Chapter Twenty-Nine: "Ariel… Smurf?"

The next morning, everyone woke up at once. Everyone, that is, except Ariel.

"Has anyone seen her this morning?" Papa asked, worried that his one true daughter had run off.

Brainy seemed to be the only one who wasn't concerned. He stood at the edge of the room, acting as if nothing was wrong. But the truth was that he was too scared to look.

Suddenly, he noticed something. Just through the corner of his eye, he saw it: Ariel's cloak.

"Papa!" He exclaimed, approaching the pile of black fabric. "Isn't this her cloak?"

Papa Smurf spun around toward the sound of Brainy's voice. He noticed it, too. Then he saw something his little Smurfs apparently had not. The cloak was moving. Only slightly, but Papa could tell that it was. He knew something, or someone was in that cloak.

As Brainy came closer to the lump of black, Gutsy, Hefty, Clumsy, and Grouchy formed ranks behind him. Smurfette stood back alongside Papa, whose eyes were filled with fright.

The cluster of male Smurfs inched their way carefully forward. Brainy reached his hand out towards the cloak and gave it a quick prod. Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a small yawn.

This made them all jump. "Uh… Ariel?" Clumsy stammered. "Is that you?"

The cloak began to move. "Help!" said a muffled voice from inside. "Ge'me outta here!"

The Smurfs finally recognized the voice. "Ariel," Papa was the first to react. "Are you alright?"

"Papa?" Ariel struggled against the cloak she was entangled in. "What's going on? Where are you?"

"It's OK, Ariel," Papa replied. "We'll have you out of there in no time."

As soon as Papa had spoken, a skinny, blue arm came out through the tangled mess of black cloth. Ariel started groping at thin air, trying to find the other Smurfs.

Brainy ran to see. He reached past her arm to the bundled cloak. Carefully, he widened the opening. What he saw shocked him.

Ariel, the once-human girl, was now a Smurf. She had bright blue eyes, and her dark brown hair was so thick, it wrapped itself around her, and so long, that it ran past her feet. She was completely bare, her clothes and glasses had remained at their humanesque size.

Ariel retracted her arm back into the cloak, and backed away from Brainy, with wide eyes, into the shadows.

Brainy, with equally wide eyes, moved in complete reverse as well, then turned to Papa, "I think this is more of a job for Smurfette," he said, shaking.