Chapter 10: Life Smurfs on (The two week time skip intro)

With Papa Smurf's absence and danger and misfortune at nearly every turn, the Smurfs did all they could to live a somewhat happy life on the outskirts of King Gerard's protected royal forest. It has been 2 weeks since the destruction of the village and 13 days since Papa Smurf took flight to Mother Nature's house. Back at camp, Tracker has made a full recovery from his fight with Azrael. But however he will always have the scar to prove his bravery. To this day the Smurfs have no idea what Timber had encountered in the woods. After a very close examination including a dissection of it's anatomy, Doctor Smurf believes whatever it was, it was not of this world. Encounters with similar creatures seem to only occur at night around the region that had previously served as the Smurfs temporary camp. Since Timber's first encounter with the creature the Smurfs have relocated to Gargamel's hovel, which with it's vast quantities of nourishment, has become something of a temporary home to the Smurfs.

Each day goes by with no signs of Papa Smurf or Feathers. Hefty keeps a sharp lookout for the day Handy and Miner reunite with the rest of the Smurfs. Hefty, Tuffy, Gutsy, Timber, Farmer, and Nat have organized a military system to help fight off the frequent attacks of strange creatures that would every now and again make their way to the hovel and attempt to break inside at night. Hefty led his knights into the woods bravely to retrieve a old keepsake of Hefty's. Under a rock, deep in the woods laid a Smurf-sized suit of armor and a sword. Upon reclaiming his sword, Hefty Smurf swore an oath of undying loyalty to the way of the Smurf and swore to defend the life of every Smurf or give his own life doing so, with this oath Hefty assumed knighthood and always was first to defend every Smurf. Most of The other combat skilled Smurfs swore the same oath, and swore undying loyalty to Hefty as their captain and Nat as their leader.

The Knights of the Smurf Table was a never before established organization of fighters among the Smurfs, those who were especially gifted were recruited by Hefty himself to protect and defend the way and life of the Smurf from the evil beings haunting their woods. Brainy Smurf is of course in protest as well as Alchemist over Papa Smurf's choice of a temporary leader. They both truly believe as students of Papa Smurf and being among the most intelligent in the Smurf race that they should have been chosen as a leader. Brainy and Alchemist both have grown apart from Nat and only listen to orders that concern the well being of their survival which often gets them into trouble.

Alchemist deeply studies Gargamel's books of magic and alchemy and has improved his skills to such an extent that they are recognized by the Smurfs as a "Exceptional substitute" to Papa Smurf's own abilities. Jokey set his jokes aside for awhile and instead studied and experimented with explosive materials creating (by accident) the first TNT, cleverly disguised as a red present box with black ribbons, since it's accidental creation that nearly killed him, Jokey has not found reason to use it yet and therefore picked up his joke book and once again assumed his role as the Smurf everyone loves to hate.

Grouchy and Smurfette eventually develop a relationship which they must keep secret out of fear of causing a riot amongst the Smurfs. Baby is still the same picky eater he has always been and despite their best efforts the Smurfs have failed to find anything without Smurfberries in it that Baby would eat. Brainy Smurf rewrote his infamous encyclopedia volumes of "Quotations of Brainy Smurf" not that any of us care (lol) but it gives us some kind of idea on how Brainy spent his time here. With the absence of Handy, the Smurfs struggle to keep the few things he had made for them in top condition but are still running low on tools and building materials, and if Farmer can't find fertile soil, eventually food will be an issue too.

Smurfs had to forfeit their Smurfberry stashes to Baby as the sacred sweet red fruit was becoming more and more rare to find and supplies were dangerously shrinking. This often times started fights where things would get violent and even punches were exchanged. Lucky Smurf tried to set up a Smurfberry currency system where Smurfs would pay Smurfberries in exchange for things they needed and desired amongst the community, this eventually backfired when greed and selfishness took over and fights broke out that would sometimes get out of hand and even rarely leave Smurfs with critical injuries. The Smurfberry currency program lasted 2 days before Lucky was caught "cheating" in his various casino style games that gambled Smurfberries.

Hopes of Papa Smurf's return is slowly dieing in the hearts of Smurf with each passing day. Once they almost decided enough was enough and had a memorial service for him and Feathers. Doctor Smurf received medical supplies from Clockwork courtesy of King Gerard himself every few days, making the amount of medicine and curatives almost double in proportions. Clockwork notified King Gerard of the events that took place in his royal forest and he proposed to allow Papa Smurf and the others stay with him in his palace until they could find peace which Nat refused saying: "I'm not Smurfing another step from these lands without Papa Smurf." Clockwork ensured them that the offer still stands whenever they are ready and occasionally pays them a visit to give supplies not normally easy to acquire outside city limits, provided and paid for in full by the ever generous and kind King Gerard.

The Smurfs learn that King Gerard's kingdom is completely untouched except for the royal forest where the Smurf's lived which completely defies Papa Smurf's theory that the catastrophe was global and not limited to single locations. But this knowledge serves as a ray of hope that someday the Smurfs could live happily once more.

Dreamy has mastered his new body and has returned to his normal life. His nights are now peaceful with no more visions or nightmares of prophecy and The Great Smurf. Upon realizing time is running out for Baby Smurf, Dreamy sets aside his Smurf cap and once again assumes his captains hat, ready to construct the S.S Smurf III and begin crew recruitment with Papa Smurf's or Nat's permission. Ether way, even if they both disapprove Dreamy knows for sure that Grouchy will be on his side, despite his hatred of sailing.

On the 15th day since departure, Smurfette was feeding Baby under an oak when the cry of a crane went threw her ears. She shot up and rejoiced, as Feathers landed safely in the front yard of Gargamel's hovel. Papa Smurf climbed down from Feathers and faced the hovel door when Smurfette ran up behind him and threw her arms around him from behind and cried out his name, Papa Smurf held Baby in his arms and Smurfette clings to him for what seemed like a long time and just weeps.

"It sure is Smurfy to be back" Papa Smurf says.

That sums up the time skip in a nutshell, the rest of the story will continue normally in chapter 11. Thank you so much for reading Smurfocalypse for this long, and I hope to see you again in the 11th chapter. ( please be aware that just because there is a time skip in this chapter does not necessarily mean there will be one in Handy and Miner's story and the time skip here does not apply to the current place in their adventure.)