Chapter Eight: The Patrol
The world was quiet. The chilled morning air was still and a heavy mist hung down from the trees like a mysterious curtain. Blanketing the forest floor in a thick layer of ghostly white fog, leaving behind tiny droplets of morning dew along the fresh green leaves and wild blades of grass in its wake. And hidden beneath the dew lined bracken, waiting patiently for their cue, was a small patrol.
A patrol that checked and rechecked these unspoken, invisible borders that separated their territory from the much more aggressive clan on the other side, waiting for the right moment to step out into the open. The patrols leader, Fallen Pine, drew in a breath as she silently signalled to the smurfs behind her to stay put before allowing herself to sneak forward, ducking beneath the blanket of ghostly white. Keeping her seafoam blue gaze on the branches above as she crossed over onto their territory. The moment she crossed the border she could feel their hidden gaze upon her, the tree bound warriors knew they were here. The moment she crossed their border they knew.
With a shuddering breath, Fallen Pine stood. The mist parting for a few mere moments before fearlessly wrapping its ghostly tendrils around the smurfette, making her shiver slightly at the mist's morning chill.
"Warriors of the sky!" Fallen Pine called out to the tree bound warriors. She hesitated for a moment, she could feel their hate and suspicion filled glares burning into her. If looks could kill, she was certain would have burst into flames right then and there, "I come here in peace on behalf of Jagged Rock to discuss a childling you've been hiding within your camp!"
There were several minutes of silence as the tree bound warriors softly spoke to each other, Trying to figure out if they should even bother talking to her or if they should chase her out now before she caused any trouble. The smurfette's seafoam gaze did not once leave the murky entanglement of branches above as she and her patrol waited with baited breath. Silently praying to the spirits that the tree bound warriors still knew what mercy was. Another moment of near deafening silence passed before one of the warriors jumped down from their perch, dissipating the ghostly fog below them upon landing on the damp ground below.
Fallen Pine took a step back as the warrior's cold light blue gaze narrowed at her. She recognised this warrior for she had fought him several times before, it was the Clan of the Sky's leader himself: Mountain. The warrior pointed his bone tipped spear at her and spoke with a low, stern yet cold tone, "And what exactly does that tyrant want with this childing?"
The smurfette quickly gathered her courage and pushed the spear away from her throat nonchalantly, "I'm surprised you don't know her, she ran off during her change." She replied simply, "Recently rumors have reached our territory that you've brought her into your ranks." Fallen Pine explained, daring to take a step forward, "Jagged Rock has sent me to retrieve her peacefully."
Mountain stared at her for a minute longer before lowering his bone tipped spear with a sigh, "Silent Secret will not go along quietly," He told the smurfette with a shake of his head, "I can bring her here, but I can't promise that she'll return to your clan without a fight."
"If she knows what's good for her, she'll return home." Fallen Pine stated, crossing her arms, "Her father will not be pleased if she dares to defy him again."
Mountain merely rolled his eyes, "That will be for Silent Secret herself to decide."
Fallen Pine's seafoam pool narrowed at the warrior as she scoffed in response, "Whatever, just bring the childling to the border at dawn." The smurfette snapped as she turned to walk back onto her territory, "Unless you want to disrupt the tense 'peace' our clans have over a dead traitor." She murmured with an amused huff.
Mountain couldn't help but glare sharply at the smurfette, he could feel his blood boiling at those words. He clenched his fists, just barely able to restrain himself from picking up his spear and striking her down right then and there! But he couldn't, as much as he wanted to retaliate, he couldn't. Not with that patrol watching his every move.
"Believe me! She'll be here! Only she can choose which clan she belongs to!" Mountain snapped back, before adding with a soft growl "And Dune was not a traitor..."
Fallen Pine merely chuckled, pausing for a moment just before her clan's border to say, "For your clan's sake, you better pray to your spirits that she makes the right choice." Before stepping over the unspoken border, deciding not to respond to his last comment.
Mountain watched as the smurfette disappeared into the mist decorated bracken, swiftly followed by the patrol she arrived with. Listening carefully as their footsteps slowly faded to nothing, his mind was racing. What was he going to do?
He knew in a way the smurfette was right, if Silent Secret chose to stay then the extremely tense temporary peace they currently had could be shattered. She could very much make this war worse than it was before. He couldn't attempt to keep her hidden in the clan but he couldn't force her to go back to the Clan of Unity either, she was like her mother in that regard. Stubborn in almost every sense of the word, she wouldn't go anywhere or do anything without a fight. The state of the war was all up to her and she didn't even realize it yet.
He didn't want to put that kind of pressure on her, how could he? She was merely a childling, she shouldn't have to make decisions like this. But he couldn't keep this from her either, he couldn't lie to her about something like this. He needed to let her make her own decision. He had to tell her what was going on and have her confront Jagged Rock. He needed to hear her decision for himself, whether or not he liked it. The state of the war would now be all up to her.
Silence stared out at the sprawl of mushroom shaped houses that filled the soft dip in the earth. Watching as the smurfs below went about their day from high atop her recently found favorite perch. A branch concealed in a small tangle of thinner branches and leaves, all of which stemmed from a great tree that stood next to the soft dip and loomed over the outermost edge of the village. From this perch, the smurfette could see almost everything. She could see the smurflings playing with a smurfball, Smurfette was talking to Hefty and Clumsy as they made their way to Brainy's house. Baker and Greedy were getting on each other's nerves again while Vanity talked to himself as he stared into that hand held looking glass of his. And if she listened well, she could hear almost everything as well.
Silence closed her eyes as she drew in a deep breath of the crisp afternoon air, taking in the sweet scents of the forest around her and allowing the symphony of forest sounds and village voices to drown out her own thoughts.
Ever since the 'Hunting Incident' as the clan… the village had been calling it, Silence had found herself anxiety stricken as of late and the looks almost everyone kept giving her didn't help. She found herself avoiding those that gave her those looks and despite Papa telling her it was alright to do so, she'd stopped hunting. She had also forced herself to stop eating meat just so they would stop looking at her like an exceptionally patient predator that could turn mean at any moment.
So for the past week, she had been eating nothing but an assortment of fruits and vegetables. Well, except for smurfberries. She'd tried them before and while admittedly they did taste sweet and smell amazing, for some reason she just couldn't keep the berries down. She got sick everytime she ate them and she wasn't sure why… In fact Silence noticed that a few days into her new diet it was getting tougher to keep anything down. She did her best to keep everything she ate in her stomach but it would always come back up one way or another and even after it all came back up, she'd still be hungry afterward. It was a seemingly never ending cycle. She was starting to think that changing her diet so abruptly like this was not such a good idea.
But she couldn't change her mind now! She'd already made her choice and now she had to live with it, she just had to deal with the stomach aches, painful puking and near constant hunger. It would go away with time… at least she hoped it would… No, it was fine, she was fine. She didn't need to tell anyone about this, she could handle this sickness on her own. She didn't need anybody's help.
The sound of distant buzzing brought Silence out of her thoughts. She at first attempted to ignore it, that was until she realised the buzzing was getting closer. It sounded like it was coming from buzzing bloodsuckers but bigger. The smurfette sat up and looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She stood up and tip-toed to the edge of the branch, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever creature was making that buzzing noise, or creatures? Why did it sound like there was more than one? It sounded like there was a small army of buzzing bloodsuckers on their way.
She watched the skies warily, searching for whatever was buzzing. Soon, she caught sight of what was making all that buzzing, a small patrol of what appeared to be multicolored flying bugs with what appeared to be smurfs riding on their backs. A patrol of smurfs from a different clan, possibly the smurfette clan she heard so much about. Silence eyed the patrol as they landed in the village center before jumping down from her perch, wanting to find out more. Wanting to know why they were here. The smurfette raced down the hill and jumped onto the roof of one of the nearby mushroom houses, swiftly bounding from rooftop to rooftop until she reached the village center. She hid herself behind the roof's chimney to observe the patrol that had just arrived.
They seemed friendly enough, happily greeting the smurfs like they were seeing old friends. Which she supposed wasn't surprising to see, since the two clans already knew each other and were in fact friends. Despite this however, she still felt the need to hang back and watch this patrol carefully. Were they simply here to visit or did they want something?
A smurfette with silver hair tied up into a pair of twin buns greeted Papa with a friendly hug and playful banter. Silence assumed she was the leader of the smurfette clan, "Well Papa Thing, where's this 'Stone Smurfette' I've heard so much about?" Silence heard her ask, her sapphire pools scanning the village center in search of her. So that's what they were doing here… they were looking for her.
"Oh, she's around." Papa replied as he too looked around to see if she was nearby, "She's probably watching from a distance if she hasn't noticed you all arrive yet."
"Is she now?" The silver haired smurfette questioned, "She shy?"
The old smurf chuckled, "A little, give her time. She'll come out." He told her. Silence couldn't help but roll her eyes at this, she was not shy in the slightest! Just careful.
"Hope she comes out of hiding soon," The old smurfette replied, crossing her arms, "We're really looking forward to meeting her."
Silence meanwhile was slightly hesitant. She wanted to step out of her hiding place and greet this patrol like everyone else, it's what she should be doing… So why wasn't she moving? You know what, she would move when she was good and ready, it wouldn't hurt to observe for a little longer. As the two smurfs' conversation faded into the background, Silence turned her attention to the other smurfettes that were chatting to the smurfs that had come to greet them. And as she watched, she couldn't help but notice an interesting resemblance between this patrol and the Clan of the Sky. It wasn't a big resemblance, but for her it was still kinda noticeable. She couldn't exactly see their tails so she couldn't tell how long they were but their strong looking slightly pointed nails were perfect for climbing, which meant they most likely lived in a tree. So, she couldn't help but wonder, were they really the descendants of the Clan of the Sky?
Was their tribe all that was left? Or was this all just wishful thinking and she was simply seeing things that weren't there. Silence knew there was only one way to find out, she had to talk to them. But why couldn't she move? Why was she just staring? Why won't she move!
Silence swore she spent several minutes staring, before a curious sounding bird like coo caught her attention. The smurfette stiffened and turned to find a familiar looking reddish-pink furred creature standing behind her, its large rabbit like ears flopped slightly to the side as it softly tilted its head while it stared up at her with large topaz eyes in confusion as if to ask 'what are you doing up here?'
Silence could only stare back, almost in disbelief. For a moment she couldn't tell if this creature was actually real or not. For the creature standing there behind her was a smoogle!
Smoogles were extremely rare creatures. Said to be bringers of good luck partially through their ability to mimic any sound, whether it be the songs of birds or a few meager words. Silence had never really gotten the chance to see one up close before because they were so incredibly rare, but now there was one standing before her. But where in the world did this smoogle come from, she thought they only lived in castles. At least that's what she'd heard, royals used to keep them as pets in their castles to bring them good fortune, that and the fact that they lived longer than most pets back then, thanks to their slow growth rate. She knew the Fairy and Pixie kingdoms had a few, but other than that she hadn't heard of them being anywhere else.
But if that was really the case then, why was this smoogle here? Did this smoogle belong to someone? It probably belonged to the smurfette tribe. Then again if they lived in the same magical jungle that the Clan of the Sky lived in then it would make sense that they'd want a smoogle around to bring them luck.
"Hello there, little smoogle." Silence spoke softly to the creature, "Where did you come from?"
The smoogle merely stared for a moment longer, before it's topaz gaze shifted down to her hand. The creature gave her fingers a curious sniff, it's little nose, which sat atop it's little white muzzle, twitching a bit as it began to sniff her palm. Silence let it sniff at her, finding this little smoogle to be quite cute.
The smoogle drawled out a low purr like coo under its breath as it continued to sniff at her hand before suddenly letting out a sharp horn blare in delight causing the smurfette to jump in shock at the sudden blare as it bounced away from her and jumped off the roof, much to Silence's utter confusion. She watched as the smoogle trotted over to one of the smurfettes, who knelt down to greet the reddish-pink furred creature.
"Smoogle? Was that you? How did you get here, you little stowaway?" She cooed to the creature, who cooed happily, jumping up and down excitedly all while pointing at her hiding place. The smurfette looked up at where the little smoogle was pointing and caught sight of her, much to Silence's anxiety and slight frustration. The smurfette smiled upon seeing her and turned to her tribemate, getting her attention before pointing her out. "Hey, look what Smoogle found Stormy!" She exclaimed excitedly, making her tribemate grin along with her.
"What's she doing on that roof?" Stormy chuckled, making her tribemate shrug, "You know we can see you right?" She called out, catching every smurf within earshot's attention, "It's no use hiding, you might as well come down!"
Silence quietly sighed, knowing that the smurfette was right, they already knew she was here, there was no point in hiding anymore. So, she stepped out from behind the chimney and jumped down to the ground below. Carefully scanning the village center around her, she could see everyone staring at her. Time to make a good first impression, she already had a wonderful start thanks to that smoogle.
Silence took a silent breath before greeting the smurfette tribe, "Hello." She smiled simply, giving the tribe a little wave, hoping that she didn't look awkward at all, "I'm Silence." She introduced herself politely, giving them a light bow without thinking. Upon realising what she was doing, Silence was quick to right herself, she stood up straight and hoped they didn't notice that.
The silver haired smurfette softly grinned back as she stepped toward Silence, "Well, It's nice to meet you Silence." She lightly bowed back before holding her hand out for a hand shake, which Silence took, albeit a little hesitantly, "I am SmurfWillow and I see you've already met Smoogle." Willow added as the reddish-pink creature trotted up to her, softly purring and cooing to nothing under its breath as it wrapped its arms around the smurfette's leg, the smoogle gave her leg a light squeeze as he nuzzled it joyfully.
"That I have." Silence nodded, watching as Willow gave the smoogle a pat on the head, "Your smoogle is a sneaky little one, I'll give him that."
"I guess he heard us talking about you and wanted to meet you too." Willow speculated as she quietly shooed the creature away, who immediately trotted off upon hearing the sound of Baby giggling somewhere in the village. The smoogle echoed the baby smurf's giggles as he went off to find the infant. Silence eyed the creature for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Willow.
Silence quietly drew in a breath to speak, only to be quickly interrupted by one of the smurfettes she had seen excitedly talking to Smurfette and Hefty. Silence swore she came out of nowhere, she simply appeared in front of her, quickly introduced herself as SmurfBlossom then began to ask her questions. Asking her questions so quickly that Silence couldn't understand anything she was saying, least of all how to answer any of the questions that she just barely heard.
"Hi I'm SmurfBlossom! Your name is Silence! That's such a pretty name! Are you called Silence because you don't talk much or are you really really sneaky Oh wow, are your eyes glowing? How'd you get them to do that? Is it natural or magic?" Blossom then turned her attention to her clothes, holding up her arm so she could look at her sleeve more closely, "Wow, your clothes look so cool! Where'd you get them? Did you make them? Oh, what are they made of?" Silence took a step back, suddenly starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of questions being asked so quickly. Though it didn't seem the smurfette was taking the hint, she simply stepped closer as she continued to ask more and more questions. She was right in her face, seemingly looming over her. Silence was doing everything in her power to resist the urge to snap at the chatterbox smurfette that refused to stop talking. She shifted her gaze away, searching for some smurf to help her, to get Blossom to back off.
Thankfully, as if someone out there were listening to her silent prayers, one of the smurfettes finally stepped up to pull Blossom away, "SmurfBlossom, remember what we talked about." She chastised softly.
Blossom nodded rapidly, "Right right, filters!" She replied cheerfully as she was pulled away and
"Sorry about her," The smurfette apologized on behalf of her tribemate, "Blossom gets really excited when she meets someone new."
Silence took a moment to catch her breath, she needed to calm down. She was fine, everything was fine. The smurfette drew in a quick breath before replying, "It's fine. Though I've never met a smurf so… chatty."
"Yeah, that's SmurfBlossom for you." Stormy pipped up, stepping toward her and offering her hand in greeting, "Names SmurfStorm." She introduced herself.
Silence took her hand, "Silence, nice to meet you." She greeted the smurfette simply, giving her a friendly smile.
As Silence found herself in another round of introductions and, thankfully less speedy, questions. Willow turned back to Papa, wanting to let the ancient smurfette meet the rest of the smurfs she brought to the village with her.
"Well, what do you think?" The smurf asked curiously.
"I think your Stone Smurfette has got some issues." Willow replied, crossing her arms, "You didn't exactly tell me what she did to be trapped in stone, or did she not tell you anything?"
Papa shook his head, "Unfortunately no, the only bit of her history that I've gotten from her is that she had been a part of… some war." He told her quietly, not wanting the others to overhear. He didn't want to tell them anything until he got the full story, "And that smurfs back then apparently hunted for their food."
"That's it?" Willow questioned, a bit surprised she hadn't said anything more, she glanced down at the ground for a moment in thought, "Maybe we'll be able to get some answers out of her, perhaps have her look at those abandoned ruins we discovered a while back."
"Someone say something about ancient ruins?" The pair of smurfs look to find Silence standing in front of them listening to their conversation, she stared curiously, "How old are we talking?"
"Not sure," Willow replied after a moment of quiet, "It looked like it's been around for a while when we found it. We were thinking you'd like to take a look at it, see if you recognise anything."
"Sure!" Silence told her immediately with an excited nod. The chance to find out who won that war, to find out what happened to her clan was something she couldn't pass up. She wouldn't forget her promise to this clan, but she knew they could protect themselves fine, they didn't really need her. She wouldn't be gone that long anyway, just long enough to find out what happened to her clan. Maybe she'd discover the location of the Stone Graveyard or at least the location of a few stoned warriors, "I'd love to give it a look."
"Eh, it'd be great to see old Bristol again." An aged voice piped up. Silence turned to find Grandpa stepping toward them, holding his lucky cane in one hand and cradling Baby in the other with Smoogle following close behind.
"So you'll be coming back with us then?" Willow asked the elderly smurf, who nodded.
"That I am, been a while since I've been in that old jungle, be nice to see it again." Grandpa replied, handing Baby over to Papa.
"Jungle? You live in a jungle?" Silence asked, her curiosity and excitement growing by the minute. The Clan of the Sky lived in a magical jungle! Those ruins must be the clan's old camp!
"We do," Willow told her, "Why did you live in a jungle?" She asked, with a smile.
Silence nodded, "I used to." She stated simply, not wanting to give her any more information then that. Not with practically the whole village and Willow's patrol listening in, "And who's Bristol?" The smurfette asked before anyone else had the chance to ask her anything.
"Bristol's an old friend of mine, older than me by a few hundred years." Grandpa answered with a light chuckle, "We travelled a lot together back in the day before we lost each other in a cursed castle." He explained.
Silence glanced down at the little Smoogle who was still busy playing with Baby, "Is that where you found that smoogle?"
"That's where she found him, yup." Grandpa nodded, "It's quite the tale I'll tell you what."
"Sounds like an interesting one. Love to hear it on the way to the ruins." The smurfette replied with a smile, "Speaking of which, when do you all plan on heading out?" Silence asked excitedly, turning to Willow.
"Soon," The smurfette told her simply, "I was going to let everyone catch up for a bit before we set off again."
Silence gave a nod of understanding. She guessed it had been a while since the two clans had seen each other, of course they'd want to talk with each other for a bit before they left, she could wait a little longer, "Understandable."
Soon, she'd have the answers to her questions. Those ancient ruins just had to have the answers she was looking for.
(A/N): Hey, been awhile I know. There's been a lot going on over here as of late, so I wasn't able to update. But thankfully I'm back in the swing of things and I'll hopefully be updating more often! I'll mostly be focusing on this story for now though and since I'm so close to chapter ten, I was thinking of answering a few questions when I do release chapter ten. So, if you readers have any questions feel free to ask in the comments or over on my Tumblr! So, until the next chapter! I'll see you guys next time!