Chapter 11: The Makeover
The village never looked so clean and cheerful with all the smurfs and smurfettes going about with their daily routines.
Handy Smurf repaired Nursette's roof, while the busy smurfette cleaned her clinic.
Brainy and Brainette read their books, while Melody sang and Harmony played his trumpet, slightly out of tune.
The four smurflings played kick ball as the smurfling tots watched and clapped.
Tattlerette snuck around the village in hopes of finding a good story to write down with Grouchy standing not too far off. He grumbled under his breath as he watched the sharp-eyed redhead smurfette rather warmly.
Clumsy and Klutzette giggled as they talked about their rock collection they had taken up that day. Greedy and Gingerette were working together as they happily baked goodies for the big feast later.
Cowgirl was helping Farmer Smurf with picking fresh vegetables from the smurf garden. Astrologette read her cards as she gave Dreamy Smurf a prediction that may come true in his lifetime.
Ballette practiced her ballet, while Poet focused on writing a love poem for her. Craftette worked on her wicker baskets, and Painter Smurf paints a portrait of the landscape.
Vanity admired his new hat with his trademark mirror. Beside him sat Valvette touching up her make-up.
Floraette tended to her gorgeous flower garden - the best one in the village. Smurfette, being the supportive and kind one of the village, helped the raven- haired smurfette.
Gosipette stood beside Floraette and Smurfette, and told them the latest juicy news. Last of all Tailor and Sewette were designing some new clothes for every smurf and smurfette.
Both Mama Smurf and Papa Smurf watched on with Nana, and Grandpa Smurf. They each smiled with all the activity in the Smurf Village. It seemed like a great day to be a smurf. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and everyone was happy. Danger seems so far away that nothing could go wrong.
Suddenly, without notice, a huge, ominous-looking dark cloud appeared. Like a blanket. It covered the village in darkness. Hefty Smurf found himself standing just outside of the village, squinting through the gloominess.
He watched in horror as one by one all of his friends fell to the ground, already dying. With great effort, Hefty tried to run toward them, wanting to save them from oblivion. However, a magical, invisible barrier prevented him from reaching them.
The strong smurf felt helpless as he watched them writhe about, suffering in extreme pain before slipping away into extinction. Desperately, Hefty slammed his fists on the shield that separate him from his friends as hard as he could, but he was not strong enough to break its spell.
"You can't escape your destiny!" A dark voice bellowed from the shadows behind the tough smurf.
Hefty turned around, but all he saw was Brainy, Brainette, and the smurflings huddling in the middle of the field several feet away from him. An earthquake suddenly shook the ground, causing it to break apart, and leaving a group of helpless smurfs stranded on a small island suspended high above the abyss.
They cling to each other tightly as they looked desperately at Hefty. Hefty, did everything he could to reach them, but failed each attempt. Despaired, Hefty felt that he failed them as a protector.
"You will belong to me!" The same dark voice spook again.
Hefty spun around and looked all around him, trying to find the owner of that voice. Instead, he saw Toughette, and the babies trapped within their crystallized prison.
"You are MY trophy!"
Startled, Hefty looked up and became face to face with Asmoday. The demon hovered in the mid-air and grinned malevolently down at the little blue creature. Lightning flickered in the sky behind the scary demon, illuminating his red eyes even brighter, as he let out an evil laugh.
Hefty tried to act brave, but realized he was frightened.
Asmoday continued to laugh evilly as he reached down for Hefty with his bony, sharp-clawed hand. Hefty tried to scream… However, no sound comes out…
OoOoOoOoOoOo
A blue hand touched Hefty on the shoulder. With a yelp, the strong smurf woke up. Blinking blearily, he looked up at the smurf that touched him. For a moment, Hefty did not recognize him.
It was not until his fuzzy memories came into focus did he realize he was looking at his now 657-year-old brother, Brainy Smurf.
"It's ok…you just had a bad dream." Brainy carefully told him.
"Y-y-you will forgive me if I say it still feels like I'm in a bad dream?" Hefty muttered as he got his bearings together.
"No offense taken, Hefty, there were some mornings when I myself felt the same way." The older smurf admitted with a half smile.
Hefty sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before looking over to the other end of the couch. He saw his mate starting to wake up with a wide yawn. She blinked a few times before looking right back at him with a worried expression.
"You ok?" The golden blond smurfette asked, seeing Hefty's odd expression on his face.
"Yeah, I guess…" Hefty answered with a hint of uncertainty.
"Are you smurfs hungry? I can make up some breakfast for you," Brainy offered as he limped towards the kitchen.
"Sure, thanks." Toughette nodded, still feeling a little groggy. "After being in hibernation for five hundred years does kind of make you a bit hungry, right Hefty?" She joked, smiling at Hefty.
He looked back at her, but did not smile at her sense of humor. This caused Toughette to be concerned; perhaps it has something to do with his nightmare he just had.
"Hey, Brainy," Toughette said, deciding to change the subject, "Sorry we kind of dozed off on you. Maybe we were tired after all."
"That's ok, Toughette. It kind of brought back memories of the days of the Old Village," The elder smurf replied with a half chuckle.
Hefty looked over to watch his older brother take a couple of bread slices and put them into a strange looking metal box. He pushed down on a black lever at one end before going over to the stove and placed a kettle on one of the burners.
How much had the old Brainy Smurf changed over the years. He seemed more humble, wiser, and mature about himself now. The stronger smurf also noticed the way Brainy limped. It made him curious to what had happened to him. Even Grandpa Smurf did not limp like that, and he was over a thousand years old. Hefty assumed it wasn't age that is giving Brainy problems now. He was about to ask Brainy about his limp when Toughette again spook up.
"Brainy, where is Brainette?" The tough smurfette asked.
"Oh, she's, um, getting you both some new clothes," Brainy answered, looking a bit elusive for some reason; "After you have something to eat we will take you downstairs so you can get washed up and changed into a new clothes."
"Changed into new clothes?" Hefty cried out. "What's the matter with the clothes we have on now?"
"Well… They are, um, out of date so to speak." Brainy shrugged.
"Now they are out of date? How can clothes be out of date?" The strong smurf grumbles in angry frustration. It is just typical of Brainy to want to change everything. He is not much different after all - still the same old Brainy Hefty used to know so well.
"Hefty please… Perhaps we should have a little change," Toughette pleaded, trying to sound calm, although a part of her does agree with her mate. "This could be a way to have a fresh start in our lives."
Hefty merely snorted and crossed his arms across his chest, looking quite annoyed.
"One thing's for sure," Toughette added, almost in an afterthought, as she combs some knots out of her long hair with her fingers. "I definitely need to wash my hair. It probably looks a mess right now."
Hefty shook his head in disbelief, but did not say anything for fear it will just result in them getting into an argument over how a 'smurfette's hair is her identity'.
A popping sound echoed from the kitchen. Hefty once again looked up to see Brainy taking two slices of bread that are now golden brown out of the metal box, and put them on a plate. Right away, the bespectacled elderly smurf started spreading butter on each slice. He then took the whistling kettle off the stove and poured the hot water into a teapot.
Carefully, Brainy brought the toasts on a plate over to Hefty and Toughette. He set it down in front of them before heading back to the kitchen.
"I hope you don't mind, I made more of the Jasmine Tea from last night." The elder announced, pouring the tea into two cups.
"That's fine, Brainy," Toughette replied. She took a slice of toast and bit into it.
Munching, she looked over to Hefty. He still seemed quiet, eying his now older brother puttering around in the kitchen. What could be bothering him so much? He has not even touched his toast yet.
"Hefty, you better eat something," The tough smurfette whispered encouragingly to him. She picked up the untouched slice of toast and offered it to him.
At last, Hefty sighed and accepted his slice. He looked into her eyes for a minute before taking a bite out of the warm golden brown toast.
Brainy looked up at the young strong smurfs from the kitchen counter. He was very happy that Hefty and Toughette are back with them, safe, but at the same time, he was very worried about their health mentally and physically.
The intellectual elder can only imagine what these two could be going through right now. Brainy looked down at the cups of tea shortly before picking up the tray they sat on. He held on to it with one hand while gripping the cane with the other hand in order to walk back to the couch without too much difficulty.
"Here you go. This should tide you both over till dinner." The red-capped bespectacled elder said, offering the steaming cups to the young smurfs. Thus done, he hobbled over to his chair to rest his aching back. It took the young smurfs a while to realize what he had just said.
"Dinner?" Hefty shot his brother a shocked look.
"How long have we been sleeping here Brainy?" Toughette asked, also with the look of surprise at the Brainy.
"Uh, well, I'd say since about 8 o'clock last night." Brainy noticed the look of disbelief on the two young smurf's faces. "Sometimes jet lag does have a huge toll on people, plus you two have undergone a lot of mental and physical stress over the past 24 hours."
"Okay," Hefty huffed after a moment, "so what time is it now then?"
Brainy glanced down at his watch and shrugged. "It's about 2:45pm now."
"Is that a fact? And how would you know exactly what time it is?" The strong smurf raised his eyebrow skeptically at Brainy.
The smart elder took a deep breath before pointing at a silver, circular object strapped around his wrist.
"A watch. It tells me, and anyone else who wears one, the time, and even today's date…among other things that one can program them to do."
Hefty slowly shook his head. Brainy was not making any sense at all. He turned over to his girlfriend, "Do you understand what he is saying?"
"Did we ever understand what he says?" She retorted.
"Good point."
Brainy could not help but to smirk and shake his head with some amusement, "Relax you two. I'm sure you will catch on to all this new technology soon enough…I hope." He finished in a nervous, barely audible voice.
The door suddenly opened and Sorcerer Smurf walked in. "Elder, I took the Beetle Gem and put it back in the safe as you requested." He announced cheerfully, strolling right over to Brainy. Just before he spoke, again Sorcerer noticed the young smurfs who were now wide-awake.
"Hey, you're up - awesome!" Sorcerer declared happily.
"Awesome…?" Both Hefty and Toughette asked in puzzlement. They again looked at each other to see if there was any hope that one of them might understand what is going on.
"Sorcerer, is there another reason why you've come up here?" Brainy asked, getting the impression that the young smurf was not helping Hefty and Toughette's adjustments to the new surroundings around them at all.
"Oh, Elder Brainette wanted me to tell you that she has everything ready, and you can bring Hefty and Toughette downstairs anytime." The young smurf answers.
Brainy smiled. "That is good." He turned to the young, thoroughly confused smurfs sitting on the couch. "Just let us know when you are ready and we will head down to our spas."
"I don't know about you, Hefty, but I'm ready." Toughette said in an almost excited tone. She took the final sip from her tea before placing it on the coffee table in front of her and stood up. "Are you coming?"
"Whatever…" Hefty sighed, took one last sip of the tea and placed the cup on the table. "Let's get this over with."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"So here is the smurf's spa…the smurfettes get their own spa for, heh-heh, obvious reasons." Nat Smurf told Hefty as they, along with Brainy, and Sorcerer Smurf, walked into a well-lit room.
Hefty got a good look around the room and let out a deep sigh. One door led into a section of the spa for the washroom, and another doorway leading into a room with a large tub. Another door led to room that held many stalls of showers. Over to the left wall, towards yet another hallway is a row of six lockers of dark silver-blue with each of the smurfs' names on them, including Hefty's.
Nat walked over to the lockers, and turned his head back to Hefty with a grin.
"This is your locker Hefty. We have put your very own towel, a change of wardrobe, and shoes inside here. Now we didn't know what you would prefer to wear so we put in a few options for you that you can have a look at after your wash." The gentle elder smurf explained.
"Come this way, Hefty," Brainy said, "Would you prefer to have a shower, or a bath?"
"Huh? I don't understand," Hefty shrugged, "Just lead me to your watering well and I'll get my self washed up." .
Both Nat and Sorcerer started to snicker.
"What's so funny?!" The strong smurf glared at them in annoyance.
"Sorry, Hefty, but we don't use watering wells to get our water anymore," Nat replied with a chuckle.
"You don't? Then what do you use?" Hefty retorted, looking frustrated.
"We have a system called plumbing," Brainy explained, heading over to the tub and reaching for the tap. "See…water. With plumbing we can now simply draw the water in from the creek instead of hauling buckets back and forth from a well like we used to in the past." Brainy demonstrated how to fill up the tub with just a twist of the faucet and the water came running freely out from the tap like a miniature waterfall.
"Whoa…magic…" Hefty gasped as he stood beside himself with amazement.
"Actually the term is called 'technology'," Brainy corrected him. "And that is not all. You can add hot water without boiling it before running it into the tub." He added, turning a knob on another faucet.
Soon the steam started to rise from the pouring water. Out of curiosity, Hefty had to test and see what temperature it was. He placed his hand through the running water and was surprised again that it was very warm - almost too warm for comfort. With a jerk Hefty pulled his hand back before it could scald his blue skin.
"Sorry Hefty, I guess it is a little too hot." Brainy shrugged sheepishly. He began adjusting the taps. "That's ok, we just turn this knob and you will get more cold water to cool the temperature a bit."
Hefty watches carefully as Brainy does indeed bring the water down to a more comfortable temperature. With another sigh, he wondered how Toughette was doing.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The smurfette's spa looked similar with many rooms that have showers and washrooms, but with a more colorful and a floral presentation to it. The theme was even constructed to look similar to the spa the smurfettes had from their original home near the volcano.
Toughette sat in the tub filled with fluffy bubbles floating around her. She had already started scrubbing her hair with a nice shampoo that smelled of jasmine. As the tough smurfette continues to scrub, she looks around the room warily.
"I know it's not quite like our spa back in our home village, but with the flick of this switch…" Sassette mentioned as she pushes a button on the edge of the tub. All of a sudden, the water begins to bubble, causing Toughette to jolt in shock.
"See, now it kind of feels like the Hot Springs back home." The elderly smurfette smiled wryly.
"Isn't this fun, Toughette?" Sorcerette asked in a giddy tone.
"I don't think 'fun' is the correct word that I would use to describe this!" Toughette protested nervously as she curled her legs up to her chest.
"How about I turn this off, Toughette? You can try it again another time when you are more used to everything," Brainette suggested, seeing Toughette's discomfort. The older smurfette pushes the button again, causing the bubbles to stop.
Toughette lets out a sigh of relief and leans back.
'What a strange world,' she thought before she allowed the other smurfettes help in rinsing out her hair.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Hefty glanced at himself in the mirror. He had to admit he felt better after having the wash, but as for his new outfit…
The new white shorts, and red sneakers he chose make for a comfortable fit, but the black t-shirt is another story. He had tried on other tops, and none of them was comfortable enough.
The black t-shirt was close, but the short sleeves are far from his style, and he does not like them.
"What's wrong Hefty?" Nat asked anxiously, "Don't tell me there is something wrong with this outfit too. This is all we have for you to try on at the moment!"
"Well, its ok," Hefty admitted grudgingly, "But these sleeves I'm having a problem with."
"Now what?" Brainy grumbled tiredly. If he had to sit on the bench any longer, the elderly smurf felt his back would simply break in agony.
"Well, first of all, the sleeves are hiding my tattoos, and they restrict movement in my arms. How am I to get a decent workout in this?" The strong smurf complained.
"Oh, of course," Brainy threw up his hands with a sarcastic remark, grimaced and leaned his head forward into one hand. The pain in his back is causing him to become very cranky.
"I-I could try and find you a tank top, Hefty. It's like the shirt you are wearing, but with no sleeves." Nat suggested tentatively.
Hefty frowned and shook his head. "Ah, don't bother I'll take care of this problem right now." The strong smurf mumbled.
He reaches up to one sleeve and with a firm yank, he ripped it off. Thus done, Hefty reached up to the other sleeve, and did the same thing. With more flexibility, Hefty looked again into the mirror and swung his arms freely back and forth to his sides.
"Much better," He declared with a satisfied nod.
"Dude, that look is *SO* you!" Sorcerer Smurf cheered.
Puzzled, Hefty glanced over his shoulder at the magical smurf suspiciously. "You talk strange, young smurf."
"Good! If you're happy, then we're happy! Now let's go see if the smurfettes are ready yet!" Brainy snapped in a cranky tone, relieved to finally getting up from the bench.
The smurfs headed out of the smurfs' spa to see the smurfettes already standing waiting for them in the hall.
"It's about time." Sassette rolled her eyes skyward.
"Jeez, and they say smurfettes take a thousand years to get ready…" Sorcerette joked to her elder smurfettes.
"Hey, we had problems with the wardrobe, ok!" Sorcerer protested, "How about you guys? Did you have any troubles with getting Toughette dressed?"
"Does it look like we had any troubles?" Sorcerette smirked proudly, addressing the new-and-improved Toughette.
Toughette stepped up so the other smurfs can see her in her new outfit. She had chosen black shorts with a two different color tank tops, one light pink and the other black to match her shorts. She had a very light grey, almost white, smurf hat and sneakers. To complete her new outfit, Toughette had light pink color wrist guards, and leg warmers."
"Well? Do I look modern yet?" Toughette sighed, placing her hands onto her hips.
All the smurfs, especially Hefty take one look at Toughette's new outfit and their eyes nearly pop out in amazement. I wasn't till now that they noticed how smurfy her body was.
"Maybe there is something to these new clothes after all," Hefty whispered approvingly to the other smurfs, simply nodded happily in unison.
"You are all such typical smurfs!" Toughette huffed, shaking her head in disbelief.
Without warning, a strange, musical noise echoed in the hall. Hefty and Toughette both look frantically around to see where it comes from.
It wasn't till they notice that everyone was looking at Brainy that they realized that is where the noise was coming from. Brainy made a grim face before reaching for an object attached to his belt, peered at it in his hand before flipping the top part up and putting it to his ear.
"Yeah, Snappy?" He said into one end of the strange thing. "Yes, they are all washed and dressed… Sure, no problem, we will meet you outside... I'm sure Hefty and Toughette can't wait to meet them. See you soon." With that said, Brainy closes the object and reconnected it to his belt. He looked up at Hefty and Toughette with a big grin.
"Them?" Hefty gasped. Mystified, the strong smurf looked around to the other smurfs, and they too wore a wide grin on their faces. Hefty again turned to his smarter, older brother. "What's going on, Brainy?" He growled.
"Nothing, really… Just another surprise we would like to show you." The red-capped elder said.
"Oh no, not more surprises…" Toughette whined, more to herself than to anyone in particular.
"Trust us, Toughette, you will love this surprise." Sassette cooed, putting her arm reassuringly around Toughette's shoulder. All together, the future smurfs guided Hefty and Toughette down the hall.