The wind was howling and whistling among the rubble and trees, as if it was arranging some dramatic improvisation on a wind instrument. Its howl continued, growing stronger or weaker.

The surviving Smurfs had spent the night among the remnants of the village. Surrounded by what was left of the walls and furniture, covered with quickly found blankets, they hadn't slept peacefully. They had been tormented by nightmares about the cataclysm that had surrounded the world with its cold white hands.

Sassette woke up first. She bravely fought the disturbing demons in her own little world in the last minutes of her sleep. Her eyes moved rapidly under the closed eyelids, the redhead furrowed her forehead and nose every now and then. The Smurfess was sleeping with her arm leaning on Farmer, her cheek pressed against his arm. On her other side, her arm pressed against Handy's. Both adult Smurfs rested their faces on her head, foreheads touching.

She opened her eyes, shivering with the cold and fear and other emotions that still lingered with her. Despite the tremendous wave of chills, she moved her head carefully to study the sleeping brothers. Her awakening didn't disturb the nightmares in which the two were still engrossed. The girl leaned forward slightly, and then she slipped out from between the boys. She didn't want to wake them up, luckily she managed to slip away unnoticed. Farmer and Handy only clung tighter to each other and continued to sleep.

The young Smurfess rose slowly from the cold ground and tucked the blanket tighter around herself. The siblings had spent the night leaning against an undamaged part of the wall of one of the houses, and the remains of closets and chests of drawers had been arranged by the boys on all sides to protect them from the cold a little. Rags and blankets had been thrown over it all, almost blocking the freezing air from bursting into that hopeless and quickly constructed hideout.

The landscape exposed by the holes in that barrier remained as severe and dramatic. The glacier, frozen animals, the rest of the Smurfs, even Mother Nature, it all had happened for real, not just in some twisted nightmares. Sassette had firmly believed that when she had woken up, everything would have been as it had used to be. She had believed that she would have been greeted by the warmth of the late summer sun, the fields full of crops, and the celebrating Smurfs.

With a soft groan of despair, the girl sniffed, looking from the shelter at the remains of Grouchy's house. If there was still a house standing in the village, it wouldn't be for long. Even before the trio had gone to sleep, Grouchy's mushroom had stood quite bravely. Yet there was not much left of it this morning.

In the center of their little shelter was an died out fire. In the evening, Farmer and Handy had stubbornly been fighting the wind, trying to start a little fire to warm themselves. The well-protected fire couldn't have been blown out a long time ago, because Sassette still felt the heat on her feet, radiating from the pile of ash.

Something tapped lightly on her ankle. The Smurfess moved slightly and turned her head. Farmer's foot, still attached to the rest of Farmer of course, laid beside her ankle. The brown-haired kicked her lightly to get her attention.

When she looked at them, she met their weary and sad looks. It was immediately obvious that despite the sleep, the Smurfs hadn't rested a bit. "How are you feeling, Sassette?" Farmer muttered, pulling the leg that was extended toward her and pressing his knee against his chest.

"Not well," she mumbled, as if about to cry again. "You?"

"Mmm..." The boy shook his head sadly, looking at Handy. He nodded at him, examining the piece of cloth taped to the blond's cheek.

"It burns and stings," Handy said briefly, lifting his hands covered with cloths and unwinding the makeshift bandages. "But I'm not bleeding anymore."

Sassette stepped closer to get a glimpse of her brother's cut hands as well. The trio stared at the wounds for a moment. Farmer tightened his hand on the other Smurf's wrist, a frown on his face that was probably supposed to be a smile, then he stood up and wrapped his arm around Sassette. He looked around carefully, he was able to see more than the redhead because of his height.

The wind lost enough strength to make it a relatively safe idea to leave the hideout. Though the Smurf had no idea what they should have done in this situation, he was very desperate to do anything not to sit and sink into darker thoughts. So he pulled Sassette with him, signaling to the other two that there was no time for sentiment.

Wrapped in blankets, cold and hungry, they left the shelter. Hungry! Farmer cast a quick glance at the destroyed pantry. Certainly some food must have survived. "Okay, listen, we'll do this." The dark-haired turned to Handy and Sassette. "We'll go to the pantry, there's something to eat for sure. If it's frozen, we will defrost it by the fire. After eating, we'll look for the other Smurfs. We have to check if everysmurf is frozen..."

It was hard to hold onto the hope that someone in the village had survived the glacier. They had spent half a day and a whole night there, so someone should have found them by then. Still, Farmer stubbornly pretended that all hope was not lost yet.

He stood with Sassette in front of what was left of the pantry. The Smurfess was clutching his arm, trembling like an aspen leaf, her brow furrowed as she stared at the broken windmill. They both waited for Handy, who had squeezed through the rubble into the pantry. Of course, Farmer had protested, as he hadn't wanted the shorter boy to injure himself again. However, the blond was more agile and knew the pantry better.

After a few minutes, Handy jumped out from among the rubble, a bag slung over his shoulder.

"What does the pantry look like? Is there enough food for at least a week?" Farmer asked.

"I think we have enough food for a little longer than a week," Handy said with a grunt, throwing the bag into the snow. "There are dozen such bags with smurfberries, and wooden boxes with what was collected before the official harvest."

"We're lucky you let us take some vegetables from the field before harvesting." Sassette squeezed her brother's arm.

"Come on, let's eat in our shelter." The brown-haired picked up the sack from the ground.

Fortunately, the smurfberries were winter-hardy, as was the rest of the plant they came from. After filling their bellies, the trio took another few minutes to sit in silence. The boys hadn't managed to light the fire, so the frost was becoming less and less bearable.

Sassette decided to take a nap, even though she had just woken up. She simply didn't want to look for the others, fearing that she wouldn't find anyone alive. The brothers weren't surprised.

While the redhead was asleep curled up and covered with blankets, Farmer and Handy were sitting nearby, under one blanket, talking. "Being optimistic, we may have enough food for a month." The shorter Smurf frowned slightly. "If it turns out that we're not alone, it will be less than a month."

"Yes, I know." Farmer nodded. "Today we look for the rest of the Smurfs. I can't believe I say this, but at the moment I don't care if they are alive or dead. I want to find everysmurf today so we don't have to go back to it anymore."

"I see..." Handy looked around, sighing heavily. "This place is no longer livable, it's too dangerous."

"We'll have to find another shelter." The brown-haired shifted his eyes to huddled Sassette. "I still can't believe this is really happening."

"Yes, me too..."

Handy rested his head on his brother's shoulder and twisted his face. The wound on his cheek was still stinging and burning. Farmer didn't mind the proximity of the shorter Smurf, he honestly didn't remember when he had allowed himself a little affection with any of the villagers. It was nice, but also a shame that the boy allowed someone to be close to him only after such a tragedy.

When the wind faded a little, Farmer got up and woke Sassette. The redhead rubbed her swollen eyes, this time she didn't delude herself that she would wake up to see the beautiful end of summer and laughing siblings running around the undamaged village. The Smurfess sniffed and wrapped the blanket tighter around her, then allowed herself to be helped up.

The trio left their hideout again and stood on one of the village squares. The village looked even worse than the day before, during the night the wind had destroyed the mushrooms which had still been standing, showing its power above what the Smurfs called solid work. It was another punch for Handy, the years of hard work were in vain, one night had been enough to turn his life's work to dust.

"Well, all that's left for us to do is get down to business," Farmer sighed and took the first hesitant step forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Handy bravely followed him. Sassette, however, was stubbornly stuck in one place, her hand clenched on the sleeve of Farmer's shirt. When he felt a tug, he turned to her, ears pointed down. "What's wrong, Sassette?" The girl shook her head, glancing at random houses. The brothers exchanged looks, then Farmer covered her hand with his. "You don't want to look for the other Smurfs with us, do you?"

Sassette nodded timidly, shifting her gaze to Handy, who approached her and put his arm around her. "You don't have to go with us, nosmurf will force you to."

"Exactly. I thought you might want to do a different job anyway."

"What would I have to do?" The redhead shrugged in an attempt to warm up.

"Can you go to your house? I know that what you saw made you very sad..."

The Smurfess' gaze fell on her feet, her ears lowered, and a concerned wrinkle appeared on her forehead.

Farmer leaned in slightly, trying to make eye contact with her. "I'd like you to find as many things that may still be of use to you as possible. I mean mainly clothes, especially warm winter ones, but also other personal items, some toys and so on." The Smurf's hands tightened lightly on her elbows. "But can you do it?"

The girl watched Farmer's hands slowly move along her forearms until they touched her hands. She looked uncertainly in his eyes, and he smiled reassuringly at her. Of course, Sassette terrified the thought of re-entering the ruins of the Smurflings' house, but she would have to overcome that fear someday. The death of her brothers was a fact, and nothing could change that. She might have as well looked them straight into their frozen eyes and said goodbye this day. Therefore, she agreed to go there.

"Brave girl," Handy murmured warmly, and Farmer kissed their sister on the head.

Suddenly determined, the Smurfess ran toward what was left of her house, leaving both brothers in the middle of the ruins. Handy looked as if he didn't know what to do with his hands now that Sassette was gone. Farmer understood him perfectly, he could still feel her hands in his own. So he quickly transferred them to the shorter Smurf's hands and pressed their foreheads together, taking a deep breath. They both closed their eyes, breathing loudly but calmly.

The blond didn't want to separate again, in his opinion Farmer moved away from him much too soon, but he had no choice. If they wanted to find everyone, they had to get to work as quickly as possible.

"I'll search the northern part of the village, and you will take care of the southern part," the dark-haired decided.

"Okay," Handy answered shortly.

The taller Smurf quickly walked away without turning back. The other stood a moment longer in the same place where Farmer had left him. He looked around, ears down, wrapped the blanket tighter around himself, then headed south.

His house was located on the south-western part of the village. The day before he hadn't been able to go into this area, too distressed at the loss of everything that was dear to him. However, he was tempted to see how much of his possessions had survived the cataclysm. He didn't have much time to look at the ruins, so he just wanted to take a glance at the damage of his workshop. As he had expected, not much was left of the second biggest mushroom in the village. Well, only one wall had collapsed, and that was because the roof had fallen on it. The wind had had to tilt the roof and the wall couldn't have borne its weight.

The boy peered cautiously inside through the closest and most accessible hole. Much snow had fallen inside, and the roof had crushed everything on the right and front part of the workshop. Another tear appeared in Handy's eye, the most remembered moments of his life that he had spent here were playing out in his head. This was where all his inventions had been built, here he had fixed all the items for his brothers and sisters, the Smurfs had come here for advice and help. It had been his own little kingdom where he had felt all warm and cozy. Now only dust and snow remained of the workshop.

With a soft sniff, the blond left the area of his house in search of the Smurfs. They had found the Smurflings, Tailor and Brainy on the previous day. Papa Smurf was at Mother Nature's. That meant they had a lot of Smurfs left to find.

The boys took their first break to eat when the sun was at its zenith. The two Smurfs met at the shelter, neither said a word. They were too engrossed and mentally exhausted by the task. They both had found at least dozen bodies, but they hadn't dared to move them, that wasn't their job for then. All they had to do was find the Smurfs and make sure that no one but them had survived the glacier.

Having eaten a few smurfberries, Handy immediately returned to further searches. He was doing fairly quick and efficient job, he knew where to look for the specific Smurfs. However, he couldn't find his best friend, Hefty, anywhere. The strong Smurf wasn't in his house, neither was he at Tuffy's or Weakling's. It gave the blond hope that maybe somehow his friend had survived and was hiding from the frost.

The boy almost tripped over a lying wooden beam as he went along the road at the edge of the village. The presence of the beam was strange to him, and he began rummaging in the snow. After a while he found another beam, then another, and another one. A whole row of fallen beams stretched along the road, leading to the edge of Farmer's field. Handy's eidetic memory told him that these beams had never been there before.

Handy didn't know why the beams had ended up on the road, but assumed some Smurfs had been trying to create a barricade to stop the glacier. That plan hadn't worked, and the thought of the brothers desperately seeking help made the Smurf want to cry again.

At one point, his foot caught on something hard and hit it with his toes. Th blond hissed in pain and knelt down to rub the sore spot. In cold temperature, every hit hurt more than in warm temperature and caused a slight numbness of the area that hit something. The boy had the worst luck of the three surviving Smurfs so far.

He left one hand on his foot and the other fumbled in the snow to take revenge on the hard thing he had kicked. He was convinced he had come across an extremely hard stone. What he found was far worse than the hardest stone in Clumsy's collection.

It was a frozen part of another victim of the glacier, more precisely it was a left forearm. Handy swallowed loudly, praying mentally. The rest of the body must have laid in the same place, covered with snow. The Smurf reluctantly went to work, he didn't want to dig out another dead brother, but on the other hand he wanted to know who he had found.

He didn't have to dig long to find out. The broken forearm wasn't the only part of the body that was separated from the owner's remnants. In the snow, Handy found the entire foot, dressed in a light running shoe, and he knew. With tears in his eyes, he realized that he had found his best friend. Tears blurred his vision as he pulled out the remaining parts of Hefty's body from under the snow.

The other arm was completely detached from the torso. The blond gently touched the area where a red tattoo was with his fingertips, sobbing loudly. He put the arm aside and tugged on the top of the Smurf hat peeking out from under the snow. It was the heaviest part, because apart from the hat, there was the whole head, neck, shoulders, part of the left arm and part of the torso.

Hefty's dead gaze was full of determination and love for the whole village. Handy could easily imagine his best friend standing proudly, looking death straight in the eye. Now Hefty's eyes were fixed on him.

"Hefty..." The blond felt his lips tremble, and tears freeze quickly despite their rather high temperature. His hands gently touched the frozen Smurf's cheeks. "I can't go on without you... Or without Papa... Or even without Brainy..."

Handy huddled in the snow, pressing his forehead to Hefty's head and sobbing. His whole body was shaking with cold and despair, he felt almost physical pain for which there was no cure. For a moment he thought of nothing but death. Further existence made no sense to him at the moment. Immersed in these thoughts, he was freezing alone in the snow for several minutes, ignoring his surroundings.

He was broken out of this depressive trance by Farmer. The dark-haired stood for a while beside him, not knowing what to do. Hefty and Handy were best friends, there was no other such pair of friends among the Smurfs. If they weren't so different from each other, both in appearance and interests, one could say that they were twins. Personally, Farmer didn't have such a relationship with any of the siblings in the village and this fact didn't disturb him in any way. For that reason, he couldn't say that he knew how Handy was feeling at the moment.

After a moment, he crouched down beside him and shook him slightly. "You'll get sick," he muttered, clenching his hand on the blond's shoulder. Handy didn't answer, but opened his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know you two were very close to each other and you hoped you'd find him in better condition."

"I didn't find him anywhere you'd expect him to be." The shorter Smurf sniffed. "I knew the chances were slim, but I really believed that maybe he had managed to escape..." The boy curled up even tighter, turning his face into the snow and crying louder.

Farmer allowed him to do so, but stayed with him, hand on his shoulder.

Another few minutes had passed, and Handy almost cried himself to sleep. He rubbed his eyes and looked up uncertainly at Farmer kneeling next to him. The brown-haired watched the surroundings. The sun emerged from behind the clouds, and the white of the snow was almost blinding. The bright afternoon contrasted with the atmosphere in the village.

"I'm sorry," Handy muttered, getting up slowly from the ground. "Did you search the entire north side?"

"Don't apologize. I searched most of it, yeah. Unfortunately, I found only dead Smurfs. I need your help, if you're able to help of course..."

"Yes, sure." The blond sniffed, but stood up to follow Farmer. "What is it about?"

"I was at Smurfette's house. I'd like you to help me hide her body."

Handy's ears stood up in obvious surprise. "Why?"

"Sassette saw way too much," Farmer began to explain. "I don't want her to have to see her only sister in such state."

Handy nodded after a second of reflection, then looked away for a quick glance at the pieces of Hefty's body. With concern, he ran the tip of his tail over his best friend's ice-bound face with one last loud sniff, then followed Farmer.

Smurfette's pink house had been damaged in a really weird way, according to Handy. The roof was dented in the center of the house, as if a tree had fallen perfectly in the center of the mushroom, dividing the house into two equal parts. Parts of the walls had fallen off on each side, allowing the brothers to get inside.

Before entering, Farmer warned Handy about what he was about to see.

Poor Smurfette lay in the middle of the house, her face frozen in panic, her limbs frozen in a position indicating hasty movements. The blonde had probably been getting ready to run away, but the glacier had been much faster. The ceiling had collapsed straight on her, breaking her body in half at the waist.

Both Smurfs knelt by her head with tears in their eyes. "I didn't have time to say goodbye to her," Farmer muttered, touching his sister's golden hair lightly. "I wanted to bring you here as soon as possible and hide her from Sassette."

The shorter Smurf bit his lower lip and clenched his hands in his lap. He thought he had run out of tears for that day, but they were still pouring out of his eyes. The dark-haired was crying as well, but he seemed to be much calmer and more reconciled with the fate of his family. Perhaps he wanted to be strong so that Handy and Sassette could mourn. But it wasn't fair, since they each had an equal right to show their grieving.

"Okay, we need to cover her with something, whatever will do."

The Smurfs looked around the room, their eyes lingering on the shattered furniture. Handy pointed his head at the overturned closet. The furniture was in good condition, only the door had fallen off the hinges on one side. Farmer nodded and gripped the upper half of Smurfette's body. They both dragged her body to the closet, they didn't trust themselves enough to pick her up. Then Farmer volunteered to lift part of the closet, and Handy shoved both parts of Smurfette under the furniture.

When the Smurfess' body was hidden, the brothers sighed heavily, silently apologizing to their sister for treating her like that. The most important thing for them was Sassette's welfare.

Speaking of Sassette, the redhead returned to the ruin of the Smurflings' house as agreed with Farmer. The girl deliberately avoided looking at her frozen peers, focusing her eyes on her chest of drawers, which somehow had survived the cataclysm. She collected her stuff without problems, but since there were so many of them, she divided them into winter clothes and other clothes to decide which were needed the most in the situation. She obviously put aside her red winter cape, white winter hat with a pompom on the top, dark pink gloves and white boots with fur. In addition, she took a thick white sweater and thin thermoactive clothes.

She found her beloved Smurfy Lou under the rubble that was left of the Smurflings' beds. It was perhaps the only personal thing she didn't want to leave the village without.

After packing everything and wrapping it in the blanket, the redhead wasn't sure what to do. She didn't want to look for her deceased siblings, but she also didn't intend to sit idly. Even so, she spent a good long time kneeling by the chest of drawers and blocking unpleasant thoughts by talking to her doll.

When she left the house, she had no idea where Farmer and Handy were or what they were doing at the time. One part of her really wanted to look for them, as she began to feel uncomfortable without them. There was a fierce fight going on in her head for several minutes.

Finally, she went ahead, cradling Smurfy Lou to her chest. She didn't have to look for anyone, she could only walk the paths between the mushrooms, and she would certainly run into her brothers by accident. The village wasn't big enough to look for them forever after all.

Fortunately, Sassette was wearing the thick blanket, as the wind blew strongly again. The sky, however, remained clear of clouds, and the sunlight reflected off the snow in an unpleasant for the eye way. The Smurfess' red braids waved in the direction the wind blew, right and left. Medium-power blows lifted light objects and tossed them in the air.

At one point, the girl was hit in the face with a sheet of paper wrapped in a thin layer of ice. Confused by the sudden attack, she tore the paper from her nose and looked around hurriedly. There was no one in her field of vision, so the paper had been brought by the wind. The red-haired looked at the item. There were words written on the sheet, forming lines, and the lines formed rhymes. Sassette took a few more steps until behind the corner she saw the source of the paper.

It was a first page of Poet's latest poem, praising this year's crops. It was written in a very nice, almost calligraphic script, which was used by only a handful of Smurfs. The Smurfess didn't want to have to look at another froze brother, but fate gave her no choice. The redhead paused, staring at the ice statue in the distance, because that was all that was left of Poet. His face was uneasy, but not panicked. He stood proudly, exactly the same way he always had done when he had read his latest works. The only consolation for the situation was that Poet's body was complete, the nasty wind hadn't broken off any parts.

The Smurfess kept a safe distance from her dead brother, as if she was afraid that he would suddenly come to life and attack her like a feral animal. A few tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn't allow herself to sob uncontrollably again. She put the written beginning of the poem in her pocket.

Her erect ears caught the sound of footsteps. Snow crackled underfoot, the sound growing louder. It sounded like a bipedal creature, similar in size to her, and Sassette breathed a sigh of relief and turned in the direction of the sound.

"You look like you saw a ghost," Farmer said softly, smiling slightly. When his sister didn't answer nor moved from where she was standing, the boy approached her, grabbed her braids and pressed their ends to her face, creating something like a moustache. The Smurfess laughed briefly. "That's better."

"Where is Handy?"

"I think he went to his workshop." The brown-haired looked around. He frowned as he studied the statue of Poet for a moment. "Did you find what I asked you to?" he asked, looking back at the younger Smurfess.

"Yes, I packed my winter clothes and my doll."

"Very well. Handy is doing the same right now and I'm also going to get to my house somehow. I'd like us to take warm clothes, some personal belongings and look for useful utility goods in other houses. For example, kitchen utensils from Chef's and Baker's houses will be useful."

Handy joined the siblings with slightly lowered ears and eyes bloodshot from crying. When Sassette looked at him, he smiled, not wanting to make her even sadder, and touched the tip of her nose with his finger. "Boop," he murmured.

The redhead laughed again and the brothers followed her example.