Thanks! I'm really happy you're enjoying this! Like I said, I wrote this for my sister so it is a complete story. If you're interested I have a few other Smurf stories in my files. One is about how the Smurf Village got its start, one is about how the Smurflings made their appearance, and another is a kind of "It's a Wonderful Life" story with Brainy wondering what the village would be like without him.

And now it's time for Brainy to enact that transfiguration spell!

Chapter Three

The Smurfs were quiet all the way to Prince Theodore's castle. This nervous behavior, quite uncharacteristic for the usually cheerful Smurfs, made Feathers a bit uneasy. The intelligent bird could tell this mission was out of the ordinary.

When they were in sight of the castle turrets, Brainy spoke up.

"Land over there in the forest, Feathers," he said. "That's where we'll be getting off."

Feathers looked back at him curiously, but did as he said. Once they'd slid off the friendly crane's back, bid it thanks, and watched it fly away, Brainy cleared his throat.

"All right, everysmurf, gather round."

Hefty and Clumsy came closer. "Are you sure we have to smurf through with this, Brainy?" Hefty asked.

"Yes," Brainy stated. "Papa Smurf wouldn't have asked us to do such a thing if it wasn't absosmurfly necessary. Transfiguration is very dangerous"

"Great," Hefty muttered sotto voce to Clumsy. "Now he tells us."

"Are you both ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be, I suppose," Hefty grumbled.

"Uh, I'm ready, Brainy," said Clumsy. "I'm actually kinda excited, you know? I think it'll be kinda smurfy to try out being something different for a change. And, we're going to help Smurfette. That can't be bad, can it?"

"Oh, let's just smurf on with this," said Hefty bad temperedly. He didn't want to admit that he was scared.

"All right," said Brainy, unrolling the parchment. "Oh," he said after reading for a few moments. "Well, Papa Smurf's already done most of the work for me. He mixed the herbs in the satchel and when he shook it, he magically added some water. It's taken us about forty minutes or so to smurf from the village to here, so it's steeped long enough. All we really have to do is drink the potion and smurf the chant."

"Uh, Brainy," said Hefty. Brainy looked up from the parchment.

"Yes, Hefty?"

"If we don't want Prince Theodore to figure out who we are, we're going to have to watch how we talk. We can't say 'smurf', and I don't really think we should use our real names."

Brainy nodded. "That is a very good observation, Hefty," he said. "In fact, I was going to point out those very things as soon as we'd finished this spell."

Hefty leaned over to Clumsy. "Right," he whispered sarcastically. "I'll bet he was."

Brainy went on, oblivious. "Right, then. I'll smurf-" Hefty cleared his throat. Brainy quickly corrected himself, "-take the first drink." He lifted the satchel and took a long swig.

"Gah!" he exclaimed after he'd swallowed. "This stuff is terrible! All right, Clumsy, you have a go."

When the satchel was empty, Brainy unrolled the parchment again and said, "All right, you Smurfs, repeat after me.

"Ostrich feathers, fava beans,
Turn us three Smurfs into human beings!"

"Er, Brainy," asked Hefty.

"Yes, Hefty?"

"Why are these chants always so stupid? I mean, this one doesn't even rhyme!"

"Never mind that, just repeat it. The important thing is that it works."

As soon as Hefty and Clumsy had finished speaking the words, something very strange seemed to happen to the forest. It started to shrink, extremely rapidly. Clumsy watched as the tall sapling he was standing next to diminished until it was completely hidden by the even taller grass that surrounded it. By the time it was over, he was so disoriented he hardly knew where he was.

"Gosh!" he commented. "That was the strangest thing I've ever smurfed through!"

There was a low moan from somewhere behind him, then a loud thump.

"Oh, gee, Brainy! Are you all right?"

It was Hefty's voice, but look as he might, Clumsy couldn't see Hefty anywhere. Or Brainy for that matter. Then, he looked down. The ground was miles and miles away! Overcome by a strange sense of vertigo, Clumsy sat down heavily on the grass. He wasn't as dizzy down there.

"Oop, now Clumsy's fallen too!" came Hefty's voice. "At least, I think it's Clumsy."

There was a loud crackling, brushing sound from behind the bush next to him. Clumsy watched with interest as a powerfully built young man with auburn hair burst through the underbrush and crouched beside him. He was dressed in plain, brown human clothes with soft, leather boots. "You're Clumsy, aren't you?" he asked with Hefty's gruff voice, looking at him curiously.

"Um, yeah, I suppose so, Hefty," said Clumsy. "Uh, did you see how very far down the ground was?" He laughed. "It made me kinda dizzy."

The young man nodded. "Yeah, you're Clumsy all right."

"Of course he's Clumsy," came Brainy's more reedy voice. He sounded annoyed. Clumsy turned his head. Staggering towards them on unsteady legs was another young man. This one was wearing thick glasses and sported hair so red it was almost orange. He was noticeably scrawnier than the muscular youth with the auburn hair, but was dressed the same way. "Who else would he be?" Pausing for a moment, he leaned against a tree with a small moan.

"This unnatural height is going to take some getting used to," he observed, swaying ever so slightly. "It's one thing to ride on Feathers, but it's quite another to have to navigate on such long legs so far above the ground. It's almost like smurfing on stilts!"

"Yeah. I hear ya, Brainy," Clumsy agreed, leaning heavily against Hefty as he made his awkward way to his feet.

"Oh, I don't see what you two are complaining about," Hefty scowled. "It's not that bad."

Clumsy giggled. "Just look at you two!" he said. "Gee, I wonder what I look like!"

"Well, it's kind of hard to say," Hefty frowned. "I mean, all humans look alike. Not like us Smurfs."

"You've got yellow hair, if that's any help," said Brainy. "What about me?"

"Yours is red. Really, really red! Hefty's is sorta reddish-brown."

Hefty reached up to touch his hair, trying to pull the short strands near enough to his eye to get a look at them.

"Well," Brainy grumped, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of mirrors at the castle. Then we can all see what fools we look."

"Wait a minute, Brainy," said Hefty, giving up on catching a glimpse of his hair. "How are we going to pretend to be Smurfette's escorts if we haven't got any armor?"

Brainy looked smug. Taking a few cautious steps away from his tree, he raised his hands. Wriggling his fingers as he'd often seen Papa Smurf do, he recited:

"Great big butterflies on afternoon flights,
Give us the accouterments of gallant knights"

Within five seconds, the three former Smurfs were arrayed in the finest armor, complete with helmets, swords, and a shield apiece.

Brainy immediately sagged. "Ooph!" he grunted. "I never knew armor was so heavy!"

Clumsy nodded, with some difficulty because of his helmet.

"Oh, stop being such Smurflings," Hefty rebuked them. "It's not all that bad. Come on, let's get to the castle before the sun starts to go down."

"Er..." said Clumsy, "what are we gonna call ourselves?"

Hefty stopped in his tracks, Brainy stopped trying to bend his knee in its new casing of heavy armor.

"Oh, yeah," said Hefty. "What are some smurfy human names?"

"I don't know," Brainy pouted, upset that he hadn't remembered before Clumsy and frustrated because he couldn't move as gracefully as Hefty in his armor. "I don't know that many humans. Do you?"

"Well, I think we should stay as close to our real names as possible, just in case we forget."

"I wouldn't forget," said Brainy pompously.

Hefty sighed, exasperated. "Brainy, can't you drop this 'I'm better than you' act for just this once? This is serious!"

"You think I don't realize that?" Brainy shouted back angrily. "Besides, it's not an act. It's the truth!"

Hefty's eyes flashed behind his helmet. "Brainy..." he growled.

"Sir Clement," Clumsy announced brightly.

His two angry companions turned to him, confused. "What did you say, Clumsy?" asked Brainy.

"I think that's a smurfy-I'm sorry-a nice name, don't you?"

"You think what's a nice name?" snapped Hefty.

"Sir Clement. You know, like what they call nice weather, like 'The weather certainly is clement this morning'."

"All right," said Brainy. "So Clumsy's Sir Clement. I suppose it fits. Now, what about me and Hefty?"

"Um, well, when I was out collecting rocks for my rock collection one morning, I saw two shepherd boys on the road. One of them was named Harold and the other was named Brian. What do you think of those names?"

Hefty looked pleased. "I like Harold. Sir Harold. Has a nice ring to it."

"I suppose Sir Brian's not that bad," Brainy observed grudgingly. Then he brightened. "Hey, if you switch the i and the a, it'll spell brain!"

Hefty shot him a look, then straightened. "All right then, it's settled. I'm Sir Harold, Clumsy's Sir Clement, and you're Sir Brian."

"Good," said Brainy. "Now, let's sm-I mean, go-to the castle before we're too late to do any good!"

Hefty charged off at once, as if his armor weighed nothing more than a silken cloak. Clumsy, and especially Brainy, were having a much tougher time of it.

"Don't you think we should slow down a little?" Brainy gasped, struggling just to put one foot in front of the other.

"Oh, come on, Brainy, stop your winging," Hefty smirked, speaking easily without even the trace of a pant. "You stuck-up intellectual types need more exercise if you ask me."

Brainy scowled, but said no more until they reached the drawbridge to Prince Theodore's castle.

See you next time! Please Review:D