Chapter Seven: The Crystal Pyramid
"Those unsmurfy noises are coming from that big patch of mushrooms in the middle of the clearing just ahead," said the middle aged Smurf, who had taken the lead as the three Smurfs crept through the forest. Brainy gave a start. He recognized this clearing, even though it looked completely different from the way he knew it. This small clearing, packed with thick-stalked mushrooms, was where Smurf Village would one day stand. The beardless Smurf noticed his reaction, but misinterpreted it as fear.
"We'll be all right," he said, trying to comfort him. "Smurf has a great deal of experience in tracking and spying."
"I'm not scared," said Brainy, a little too sharply. There was no way Smurf could know about all the adventures and dangers he had already faced in his own time. Smurf was still looking at him, a little hurt.
"I'm sorry," said Brainy. "It's just that this place is very familiar to me, but it's very different too. I must admit it is rather unnerving."
Smurf nodded. "I understand, Brainy," he said. "I've only been away from this place for three hundred years and I keep getting that strange feeling. The little saplings I watched sprout are now all mighty oaks. It must be far worse for you, coming from the future as you do. Your mighty oaks are probably just little acorns that haven't even been smurfed yet."
"Shhhhh," hissed the bearded Smurf from up ahead. He waved his arm in a gesture signaling for them to join him behind a thick tree.
"Take a smurf at that, youngins," he whispered as they approached. Brainy leaned against the trunk and peered out across the clearing. He let out a sharp gasp.
"Yipe!" he exclaimed. "What's that?"
The bearded Smurf clamped a hand over his mouth. "It's something that won't take kindly to being spied on, so please keep your mouth smurfed!"
Brainy nodded, and the older Smurf let his hand drop.
"But, what is it?" he whispered. "Have you ever smurfed anything like it before?"
The older Smurf shook his head. "Can't say that I have. Smurf a look at those crystal things he's got with him. Why, they're just the same shape as those enormous pyramids I once smurfed in a vast desert near a long river that runs north. What do you suppose he's going to smurf with them?"
"I couldn't say," said the beardless Smurf. "Perhaps if we observed his movements a bit longer, this will all become clearer to us."
"You're probably right, youngin'," the older Smurf admitted.
The three Smurfs watched in silence as the strange creature before them continued about its business. The creature was quite large, nearly as tall as a human, and it had four arms. Each of its hands had seven long, flexible fingers. It was a brilliant, metallic purple in color and had delicate, translucent wings that flashed electric blue when the sunlight struck them.
As the Smurfs watched, the strange creature started carefully piling its small crystal pyramids into larger pyramids, point to point, as if they were Baby's building blocks. As he worked, small flashes of an odd sort of lightening, at once both pink and blue, zapped their way across the empty spaces between the pyramids.
"What's that?" Brainy whispered.
The beardless Smurf squinted at the bright flashes curiously. "Strange," he murmured. "It looks to me to be some sort of magical energy. The arrangement of those crystals seems to be focusing it somehow. We must get closer to smurf a better look."
"Have you lost your Smurf?" Brainy hissed. "Get closer? To that thing?"
"Well, it does seem to be the only way to find out more about what's smurfing on here," said the bearded Smurf. "Come on, I'll lead the way. If you both do as I do, that thing shouldn't notice us."
Not wishing to seem a coward in front of his older companions, Brainy swallowed his objections and concentrated on following them as quietly as he could. As he moved, he was careful to keep one eye on the gigantic creature's activities. As he watched it place crystal on top of crystal, he noticed tiny forms moving inside each of them.
"Great Smurfs!" he exclaimed in a stunned whisper. "There are Smurfs trapped in those crystals!"
His companions stopped short and looked to where Brainy was pointing.
"By Smurf, I think he's right," said the bearded Smurf.
"This great monster seems to be building a structure that will focus the energy of the Smurfs into a tight beam," the beardless Smurf observed. "Amazing."
"But, why would he be doing that?" asked Brainy. "And where did all these Smurfs come from? I thought you said Smurfs lived alone and separate from each other at this time."
"And so they do, youngin'," said the older Smurf. "This beast must have gathered them up from all over the world."
"Then, that probably means he'll be after us next," said the beardless Smurf with some anxiety. "We must find a way to stop him from whatever it is he's doing."
"I agree," said Brainy. "But, how?"
"We must find a way to shatter those crystals. That should free the Smurfs. Then, if we all come together in a great circle, we might be able to gather enough power to rid ourselves of that creature forever."
"Is there anything in your books about shattering crystals?" Brainy asked.
As Smurf started flipping through his spell books, the winged creature lifted its head. Pausing in its work, it started sniffing the air. Its nose was like a wrinkled flap of skin. It flopped to and fro against the creature's cheeks as it sniffed, as though it had a life of its own. With a sudden rush of wind, the great beast rose into the air. It's voice was a thundering roar.
"I know I smell Smurfs here," the monster boomed, circling the clearing with powerful beats of its translucent, insect-like wings. "There is no way you can hide. I must absorb your energy and store it for my people. You all will die!"
The Smurfs stood very still, hoping the monster would overlook them. But, they had no such luck.
"Ah ha!" the creature thundered, it's clawed feet crashing to the earth beside their hiding place. "The nose of a Zhra'Bet does not lie! You are hiding..." he pushed the thick tree before them aside with one powerful swipe of his purple arm, leaving the Smurfs unprotected and in the open "...right here!"
As the great beast extended it's long, flexible fingers towards the stunned Smurfs, the beardless Smurf raised his arms. In a slightly trembling voice, he recited:
"I call on the power of earth, trees, and sun
to save us from capture by this mighty one!"
Instantly, a glimmering, transparent shield of magic appeared around the three Smurfs. The creature's purple fingers stopped their advance. For the moment, the Smurfs seemed to be safe. Then, the angered look on the monster's face slowly transformed into a cool smile. Its fingers slowly unfurled to touch the magic shield. Instead of penetrating it, the long fingers seemed to be sucking it up like so many straws. The shield jiggled like a mold of Greedy's Smurfberry gelatin. The beardless Smurf broke out in a sweat with the effort of sustaining the shield.
"It's no good!" he exclaimed, his voice strained and hoarse. "The creature is absorbing the shield's energy. I can't keep it up!"
"We're gonna have to make a run for it, youngins," the older Smurf exclaimed.
"But how can we hope to outrun this thing?" asked Brainy. "It can fly!"
"We have the advantage of a smaller stature, young Brainy," the older Smurf grinned. "We can hide in places this beast can't hope to find, let alone squeeze into. Ready, Smurf?" he asked the trembling Smurf beside him.
"I'll let the shield go on your mark, Smurf," he grunted.
"Ready, Brainy?"
Brainy nodded, swallowing his nerves in an attempt to still his thumping heart. "Ready as I'll ever be."
"All right, Smurf! Smurf!"
The wavering magic shield vanished. At once, the three Smurfs charged off into the forest, ducking under brambles and keeping to the thickest patches of undergrowth. The winged Zhra'Bet was not long in following them. Rising once more into the air, the purple creature started circling above the forest. Its segmented, red eyes rose up on thick, telescope-like stalks.
"I see you, Smurfs!" it exclaimed, swooping down and reaching out for them with its long fingers. The Smurfs ducked down under a small pile of crumbling leaves. The fingers swept the air nearly a foot above their heads.
"Ha, ha, ha!" the middle aged Smurf laughed. "That big creature can't reach us!"
"I wouldn't be so sure!" cried Brainy. The other two Smurfs looked up. The monster seemed to be shrinking. As they watched, the purple beast with the metallic sheen metamorphosized into a small, agile, anthropoid with bright, greenish-yellow fur. Despite its new form, it still retained its shimmering, insectoid wings.
The Smurfs ran for their lives as the chartreuse monkey-creature swooped down on them from above.
"There's a small rocky ledge just ahead," the beardless Smurf panted. "We're going to have to smurf off it. Hopefully, we'll be able to lose this creature in the waters of the River Smurf!"
The other Smurfs were too busy running to reply. As the monkey-creature prepared for another swooping dive, the three Smurfs reached the ledge.
"Great Smurfs alive, that's a steep drop!" the bearded Smurf exclaimed, looking down off the rocky ledge at the rushing, blue water below.
"I know," the beardless Smurf panted, holding his side, "but we're going to have to smurf it if we want to escape that shape-shifting creature!"
Gathering their courage, the three Smurfs took the ledge at a running leap. Brainy held tightly to his glasses to insure the impact with the water wouldn't knock them off, leaving him blind and helpless in the face of this overwhelming threat.
The river water was shockingly cold. Brainy came to the surface sputtering and coughing. When he could open his eyes, he saw the beardless Smurf paddling towards him through his water-specked glasses.
"Smurf's been caught!" Smurf exclaimed, pointing to two struggling forms high above them. Brainy wiped his glasses with his hands in an attempt to clear them, only succeeding in creating more water specks.
"What's smurfing on?" he asked, struggling to see through the fat blurs of water.
"The creature caught Smurf by the beard as he jumped off the ledge," Smurf explained. "He's kicking at the creature's arms, but it won't let go."
"What was that flash just now?" asked Brainy.
"Smurf has managed to take some kind of knife out from somewhere under his beard. I think he's going to-"
The beardless Smurf broke off as the older Smurf came tumbling down towards the water. He landed with a huge splash, splattering Brainy's glasses with yet more water. Shaking his head in an attempt to dislodge at least some of the splats from his glasses, Brainy looked back up at the monkey-creature. It was chattering wildly, fussing with a white something that was holding its hands together.
Before he could ask what had just happened, the older Smurf bobbed up from under the rushing water and the answer became obvious. Brainy grinned.
"Why, you cut off your beard and used it to tie the monster's hands together!" he exclaimed. "How brilliant! Precisely what I would have done in your place."
The Smurf stroked the dripping, uneven ends of his remaining beard regretfully. "Well, it had to be done, youngin'. It was either the beard or me." He sighed.
"Look out!" the beardless Smurf exclaimed, pointing to the sky above them. "It's smurfed loose, and it's coming back!"
"We're going to have to dive!" the older Smurf said. "Smurf, could you work your magic under the water?"
"I think so," the younger Smurf said. "Why, what do you have in mind?"
"If you smurf another of your magic shields, we might be able to smurf under the water long enough for that monster to think we've drowned," the older Smurf elaborated.
Smurf looked uncertain. "Well, I don't know. I've never tried it under water before. I don't know if it'll keep the water out."
"He's coming!" Brainy cried. "Quick, everysmurf, dive!"
The chartreuse monkey-creature plummeted from the sky and followed the frantic Smurfs into the water. Quickly discovering that its wings would not function underwater, the creature transformed itself once again, this time into a brilliant vermilion octopus. It shot towards the diving Smurfs, stretching its long, powerful tentacles out after them. The tip of one of them just managed to brush the back of the young Smurf with the glasses. The Smurf screamed, letting his precious supply of air escape. Laughing gleefully as it watched the air bubbles rush away to burst at the water's surface, the vermilion octopus put on a fresh burst of speed.
There was no escape for these Smurfs now. None of the four hundred ninety eight he had captured so far had yet been quick enough to elude Nolk. In just a few moments, Nolk's tentacles would wrap around these struggling blue creatures and his crystalline structure would be complete. He would absorb and bring back the energy his people needed to survive. He would be hailed as a hero by generations to come. What was the extinction of an insignificant alien species to everlasting glory? Nolk burst into another peal of gleeful laughter, stretching his powerful tentacles to their full extent. The Smurfs were within his reach.
Brainy's tiny lungs were at the point of giving out. He feared his inopportune scream had finished him. He needed take a breath, even if all he breathed in was water. He had the strange, lightheaded notion that if he tried hard enough, or took slow enough breaths, breathing water might even work.
Time around him seemed to be slowing down. Bright, colorful spots swam before his eyes. He was dimly aware that something was behind him, reaching out, trying to wrap itself around his body. But, somehow that didn't seem to matter. With his last few seconds of consciousness, for some unknown reason, Brainy almost considered laughing. But, he never put the thought into practice. Instead, Brainy passed out.