Chapter 2

Traveler's timeline journal.
This one has finished journeying into the alternate timeline of this one's great-grandfather Empath, seeing how his life would have turned out if he wasn't born with any of his legendary telekinetic and telepathic abilties.  It was fascinating seeing him growing up, though now seperated from his father Papa Smurf by an accident of nature, as a different kind of Smurf hero -- one who relies upon his primal instincts and physical prowess to help his fellow Smurfs in times of need.  Unfortunately, this alternate version of Empath -- the "Wild Smurf" -- would not have fallen in love with this one's great-grandmother Smurfette, since here she would not see anything of this Empath that would make her love him more than any other Smurf, even to the point of wanting to spend the rest of her life with him.
But in that timeline, there would also be a tragedy waiting to happen.  Several Smurfs would have found a baby dinosaur that had been frozen and lonesome for its family.  This would have prompted Papa Smurf to borrow a key with magic time crystals embedded in it that would enable himself and all his little Smurfs to travel back to the prehistoric period where they would bring the baby dinosaur home.  But in the process, they would lose the key and spend the rest of their lives trying to align the crystals in the proper order to open the doorway home, inadvertently traveling from one time period to another, jumping all across the globe and meeting various kinds of people.  And the alternate Empath, as the Wild Smurf, would not have the same mental capability to try helping Papa Smurf realign the crystals properly. Whether they would make it home, this one wishes he knew, because this one has journeyed as far into that timeline as possible...and could see nothing happening beyond a certain point.
Despite that problem, this one has seen enough into that timeline to be aware of that situation happening, and to be thankful that actual history has not unfolded that way or else this one would not have been born.  But still this one wonders about Smurfette, the one Smurf that mattered in Empath's life ever since he left Psychelia for good.  How would history unfold if she had not found Empath to be the one right Smurf to give her heart to, even with his abilities?  This one must investigate this possibility.

Traveler glided down from his perch high above one of the trees overlooking the Smurf Village and saw Smurfette working in her garden, feeling happy about herself.  Apparently, she has been talking about something with Empath that meant their relationship with each other is slowly gaining strength.
Traveler remembered his great-grandfather talking at lengths about his great-grandmother Smurfette, about how carefree she was and yet so mature.  While she lacked Empath's ability to sense emotions with his mind, she made up for it with her own ability for empathizing with Empath's situation of trying to fit in with others in his village.  Beyond that, there was this sense of completeness that the two of them felt whenever they were near each other, as if they were meant to be together like that for all time.
Since he was invisible, intangible, and undetectable by any Smurf unless he willed it to be otherwise, Traveler placed his hand inside Smurfette's head and linked with her mind.  She froze in place, as did everything else that existed in time, while Traveler focused his abilities on journeying back into her past to see how her life could have turned out differently.
There was a brief rush of images, basically the effect of history being reversed, and then Traveler found himself inside the lair of the evil human wizard Gargamel.  Traveler recalled him from the memory of his great-grandfather, remembering time and again about the one wizard who wanted to get his hands on the Smurfs so that he could use them for making gold, and was forever denied them.  He had at one time captured a few of them, and was on the verge of completing their transformation into gold when the other Smurfs had ambushed him in his own castle, rescuing their captured fellows.  Realizing that his plan had been foiled, Gargamel vowed to get his revenge on them sooner or later.
Since then, Gargamel took it upon himself to study how the Smurfs live.  Through careful observation, he studied them from afar, though he was still unable to find their village.  The one thing he noticed about them was that there were no female Smurfs among their kind, and without any female Smurfs, there was no hope of their generation ever creating another generation.  Gargamel decided to help along with their possible extinction by hastening it in a very interesting manner.
"With this handful of blue clay that I found in a swamp, and these ingredients for a spell that would bring inanimate material to life, I shall bring forth the very instrument of the Smurfs' downfall -- the Smurfette," Gargamel said, as he gathered the ingredients together and mixed them in his cauldron. "Crocodile tears, nightshade, wormwood, hemlock, bloodroot, poison ivy, moonseed, black hellebore, sugar, cinnamon, thorns of a rose, and a stone for a heart."
He then immersed the sculpted form of a female Smurf into the mixture and recited the following words:
Wrath of the wind, Cry of the blue,
Howl of the Wolf where there isn't a moon,
Magical Mixture, Magical Spell,
Bring life to this creature at the sound of this bell.
As the spell he cast on the sculpted form took effect, she opened her eyes and saw her evil creator for the first time, smiling a very wicked smile.
"It worked!" Gargamel exclaimed, very excited about his new creation.  "I have finally brought life to the very thing that would bring doom to those wretched blue beings!  She will lure them through their hearts to their own destruction!"

Traveler watched as the Smurfette that existed at that point -- a blue being with frizzy black hair, a simple sack dress, and features that barely even resembled those of the Smurfette she eventually became -- made her way into the Smurf forest.  A group of Smurfs led by Hefty were out in the forest working on the bridge when they heard somebody nearby crying.  Hefty told the others that he would go and find out who it was.
He didn't go far to find out, for just beyond the other side of the bridge, a little beyond where anybody could see, Hefty found a blue-skinned female by herself, sitting with her head buried.  "Is there anything I can smurf you with?" he asked politely.
The female raised her head and saw that it was a Smurf asking her.  "I was lost in the forest on my way to the Smurf Village.  I was wondering if you could smurf me the way!" she said, wiping away her tears.
Hefty wasn't sure he knew her well enough to offer any help yet.  But he did feel his heart going out to her.  "You mean...that you're a Smurf?" he asked.  "I've never smurfed the likes of you before!"
The female laughed at him, though not insultingly.  "No, you silly, I'm a Smurfette!" she answered. "Don't you know what a Smurfette looks like?"
Hefty looked at her a bit increduously.  "You mean...you're a female Smurf?"
The female who called herself a Smurfette nodded.
Hefty felt like he was knocked over with a very huge feather when he heard this.  He also felt as if he was going to explode with unrestrained joy.  But he managed to contain himself long enough to tell her something.  "Look, me and my fellow Smurfs are heading back to the village soon.  You can follow us home and talk to Papa Smurf about smurfing there!"
Hefty started to walk away to lead the Smurfette toward the village when she called out, "Wait a minute...aren't you going to smurf me up?"
Hefty stopped, wondering what to do.  And then he went back over and pulled her up by the hand onto her feet.  She was so startled by his strength and sudden swiftness, she nearly fell into Hefty's arms.
"Well, you sure know how to smurf a girl onto her feet!" she managed to say, a bit embarrassed.

Traveler followed Hefty, Smurfette, and the other few Smurfs who were waiting for him across the bridge to the Smurf Village, where she talked to Papa Smurf even while the entire village was gathered around, staring at her.  Obviously, all the Smurfs had been without the presence of a female for so long, it seemed natural for them to wonder what a female Smurf even looked like.  Smurfette told Papa Smurf that she had no idea where she had come from, but part of her knew that she belonged to the Smurfs since that was what she knew herself as.  Papa Smurf was wondering what to do, partly since Empath wasn't there at the time to prove whether or not Smurfette's claim about being a Smurf was true.  Ultimately he went with his own instincts.
"You can smurf with us for as long as you like, or until we can find out where it is you smurf from," he finally offered. "My little Smurfs will help you out in any way possible, though all we can ask of you is to smurf something to the community."
"Thank you, Papa Smurf," Smurfette answered, sounding as honestly as she could.
When the other Smurfs found her a vacant Smurf house that she could live in, Traveler followed Smurfette inside where she opened a magic locket inside her dress and waved her hand in front of its reflecting mirror, where her reflection changed to the image of her master, Gargamel.
"I trust that you have made your way to the Smurf Village, my little Smurfette," Gargamel hinted.
"Yes, Master Gargamel," Smurfette replied.  "The other Smurfs don't suspect anything of me yet."
"Then we shall keep it that way," Gargamel warned her. "Right now, you know what your purpose in the village is.  The sooner we have those Smurfs all falling for you, the sooner we can spring the trap on them."
Smurfette nodded, understanding what her master wanted.

Traveler watched as Smurfette made several unsuccessful attempts to lure the Smurfs with her feminine charms.  Then she heard that Greedy was up at the dam trying to regulate the water flow for Farmer's crops.  She knew that Greedy had a soft spot in his heart for food, and realized that she could lure him with food into doing whatever she wanted him to do.
She arrived at the dam's gateswitch platform with something from Greedy's kitchen.  "Oh, Greedy, I have this wonderful smurfberry cake that I made just for you," she purred.
Greedy's eyes widened when he saw Smurfette with the cake, and his mouth drooled.  "Oh, Smurfette, you shouldn't have..." he remarked.
"Wait a minute, Greedy," Smurfette snapped, snatching the cake away before Greedy could touch it.  "Won't you smurf me what that switch does?"
Greedy decided he could wait a minute or so just to answer Smurfette's question.  "Oh, you see, this switch controls the flow of water that smurfs into the village..."
"But won't you show me how it does that?" Smurfette asked persuasively.
"Well...gee, I don't know if I should...," Greedy pondered.  "If too much water smurfs out of there, it could flood the entire village."
"Not even for a bite of this scrumptious smurfberry cake I made for you?" Smurfette pleaded, pushing her persuasion even further.  "Please?!?"
Greedy had to admit -- Smurfette had a way of making him feel like doing anything for her.  "Well, maybe just for a bit I can smurf you," he answered.
As Traveler and Smurfette watched, Greedy pushed the switch away from him, and the water came gushing out from the dam.  Further down into the village, other Smurfs began noticing that a bit too much water from the dam was pouring its way down there, and some of them began to wonder what was going on at the dam.
But as Greedy was about to pull the switch back toward him to close up the dam, Smurfette suddenly grabbed it and pulled as hard as she could to keep the gate open.  "Smurfette! What are you doing?" Greedy yelped.
"I'm not done smurfing what that gate does, Greedy!" Smurfette shouted back.
Greedy found himself playing tug-of-war with Smurfette.  "If we don't close the gate soon, the entire village will be flooded!" he warned her.
"Well, that is exactly what I had in mind," Smurfette retorted, "and you're not going to stop me!"
But eventually the gate switch broke and Smurfette found herself falling off the platform.  Greedy watched in horror, calling out for Smurfette as she plunged herself into the raging waters gushing out of the gate.
Papa Smurf and the others knew at that point there was something wrong at the dam and that they needed to get the gate closed before the entire village was underwater.  But just as they were headed toward the dam, they heard a voice screaming for help.  It was Smurfette's.  Several Smurfs formed a chain to grab Smurfette before she was carried any further by the waters while some others were busy sealing the gate closed.
As Traveler watched, the other Smurfs were surprised to hear from Greedy that Smurfette was responsible for trying to flood the village.  A short while later in the village, Papa Smurf was ready to sentence her to be exiled from the village forever when he asked if Smurfette had anything to say on her behalf.  It was then that Smurfette admitted that she was a creation of Gargamel and that she never really wanted to do what this evil wizard wanted her to do.  She found herself breaking into tears when Papa Smurf went over to console her.
"It's all right, Smurfette," he told her in a gentle voice. "It's not your fault that an evil wizard made you in the form of a Smurf."
"I just wish I could've been born a real Smurf," she whimpered.
Papa Smurf thought about that for a moment.  He briefly recalled an ancient experiment a Smurf ancestor of his had trying to create a real Smurf from inorganic material, which legend said had worked.  Maybe he could try recreating the experiment with Smurfette.