He heard sounds of murmuring of concern.

"Is he dead?" a voice asked.

"No, just unconscious" said another voice.

"Brainy, Gargamel may be our enemy, but he doesn't deserve to die" said a third voice.

"You did the right choice for saving him" said a fourth voice.

The wizard stirred awake and started to cough out the water in his lungs

"He's coming around" said the third voice.

When Gargamel opened his eyes, he realized he was brought to his castle and he was on his bed with Azrael close to his feet. And the people who saved him were...

"Smurfs?!" Gargamel screamed. "What are you doing here?"

No one answered. Brainy was hesitated while Clumsy and Hefty were slightly nervous and Papa remained silent. Smurfette was the first to speak.

"We heard your bird's screeching and it brought us to the river and we saw you drowning" she said. "We used the vines to pull you out of the river."

"It would have worked if Brainy wasn't complaining!" Hefty said, scowling at one of his fellow Smurfs.

"Hey! It wasn't my fault I had to deal with Azrael! He could have killed me." snapped Brainy.

"Enough!" yelled Papa Smurf. "The point is, Gargamel, if it weren't for your bird friend, you and Azrael would have died."

Monty landed on the ground and nodded with friendly but googly eyes.

Monty got help? Gargamel thought to himself. He knew that his vulture had always ruined his plans, but he would never get help. He would just only stand in place like an idiot. And now, he used his head for once to save his master.

Turning to the vulture, Gargamel started to pet Monty's head.

"Good boy."

He sat up and covered himself with a blanket, shivering.

"Are you okay?" Hefty asked.

"I'm okay" Gargamel answered. "And wet and cold. A little frightened to death from nearly drowning." Then he yelled at the Smurfs. "But this doesn't change anything! You ruined everything! Next time, I'll catch all of you!"

Papa Smurf nodded his head.

"And he's back" Brainy said.

Smurfette and Hefty giggled.

"Uh, guys?" Clumsy said, worriedly. "I think something is wrong with Azrael."

This was certainly true, Azrael was laying on the end of the bed. He was not breathing at all.

Smurfette feared the worse. "Oh, no."

Gargamel tapped the cat.

"Azrael, are you all right?" he asked.

No response from the cat. Gargamel continued to his attempts to wake the cat.

"Hey! Come on! Wake up, Azrael!"

He tried tapping his cat, he tried his potions (both explosives and waking up kind of potions), he tried showing mice, he tried giving his cat mouth to mouth resuscitation, much to the disgust of Brainy and Clumsy. He even tried to get Monty to bite Azrael by the tail. But, it was no use.

Papa Smurf finally spoke up.

"Gargamel, I think it's too late."

The sad news struck Gargamel into his evil heart. Could it be possible that Azrael is really gone?

"No, no, it can't be too late." Gargamel said, suddenly panicking and talking really fast. "There's gotta be something to wake him up."

But, Smurfette touched his arm.

"Gargamel, he's gone" she said.

There was no point for Gargamel to hold in his emotions anymore. Azrael is really gone, because of him. It was all his fault. If he hadn't forced him to get across the river, none of this would happen. With tears in his eyes, Gargamel sobbed on the bed, hugging his dead cat.

Monty lowered his head.

The Smurfs couldn't help but feel sorry for the wizard. They knew how he felt of losing someone. Recently, they almost lost Smurfette.

Poor Gargamel.

Is Azrael really gone forever? I hope not. We'll have to find out when the next chapter arrives.