(Smurfette)

I followed the smurfling boys to Greedy's kitchen. They all lingered at the door, eagerly urging me to move faster with their eyes and still anxious faces. Once I joined them at the door, Snappy eagerly rapped his knuckles against the tall wooden door. "Come on in! The door's open!" The jolly voice of Greedy sounded from inside the kitchen.

The smurflings quickly obliged, darting into the kitchen. Greedy was standing at an island in the middle of the kitchen, slaving over some sort of culinary concoction. "Hiya, Greedy!" Nat said, standing on his tiptoes and peering curiously into the bowl, "Whatcha makin'?"

Greedy gave Nat a piece of paper. "Okonomyaki. Chef and Baker are visiting in Japan, so they sent me a recipe for Japanese-style pizza." He explained, separating the pasty looking dough into separate piles.

Baker and Chef were currently traveling the world, searching for new recipies. The brothers were Greedy's teachers, and they often sent him new recipies to try. "Lemme see! Lemme see!" Snappy said, snatching the paper from Nat. "yuck!" he exclaimed, "cabbage? Mayonnaise? In PIZZA? That's gross!"

Greedy smiled smugly. "Don't smurf it til you try it, Picky smurf!" he hummed a little, wiping his hands on the apron that covered his plump belly.

"I am NOT picky!" Snappy protested.

"Then what why do you separate your mashed potatoes and peas, then whine when they're not in two different piles?"

"I don't like 'em touching! But I'm NOT picky!"

Greedy just loves pushing Snappy's buttons. Not that it's hard to do so, but he just took quite a bit of pleasure in making the little smurfling lose his temper. Honestly, Snappy's frustration with Greedy was a welcome change in attitude. We were all still worried about Sassette. While Greedy teased Snappy and Snappy, well, snapped, I cast a glance at Nat and Slouchy. Poor Nat still looked sad and guilty, even though we'd already told him it wasn't his fault. Slouchy looked so sad, and serious. The type of seriousness that understood what was happening, but was too young to truly grasp the direness of the situation. I felt a pang of sympathy in my stomach. These two were definitely more mature than Sassette and Snappy most days, but they shouldn'tve felt so guilty… mature or not, they're still kids… "So, Greedy!" I said, interrupting their little argument and taking my eyes off the sad little smurflings, "I don't suppose you have any smurfberry ice cream for us?"

Greedy looked away from his victim and smiled a little. "Actually, I do!" he said, then turned back to Snappy "but I'll only share it if a certain little smurfling admits he's picky!"

Snappy pouted and crossed his arms. He mumbled something under his breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that?" Greedy said, putting a hand next to his ear to hear better.

"I'm picky." Snappy mumbled, begrudgingly, "Now where's that ice cream!"

Greedy chuckled a little, smugly, then went to the ice box and got a large container full of ice cream. "Say… Where's Sassette? I haven't seen her at all today!" he asked, at last noticing the missing member of the smurfling quartet.

Snappy frowned a little and looked at the ground. Nat stared at the ground and shuffled his bare feet, uncomfortably. Slouchy turned away and hugged his arms. Greedy looked confused. "What's with the silent smurf-ment here, guys?" Greedy asked, slightly nervously, reaching for a stray pastry, "Where's Sassette?"

I took him aside and spilled the whole story out of their earshot. They've been through enough for one day. "I thought something was off…" Greedy muttered, nervously unwrapping the cupcake in his hands, bringing it to his open mouth. "You never see one without the rest."

The kitchen was mostly silent for a good few minutes. The awkwardness felt so thick not even one of Greedy's chef knives could've smurfed through it. At last, Slouchy spoke up—or at least his stomach did. Greedy chuckled a little. "here, let's all have a big ol' bowl of ice cream." He said, breaking the tension with one of his wide smiles. "I think we all could smurf a good sugar fix right about now."

The smurflings smiled a little, then went to go get bowls and spoons from the clean dishes rack. Greedy opened the drawer in front of him and searched for his ice cream scoop. I watched as Snappy tried to force a small bowl out from underneath a larger mixing bowl. I started to walk towards him, but I was too late. As soon as Snappy and Nat got their bowls from underneath the red bowl, it quickly fell to the floor with a loud crash. Greedy jerked his head in their direction, and covered his eyes with his palm. "Smurf- Smurfit!" he cursed a little under his breath, "My favorite mixing bowl! Ruined!"

Slouchy leaned against the island smugly. "I told you guys it was gon' fall." He said with a shrug of his slumped shoulders.

Nat started walking around the large shards. "We're sorry, Greedy!" he apologized, "Here, I'll help you- Ow!"

He'd stepped on a smaller shard of glass. He held his bare foot and leaned against the counter. "ow! That hurt!" he muttered.

Greedy stepped over the glass and helped Nat and Snappy both up onto the counter. "I have a first- aid bag in my cupboard… Smurfette, can you find it for me?" he asked, sweeping up the other pieces of glass so no other smurf could step on them.

I nodded and started looking through the cupboards. At last, I found the little metal box. I took it from the cupboard and put it on the counter next to the two. Nat showed me his hurt foot. His feet were a dark brown from all his walking around barefoot. I used a pair of tweezers to carefully take the shard of glass from the smurfling's foot, then an antiseptic to clean it out. Once the wound was clean, I put a little gauze over the cut and wrapped it down. "There." I said, "You know, that might not have happened if you were wearing shoes."

He smiled a little and rolled his eyes. I always smurfed him about not wearing shoes. The little guy was going to hurt himself one of these days! Honestly! Before Nat could give me an excuse about how walking without shoes makes him feel more connected to nature, there was a loud knock on the door. "Come in." Greedy called, still sounding a little smurfed.

The door opened and revealed Brainy. Immediately, the boys perked up. Slouchy shuffled to the bespectacled smurf. Nat and Snappy practically vaulted over Greedy and the broken bowl. I walked around Greedy, eager to hear good news about Sassette. "Well?" Slouchy said, calm eagerness in his voice.

Brainy smiled a little and adjusted his spectacles. "Sassette's finally started waking up, thanks to my brilliance and expertise in-"The smurflings didn't even let him finish.

They quickly darted out the door, leaving me with Brainy and Greedy. Brainy pouted a little. "hmmph! So much for gratitude!" he grumbled a little.

Greedy chuckled a little, sweeping the glass into a dust pan. I approached him and gave the plump smurf a quick hug. "Thank you, Greedy." I said. "Sorry about your bowl."

He smiled a little and squeezed me back. "It's ok, Smurfette. It's just a bowl." He said.

I broke the hug, then walked out with Brainy. The two of us rushed back to Papa smurf's lab, avoiding conversation. Not that I don't like Brainy, or anything like that. He can be awfully annoying some days, and I just want to kick him, but he has his good traits too. Just… today, I didn't feel tolerant enough to listen to one of his self important diatribes. It wasn't too long before we reached Papa smurf's lab. Brainy and I let ourselves in. Farmer and Handy were still by Sassette's bedside, and the smurfling boys were all eagerly lined up next to the bed as their bosom buddy finally started to mutter and stir. I felt a relieved smile creep over me. I joined the boys on her bedside, kneeling down a bit so I was about their height.

The little smurfling's eyes fluttered open, and she looked around groggily. She turned her head slightly towards us. "Snappy… Slouchy… Nat… Smurfette…" she croaked hoarsely.

Nat smiled a big, wide smile and hugged Sassette tightly. "You hickory nut!" he said, "You scared us!"

"We thought we was never gon' see you again!" Snappy added, joining in the hug.

"Don' do that again, 'kay?" Slouchy asked her, lazily hugging her from next to Nat.

Sassette was surprised by the boys' sudden expression of affection. "Worried Wartmongers! I didn' know you guy'sd be so scared!" she said, her voice still hoarse.

"Well, course." Slouchy said with a little shrug of his shoulders, "You're our friend. Tha's wha' friends do."

The camaraderie between the four smurflings is truly a sight to behold. As much as they pick on eachother on some days, you will never find a group of friends so close in the entire world, smurf, human or otherwise. But… as with any species… Boys will be boys. Snappy started squirming out of the hug. "Ok, ok! I'm done hugging!" he squirmed.

He broke himself out of the hug, then grimaced and wiped his hands on his bright yellow shirt. "yeech! I'm gonna have cooties for weeks!" he complained.

Slouchy and Nat soon followed suit in breaking the hug. "Bu' Smurfette says there's no such thing's cooties." Slouchy said, looking at me.

I smiled a little. "There ISN'T." I said firmly.

Snappy crossed his arms. "You're jus' sayin' that cause you're a girl." He muttered, crossly.

"Well, now, seeing as you four are all together again," Papa smurf said, approaching the bed, "Now might be a good time to choose a punishment for going past the Great Oak without a grown-up."

Snappy pouted and looked at the ground. Slouchy hung his head a bit, ready to accept whatever punishment Papa smurf dealt out. Sassette wrung her hands awkwardly. "Hmm…" Papa smurf stroked his beard thoughtfully, "Farmer was just saying he needed a few extra hands out in the fields for the harvest, am I right, Farmer?"

Farmer grinned a little, locking eyes with all the smurflings. "as'a matter'a fact… yeah, Ah do need some extra help." He said, still grinning.

The smurflings glowered a little. "Then it's settled! Once Sassette's up and about, you three are going out to help Farmer harvest the crops." Papa smurf said firmly, "Do I smurf myself clear?"

"Yes, Papa smurf." The smurflings droned a little, accepting their punishment.

"Good… now, go wash up for lunch." Papa said, suppressing a smile as he dismissed the boys.

Sassette was still too tired to do anything, so she waved goodbye as the boys bounded out the door. Once they were gone, she looked up at me and smiled. "Hi… Smurfette…" she said hoarsely.

I smiled back and sat next to her. "Hi, Sassette." I replied. "You sure scared me."

Her smile disappeared. " Grateful gophers, I'm sorry, Smurfette. I din' mean to…" she said, wringing her hands guiltily, "I jus' really wanted those smurfberries…"

I hugged her a little, hiding my face slightly in her beautiful auburn hair. "It's ok… just don't do it again, all right?"

She nodded firmly. "I sure won't! Promise! I won't scare anyone like tha' again!" she said.

I gave her a little squeeze. "Good… that's a good thing to promise, Sassette."

"Thanks, Big Sister."

(Slouchy)

It was a few days before Sassette could get out of bed and do stuff. And once she was feeling back to a hundred percent, we had to go work out in Farmer's fields. At least the day was nice. Lots of sun, not a cloud in the sky. Wasn't too hot, either. Sassette and I were smurfing the rutabaga, and Farmer and Snappy were checking if the tomatoes were ripe. Harvesting rutabaga isn't that hard to do. None of us had ever had any trouble with it at all. Yet for some reason, Sassette looked really tired, like the very effort of bending down to pull the vegetable from the ground was too much for her. She'd been coughing a lot lately, too. Sometimes she'd be up almost all night. Is she getting sick or something? I wondered.

She paused from her working for a minute and coughed into her elbow. It sounded pretty wet and yucky, worse than it had for the last two weeks or so. Then she went back to picking the rutabaga. "Are you feeling ok, Sassette?" I asked, bending down to harvest more of the turnip-like vegetables. "You don' sound so good."

She waved her hand a little, dismissively. "Aw, Rollin' Rutabaga, Slouchy! I feel just smurfy!" She said, smiling, "It's this pesky cough that doesn' sound good."

"Maybe you shou' talk t' Papa smurf." I said, "Sounds like it's only gotten worse."

She dismissed me with a roll of her eyes. "I feel FINE, Slouchy. Smurfy-" she started coughing really, really hard.

She was struggling to breathe. I felt paralyzed. "F-Farmer!" I shouted. "Sassette's coughin' again!"

Farmer looked up from his harvesting and ran over. Sassette fell to her knees, still coughing. Without a moment's hesitation, he scooped her up in his arm, and bolted for Papa smurf's lab. Snappy dropped the tomato in his hand into the wheelbarrow and followed him. "You hurry up an' go find Nat!" he shouted at me, "I'll meet'cha at Papa smurf's lab!"

I nodded and rushed off to go find Nat. there were only a few places he hung out when the rest of us were being punished for something. Over by Lazy's hammock, the rabbit warren, or the tree near the really big bird's nest. I ran to the tree since it was closer. Nat wasn't there, just a big blue bird feeding creepy- crawlers to a couple of babies. The next closest place was Lazy's hammock. I ran over to his mushroom-shaped hut, to a hammock set up between two poles. A big, blue lump rested in the hammock, snoring and muttering in peaceful slumber. "Lazy!" I said, nudging him a little to wake him up. "Lazyyyy! Wake up!"

The snoring quieted and the lump sat up suddenly, making the hammock wobble and dump the blue lump on the ground below. "Wha…? What was that for, Slouchy?" Lazy asked, sounding too tired to be annoyed. "I was having the smurfiest dream."

"Sorry, Lazy," I apologized, "Bu' d'you know where Nat is?"

Lazy looked up at me, his half- closed eyes blinking dreamily. "Greedy told him t' get some water for-" he yawned as if the mere act of talking was just too tiring-"dinner."

He quickly drifted off to sleep in a tired heap on the ground. I left him to keep sleeping and ran for the village well. Nat was there, standing on his tiptoes so he could reach the crank. "Nat!" I called for him.

He looked up, looking a little confused. "Wha'smatter, Slouchy?" He asked, not letting go of the crank.

"Sassette's sick again." I said, panting a little from all the running I was doing. "She's in Papa smurf's lab."

He took the bucket from the hook and left it on the ground next to the well. "Greedy's stew can wait a little while!" he said, "C'mon!"

Aw, smurfaroo. I thought, More running! The two of us quickly made our way to Papa smurf's lab, where the door was wide open on it's hinges. Sassette was lying on the bed in the far end of the lab, gasping for air. Snappy was at her side, looking really worried. Nat ran through the open door and joined him. I almost felt too scared to join them. All the events of the last few days…. They'd just felt like some kind of unsmurfy dream… Like if I blinked a few times, or pinched myself I'd wake up, and everything would be back to the way it was…

I forced myself to join my friends. Sassette writhed on the bed, coughing and gasping for air. She grabbed my hand and held onto it with all her might. Which was a lot, even for a girl. "There!" Papa smurf said, finishing some kind of potion. "This should stop her coughing!"

He put some kind of a spray nozzle on the beaker and rushed over to Sassette's bedside. Snappy, Nat and I moved out of the way so he could help her. He sprayed some of the potion into Sassette's mouth and waited a moment. Her coughing finally started to cease, and her grip on my fingers finally relaxed a bit. She took a few deep breaths and rested her head on the pillow. "Coughin'…. Catfish… Pappy…" she said groggily.

"Shh…" Papa smurf shushed her, "Sleep, Sassette. The potion won't work unless you sleep."

Sassette blinked tiredly in reply, then slipped into slumber. It wasn't long before her soft snores filled the quiet laboratory. Farmer sat in his seat, worriedly smoothing her ruddy red hair back behind her ear. "That was much too smurf for comfort," Papa smurf muttered under his breath. "That's twice now she couldn't breathe. There's more to this than whatever she inhaled in Gargamel's hovel."

I unwrapped Sassette's fingers from mine, then laid her hand over her tummy. Her chest rose and fell slowly and evenly. She looked so peaceful… it was so hard to believe she had really just been fighting to breathe. "Wha's wrong with her, Papa smurf?" Snappy asked, sounding worried.

Papa smurf exhaled a sigh. "I don't know yet, Snappy." He replied, "But I will find out."

Nat and I shared a worried glance, then sat in the little wooden stools next to the bed. Sassette snored slightly, her ears twitching in some sort of a dream. "I'm gon' go find Smurfette," Nat said, standing and tearing himself away from the scene.

He had a guilty look on his face. I don't really know why, he had no reason to feel so guilty. But for whatever reason, it had become a popular expression with him when Sassette was sick. He ducked his head and walked out of the lab. Snappy sat next to Farmer on the other side of the bed. The three of us sat and watched her sleep for a while, until Nat came back with Smurfette. Her long blonde hair bounced a little as she looked around the room. She saw Sassette napping, and joined me. She entwined their fingers and smoothed her hair a little, tracing her fingers along the bumps in her auburn braids. Smurfette looked a special type of sad. The kind of sad that says something's really, really wrong, but there's nothing anyone can really do about it. the type of sad that gives me an unsmurfy feeling in the pit of my tummy… "Snappy, Slouchy, Nat?" Papa smurf shook me from my thinking, "May I smurf you a few questions?"

"How was I supposed t' know that pie would land on Brainy's big ol' head?" Snappy defended himself.

"That was you!" a whiney voice piped up from behind a large mountain of books.

Snappy smacked his forehead in exasperation. "Open mouth, smurf foot." I nudged him a little.

He shot me a dirty look. "That- eh—wasn't what I was about to ask," Papa smurf said, chuckling a little, "But that is an interesting little smurf of information."

Snappy crossed his arms again. "No, I wanted to ask you three a few questions about Sassette." Papa smurf said, thumbing through a large book.

The three of us looked at eachother. "how has she been otherwise? Has she been eating normally, playing with you more or less?" Papa smurf asked, all seriousness in his face.

I shrugged a little. "She eats like she always does, Papa smurf." I said calmly.

"Bu' she hasn't really been playin' with us as much," Snappy admitted, casting a glance over his shoulder at Smurfette and Sassette. "She gets real tired real easy now."

Nat nodded. "An' she can't run as much." He added, "she always has t' stop an' catch her breath."

I thought for a minute. "she said her arm was sore yesterday," I suggested.

Snappy elbowed me. "Wha' does that have t' do with anythin'?" he asked.

"I dunno," I said with a shrug, "I'm not a doctor."

Papa smurf scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Hmm…" he reflected, walking to Sassette.

He put his hand on her forehead. "She isn't smurfing a fever, either. This is most peculiar indeed." He lamented, looking real worried.

He sighed a little, then turned and walked back to his potions table. "I will have to visit Homnibus to see if he has any idea what could be afflicting our little Sassette." He said, putting some of his potions and books in his bag. "I made an extra potion in case she has another one of these attacks. I should be back before tomorrow. Brainy, can you please keep an eye on that growth formula I'm distilling for Farmer?"

A bespectacled smurf poked his head up from behind the mountain of books, beaming in pride. "Oh, yes, Papa smurf! Why, I'd be honored to!" he said, walking around the mountain of books, "It's like I was saying to you just the other day-"

Papa smurf gave him a look that just said "quit while you're ahead", quickly shutting the blabbermouth up for once. Papa smurf walked back to Sassette and ruffled her hat a little in farewell. Then he turned to us. "Take good care of Sassette while I'm gone, smurflings." He said, all seriousness in his voice.

We three nodded in understanding. "Yes Papa smurf." We chorused.

He smiled a little. "Good." He said, ruffling our hats. "I will be back as soon as possible."

He closed the door behind him, then quickly made his way to Feathers's nest. We watched him out the window, and waited for the big white crane to take off. he waved goodbye to us, then urged Feathers skyward. With a ruffle of her feathers, the large crane lept into the air and pumped her great wings. she flew high in the air, soon disappearing from our sight. "I hope they come back soon..." I muttered.

Nat and Snappy nodded.