Chapter Eight: Hide and Seek

It was night time, and the stars were shining brightly in the sky, helping to illuminate the darkness. Baby Smurf walked about the serene village. Sleeping time, sleeping time! He was looking up at the moon, not looking where he was going, when he ran into Puppy.

"Hello, little one," said Puppy.

"Puppy!" Baby gasped, "you talk!"

"Don't be silly. Doggies like me can't talk."

"You talked! You talked! I heard you!"

Puppy barked.

"You're silly!" Baby laughed.

"Let's play a fun game together," Puppy suggested.

"Game!" Baby cheered.

"Do you know how to play tag?"

Baby nodded.

"What about hide and seek?"

"Yes, yes!"

"Let's play both!" Puppy pawed at the ground.

There were other smurfs now, going off in every which direction, playing along too. Scattered laughter filled the air. Baby giggled, running off to find his own hiding place. He couldn't be found, couldn't be found by the smurfs that were "it"! Then he tripped over, colliding roughly with the ground. It was Painter's paintbucket that had sent him sprawling, and he'd just landed among several other paintbuckets, getting paint absolutely everywhere! He could see it so clearly in the dark. Bright, luminescent paint. It covered him now. It had splattered on some of the other smurfs too.

Baby got up again, kept on running, but the paint was too bright. He couldn't get it off. He stood out too much in all the darkness, illuminated by the neon substance dripping off him. How could he hope to avoid being seen? They were so close, and if they found him it would all be over…

"Puppy…" he called out with a whimper. The game had been so fun before, and everyone had been so happy, but the scattered laughter from before was giving way to crying. Not the good kind of crying, when you laughed so hard it brought tears to your eyes. It was the sad crying, it didn't sound good.

Then Puppy was there, he curled up around Baby, comforting him, enveloping him.

"Puppy, I don't like this game anymore," Baby said. He could feel his lower lip trembling.

"Don't cry, little one," Puppy chided gently, "or they'll hear you."

Blackness filled the dream, until Baby became aware that he was merely looking at closed eyelids. It was still night. Papa was fast asleep in the bed across the room. Baby had his own little bed – he'd long outgrown his cot – but Papa still stayed with him, and soon Baby would be ready to sleep all by himself, but he was glad he hadn't woken up in a room alone tonight. The bad dream had left him shaken. He wanted to cry, felt like crying really loud, but remembered Dream Puppy's words. So he breathed heavily, not allowing the heavy breaths to turn to wails. He was starting to have bad dreams… he didn't like it. Was this part of getting older, too? Like teething, like your teeth falling out? Baby wasn't looking forward to all his teeth falling out when he was older. Then he wouldn't be able to eat anything solid until the new, bigger teeth came in… And how long would that be?! Didn't teeth grow slowly?

He got out of bed. He must have been the only smurf in the whole village who was awake right now… He went over to the window. Puppy was just outside, right next to the house, curled up and asleep.

It was too early to wake up, and Baby could feel his eyes wanting to close once more. He went over to where Papa was sleeping, found himself some room on the bed. He was sure Papa wouldn't mind, and maybe he'd help chase the bad dreams away…

A/N: Guest reviewer Eris commented ages ago asking when Brainy and Puppy will appear in the story, ahah, well, now that's been answered regarding both characters (I thought I would wait until Puppy's first chapter was posted before addressing the question)! They also asked after whether other characters such as Johan and Peewit will be in this story. At the moment I don't have any solid plans to have them appear, no, although the possibility hasn't been ruled out completely, I think that at this point it's unlikely. If they do appear, it will probably be quite brief. I also wanted to say that I always try to reply to reviews (and if I haven't responded to yours, I'm sorry!) but when it comes to guest reviews it's a lot more difficult since they can't be responded to directly. In such case, my goal is still to always answer questions that guest reviewers have where I can!

I'll probably put aside space in an author's note to thank everyone who has reviewed in future as well. Thanks so much to all my readers - I can tell you in all honesty that this story is only just getting started. It's quite an ambitious project I've set for myself, but a long time coming. And I sincerely hope that what I have in store will be worthwhile for you all. 3