurfs below waist-level.

Papa was taken first, vanishing through the window in the arms of two others. Everyone followed after, those weakened supported by their family. Anyone uninjured set about distracting Gargamel and his cat with well-timed taunts or physical blows. With the human's distractible tendencies, the hovel emptied of anything small and blue; save Hefty, positioned by the window, and Thoughtful, who lingered to make sure no one was left behind.

Good thing she did. With scampering targets flowing through the exits, Gargamel turned on the slow ones. Namely Greedy. Sometime during the flee to freedom, he'd lost his crutch and staggered along the uneven cobbles like a Smurf possessed.

Leaping from the table, Thoughtful swooped under his arm. Half pushing, half dragging, she yanked him towards the exit running on panicked adrenaline. Smurfs above, he was heavy. It was like carting around a full grown rabbit with a hungry wolf right on their tails. She's never be able to get him to safety alone.

Luckily, she wasn't. Hefty darted to her side, lifting Greedy's weight from her shoulders.

"Get out of here," he growled, straining. "We'll be right behind you!" Greedy smiled weakly beside his brother, a sorry attempt at reassurance.

No way would they make the exit.

Not without a distraction, that is.

She spared a precious second to lay a hand on Hefty's shoulder. "Go. Now."

He wanted to argue. Thoughtful could tell even as she sprinted towards Gargamel. After that, all sight of the two Smurfs was lost.

Gargamel took to bait like a dim-witted fish. He lumbered after Thoughtful, fast by his terms, but slow by a Smurf's. Azrael was harder to avoid. After leading them on a less-than-merry chase throughout the room, and affirming that Hefty and Greedy were nowhere to be found, she thought it time to leave.

Performing an abrupt one-eighty, she bolted through Gargamel's legs and sprinted straight for the hole by the door. Outdoors, it was only a short dash to the cover of the forest, where even a dragon could lose the bumbling human. She could make it.

The moment she broke through the tunnel exit, light blinded her.

She still ran, but over craggy rock instead of spongy grass. Dust lay on her tongue like a disease, the hot sun blaring down mercilessly.

Reality choked her, and Thoughtful's head all but exploded.

Her head. Her stomach. The pain.

Dimly, she felt herself skid on hard ground. She couldn't move, could hardly breathe. All she could see was a tiny pinprick of light a thousand miles away. It was fading. Was it fading? No, don't go... She couldn't think. Thought. Was that her?

A voice fell on her, smothered in cotton. "At least we'll get one..."

The pinprick vanished.


Movement.

Blackness.

Voices.

Voices?

Blackness.

Movement.

Yelling?

Stop yelling, it hurts.

Falling.

Falling!

Pain so much pain aching burning pain MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP.

Deep, deep blackness...