Chapter 14: The Big Bang
"Phew. We've finally made it."
The Sprites, Mama Smurf, Farmer Smurf and the other smurfettes shot their heads up when they heard Toughette's voice. They instantly saw five familiar forms entering the cave. Excitably Cowgirl, Tattlerette, and Farmer Smurf jumped up and rushed right up to them. They greeted them warmly with big hugs. Mama Smurf quickly finished tying the last bandage on Tasle, the light blue Sprite, before getting up to join her young ones in the reunion.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you all are here safe." Farmer cheered as he hugs his brothers.
"Yeah - ow! Careful." Handy cringed back when Farmer accidentally bumps into his sore arm.
"Handy! You're hurt?" Farmer acknowledged with shock.
"It's just a few scratches. Don't worry about it." Handy waved it off.
"Are you sure?" Farmer asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure." The carpenter smurf gave Farmer a reassuring smile.
Even thought he wasn't too convinced, Farmer decides to let it slide for now. He moved his attention to Hefty Smurf. "How about you? Are you hurt?" He asked him.
"Not hurt. Hungry." Hefty stated, rubbing his grumbling tummy. He turned his head directly to a campfire burning near the entrance of the cave. Sitting over the fire was a medium sized pot. Inside the pot something bubbled and smelled oh so good. Hefty looked back at Farmer Smurf with a grin. "Say, is that food cooking over there?" He wondered.
"Sure, go help yourself." Farmer chuckled.
"Oh we are so relieved you made it." Tattlerette cooed as released herself from hugging Toughette.
"We are relieved that we made it too." Nursette chuckled as she stepped back from hugging Cowgirl.
"Land sakes, girl. Y'all gave us quite a scare when Tiango mentioned that you were nearly got caught in a lava slide." Cowgirl's loud voice cried out.
"Yes, that must have really been scary for you." Mama Smurf said as she too started hugging her two young smurfettes. "But at least you are here safe and sound."
"Not to mention, hungry. Hey! Haven't you heard of sharing?" Toughette snapped once she notices Hefty helping himself to the pot of soup. He looked up at her and gave her an innocent grin.
"Toughette lower your voice. Tasle and Marla are resting." Mama Smurf hushed the tough smurfette.
"Sorry Mama Smurf. How are they anyway?" The golden haired smurfette wondered with a soft concerned look on her face. She noticed that Hefty brought her a bowl of soup and accepted it gratefully.
"They will make a full recovery, thanks to all of you." Coron announced happily.
"Oh it was the least we could do after all the times you have helped us out in the past." Cowgirl explained.
"Cowgirl's got a point there." Hefty spoke up as he handed Handy and Nursette a bowl of soup as well. "If you Sprites hadn't helped out when we were gathering some key ingredients in our quest to find the cure for Gloria. Otherwise, her soul would still be stuck in limbo all courtesy of the Scepter of Faith. Not only that, but we could have been caught in that avalanche if you weren't there to warn us."
"Gee, sounds like you've had yourself quite an adventure during the past two years, Hefty." Handy Smurf mentioned before taking a sip from the bowl of soup.
"You have no idea." Hefty shook his head as he himself couldn't believe the time he had during his stay with the smurfettes.
"One thing I noticed when we came to this cave earlier was that most of this camping gear had already been here." Farmer Smurf pointed out.
"Yeah, we smurfettes would sometimes use this cave as a camp for when we are collecting herbs or to just spend a little time away from the village." Tattlerette explained before letting out a big yawn.
Hefty turned to Toughette, whom was barely able to keep her eyes open. He smiled as he took her empty bowl away from her hand. The golden blond smurfette opened her eyes, curious to know what Hefty was up to. She realized that he is guiding her up to go lie down on a pre-made bed of straw in a dark corner of the cave. With no strength to argue, Toughette sat down on the well laid out straw. She pulled the purple-blue violet out of her hair and places it beside her. Hefty brought over two blankets from the pile that they had brought from the Smurfette Village, and covered her up with one of them. He then covered himself as he lied down beside her. With his left arm resting protectively over her body, he snuggled up into a comfortable position. Being that they were both very tired, it didn't take them long to fall asleep.
Cowgirl just happened to be walking by when she spotted the young couple sleeping. "Awe, now that's adorable." She cooed.
"What's adorable?" Farmer asked as he picked up a few of the spare blankets.
Cowgirl didn't say anything, she didn't have too. She simply jerked her thumb over towards the dark corner of the cave, and Farmer followed the motion with his eyes to see what she meant.
"Oh now where is Painter Smurf when you need him? He'd love to smurf a portrait of that." He chuckled.
"A portrait of what?" Handy Smurf asked as he walked up to his friend.
"Of that." Farmer pointed at the sleeping couple. Handy stifled his giggles once he too noticed the sleeping pair.
"Come now, young ones. Let them rest. The last thing we need are two very grumpy smurfs on our hands." Mama Smurf said as she ushered Cowgirl, and the two smurfs away from corner.
Following the example of Hefty and Toughette, the other smurfs and smurfettes each grab their own blankets and found their own bed of straw to lie down on. Even the Sprites are feeling very fatigue. They each grab a blanket and huddled near their injured companions. The only one that seemed to be not in any hurry to sleep was Nursette.
After placing her bowl down, Nursette walked over to the injured Sprites.
"Aren't you tired Nursette?" Handy asked from his bed of straw.
"I am actually Handy, but I just want to check on Tasle and Marla first." Nursette explained as she inspected the condition of the wounds. Satisfied that Mama Smurf did a great job with the bandages, Nursette turned to face Handy once more.
"You know, I still made that promise to clean your wounds as soon as we got here." She said. Nursette walked up to the carpenter smurf and placed her medicine bag beside him.
"Oh, it could wait till morning. You should really get some rest…"
"Handy please, it won't take long. And a promise is a promise." She assured him.
"Alright. I should know better then to argue with a medical professional." Handy sighed in defeat.
Nursette let out a little giggle before unraveling Handy's bandage wrap.
Farmer Smurf glances up at his carpenter friend and the braided blond smurfette. He smirks over the scene before tipping his cap over his eyes and leaned back to fall a sleep with Cowgirl close beside him.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
All was quiet the next morning. The campfire was now smoldering. Everyone still slumbered peacefully as the sun slowly rose. Then, without warning, a loud bang shook the entire cave.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" Both Hefty and Toughette shrieked at once as they bolted up from their cozy sleep.
"It came from outside." Tattlerette concluded.
Another big bang roared and rumbled the entire cave once more. This caused the Sprites, the smurfs, and the smurfettes to jump up out of their beds, except Tasle and Marla; they could barely sit up to see what the racket is. The others all hurried outside to witness the entire topside of the volcano blowing apart. It started to spew out hot ash down towards the southwest of the land. A dark grey, almost black, cloud filled the air, making everything look like night in the morning sky.
"Just like how Gloria described from her dream…" Mama Smurf muttered to herself.
"Wow, I hadn't smurfed anything like that before in my life." Farmer said in awe.
"Mama Smurf… Please tell us that didn't just go over our home, did it?" Cowgirl asked in a worried tone.
"I wish I could, Cowgirl, but I'm afraid that ash cloud just may have destroyed anything that remained of our village." Mama Smurf explained, regrettably.
"No…" Tattlerette gasped. For once she is at a loss for words. She was so shocked that she absently dropped her notepad and pencil. With her now free hands, Tattlerette uses them to cover her face from letting the others see her tears.
Toughette was so shaken by seeing the destruction in front of her that she doesn't realize the tears rolling down her face. It broke Hefty's heart to see her so sad. In fact he himself was feeling grief because the Smurfette Village had been a second home to him for the past two years. Now it is gone. He wrapped his arm around the golden-haired smurfette and pulling her close to him for comfort. Once Toughette realized that she was indeed crying she took this opportunity to hide her face from view by burying it in Hefty's chest.
Nursette was completely taken back with all of this. She was unsure if she wanted to scream, or to just simply fall over and cry. The braided blond smurfette started to wrap herself in her own arms as the tears began to fall down her cheeks. She was so caught up in her own grief that she barely noticed Handy placing his hands onto her shoulders.
"I'm sorry." He whispered to her.
Farmer as well tries to comfort Cowgirl by putting his arm around her. She accepted his caring jester and leaned up against him for support. Cowgirl tried to be brave about this, but after noticing that even Toughette was crying, she too begins to let her guard down by letting her sad emotions show.
"I wish there is something I could say that would ease some of this grief you and the other smurfettes must be feeling right now." Coron said in a sentimental tone.
"Thank you, Coron. But you know, it is said that a home is where the heart is. Right now, I am just relieved that none of my smurfettes were down there." Mama Smurf said.
"Where are they, Mama Smurf?" Morligo asked.
"They are safe, my friends. They are safe." The smurfette elder smiled softly behind watery, emotion-filled eyes.