Chapter 2

Meanwhile, Papa Smurf was with Brainy in his laboratory, telling him something important. "I'm going have to excuse you for the rest of the day, that I need to smurf a break from teaching you anything more on the subject of advanced alchemy, Brainy," Papa Smurf said.

"Of course I am smurfing okay, Brainy," Papa Smurf answered rather hastily. "But I don't think we need to smurf everything about the subject all in one day, because it will just wear you out if I smurfed it to you like that. Why don't you spend your time smurfing with your fellow Smurfs on more important things...like your daily smurfs of wisdom?"

"You never know who might need your wisdom on a day like today, Brainy," Papa Smurf said. "Now please, just run along and make sure nobody disturbs me in my private business."

Brainy sighed. "All right, Papa Smurf, I will make sure you are not disturbed on a day like today," he said reluctantly as he headed out the door and proceeded to wherever the day might take him.

Alone in his lab again, Papa Smurf pulled out his hand-sculpted clay bust of Smurfette, carefully wrapped so that the clay would not completely dry before he was finished. So far, it was looking more and more like Smurfette. The way Papa Smurf shaped the clay, his talent would rival that of Sculptor or even Empath.

But Papa Smurf wasn't thinking of creating a masterpiece with this sculpture. This was his way of controlling how he was feeling toward Smurfette. Ever since he had remade her into a real Smurf, every Smurf seemed to be attracted to Smurfette, wanting her to make one of them her true love for all time. That in itself wasn't so bad since that meant at least one of his little Smurfs would someday marry Smurfette and bring into this world a new generation of Smurfs through her. The only problem was that even he was attracted to Smurfette, and this was really bothering Papa Smurf. How could he truly love a Smurfette? What does Smurfette really see him as — just a father figure or something more than that? And how would his little Smurfs react toward all of this?

He pushed those thoughts away and concentrated solely on smoothing out the curves around the shoulders of his sculpture, molding every strand of flowing blond hair that draped over them, bringing out the details. He smiled as he worked, though it felt a little perverse in a way. To Papa Smurf, this was the closest he would ever get to touching Smurfette in a loving and yet very pleasurable manner. He was starting to hum the smurfsong when he heard knocking.

Papa Smurf groaned, nearly sinking a fingertip in his work. This was really getting embarrassing, being disturbed while playing around with a sculpture to get his mind off Smurfette. He quickly smoothed out his mistake and answered his door with a bit of consternation.

"Yes…it's an exotic fragrance Periwinkle smurfed to me the other day," Vanity replied. "I wanted to smurf some of this on me, thinking it could make me more attractive to mysmurf than ever, and Empath told me that I shouldn't, saying that I didn't really need it to feel more attractive!"

"Well, Vanity, it's also possible this pheromone cologne of yours could make you feel more attractive to someone else," Papa Smurf commented, "and I don't think you'll be able to handle all the attention you're going to smurf while wearing that!"

"That is why I want you to smurf this away from me, Papa Smurf," Vanity pleaded. "Because I don't want another love in my life attracted to me other than mysmurf!"

"All right, Vanity," Papa Smurf snapped, sounding like he was eager to be rid of Vanity just so he could get back to his sculpture of Smurfette. "I'll keep your pheromone cologne in good smurfs with me!"

"Oh, thank you very much, Papa Smurf!" Vanity cried out, quickly giving the village leader the atomizer before he rushed off. He looked into his mirror and said, "Come on, my love…it's time you and I smurfed some quality time together!" He kept kissing his reflection as Papa Smurf watched on in amusement.

"What some Smurfs wouldn't do for the object of their affections!" Papa Smurf chuckled as he looked down at the bottle of 'pheromone cologne' that Vanity gave him. That made him curious about what it was supposed to do — make the object of his affection be attracted to him. That also made him think about Smurfette again.

"Hmmm," he said to himself, stroking his beard while lost in thought, "I wonder if I should smurf some of this 'pheromone cologne' on mysmurf to see if...um..." His voice trailed off when he started having second thoughts about trying to go after Smurfette wearing this stuff. "On second thought, maybe it'd be better not to smurf this at all!"

As Papa Smurf was about to put the 'pheromone cologne' away on a shelf, a little devilish voice inside his head — a voice that sounded much like his own — started to prompt him. Just go ahead and smurf it a try, Pops. Smurfette wouldn't be able to resist you now!

And then another voice — also like Papa Smurf's, but more angelic — spoke out to him. That wouldn't be the right thing to do, Papa Smurf. Remember, she isn't your age and all your other little Smurfs would be more than heartbroken to find her heart was given away to the leader of the Smurf Village.

Let them go smurf their own heart's desires, the devilish voice interrupted. After all, you are the leader of the village. You can smurf in love with whomever you want to.

This is not love you're feeling, Papa Smurf, the angelic voice warned him. This is your body telling you to smurf those things with Smurfette. Don't try to act upon them.

Aw, don't let your spoilsmurf goody-goody side try to get in the way of an experiment, Pops, the devilish voice countered. Just try a whiff of it out and see what it does for yoursmurf.

The voices vanished, but Papa Smurf felt a little swayed by the devilish voice inside him. "Well, it wouldn't hurt if I just tried a bit of this on mysmurf," he finally said.

He went over toward a mirror where he squeezed the atomizer bulb of the cologne bottle, spritzing some on his face. He started to feel real tingly all over, so tingly that it made him giggle.

But the mist of the cologne started to fill up the room, and it also started to interact with various exposed chemicals in Papa Smurf's laboratory, creating a powerful fume that blanketed the room in a fog.

Papa Smurf found himself feeling woozy as he breathed in the thick fume. "What's happening to me?" he started to ask when he found himself on the floor, coughing uncontrollably. The last thing he saw was the back of his arms becoming thick with hair and developing bigger muscles before his mind totally blanked out.

"This smurf wonders what it is you really see in Papa Smurf that you don't see in every other Smurf," Empath asked Smurfette, curious to find out as he continued his conversation with her.

"Well, honestly, I don't know exactly, Empath," Smurfette answered. "Maybe it's because he doesn't have just a single smurfonality trait on him like most other Smurfs. I mean, I know he's intelligent, but then so is Brainy and yoursmurf. Funny thing is, now that the more I think about Papa Smurf, the more of Papa Smurf I can already smurf in you. It's just weird."

"This smurf attempting to be like Papa Smurf isn't weird, Smurfette," Empath commented. "What is weird is feeling like this smurf is competing with my father for your affections, and that he seems to have the upper hand in that he is the leader of the village."

"Well, you sure don't have to be exactly like Papa Smurf for me to be that interested in you, Empath," Smurfette suggested. "You smurf much better in black than you do in red, anyway."

Empath and Smurfette were soon joined by Brainy. "Salutations, fellow Brainy," Empath greeted. "You seem to be disturbed by something that happened in your day today."

"It's just how Papa Smurf is acting today, Empath, like he doesn't need to smurf me anything important about advanced alchemy at a time when otherwise he would think that it's very important for me to know about such things if I'm going to succeed him someday as a sorcerer," Brainy explained.

"I'm sure that it's something personal Papa Smurf needs to smurf care of first so that it doesn't interfere with your studies, Brainy," Smurfette suggested.

"You're not the only one who feels that way, Brainy," Empath said. "This smurf will be watching over him to make sure he doesn't do anything that would bring harm upon himself or any of his little Smurfs."

"You think that I'm not aware of what the other Smurfs are smurfing about you and Papa Smurf, Smurfette, even though I haven't seen Papa Smurf smurfing anything with you lately?" Brainy said. "Not that I think that what they're smurfing about him and you is even an appropriate subject to smurf about in public, but still, it has to make me wonder..."

"Smurfette is correct, Brainy," Empath said. "If there was anything going on between her and Papa Smurf that wasn't very appropriate, this smurf would be the first to know..."

"Excuse this smurf for a moment, Smurfette, Brainy," he politely said as he leaped into the air and try to find the cause of the distress. If it was Gargamel or something big, Empath wanted to confront it as soon as possible and remove it from the village.

"I wonder what's smurfing on in the village that's making that ruckus, Brainy," Smurfette said as she headed in the direction of where it was coming from.

It didn't take Empath long, though, to find the source. He looked down and saw that it was Papa Smurf — physically altered somehow, making him look more than six apples tall, with a very hairy muscular body and a bad temper on top of it. His inexplicable growth caused his pants to rip to the point where it looked like a loincloth.

Empath had no idea what could have caused this, but he had to stop Papa Smurf from causing anymore damage. He dove in to scoop up Papa Smurf and carry him far from the village, but Papa Smurf had quickly spotted Empath and slapped him away with a giant backhand.

"Empath, how shameful of you to smurf in here without knocking!" Vanity gasped as he saw Empath land next to his tub. "Can't you see I want to be alone in here?"

"This smurf apologizes for the sudden intrusion, Vanity," Empath hastily said, trying not to look at Vanity's lack of attire. "This smurf will fix your house as soon as this smurf can. In the meantime, this smurf can help you maintain your privacy!" Taking a bedsheet from Vanity's bed, Empath hung it over the hole in the wall using small pieces of debris as pegs. "Just be careful of any changes in the wind direction," he added before he left.

Empath could see and hear Papa Smurf up ahead, creating more chaos and destruction as he wandered forward from where Empath had encountered him. He then noticed that Papa Smurf had stopped and sniffed the air, as if he had been attracted by something.

As Empath got just a little bit closer, he could see that Papa Smurf had come into contact with Smurfette, who had went to see what was going on. She saw Papa Smurf and called out to him.

Then Smurfette saw Papa Smurf reaching a hand out to her, as if he was ready to scoop her up for something, and that made her a little afraid. "What are you doing to me?" she cried out. "No...don't touch me!"

But Papa Smurf had already grabbed her and had pressed her hard against his chest. Smurfette grunted as she tried to struggle for breath and to get herself free of his now-big strong hairy arms. "Let me go, you big smurfy ape!" she shouted as he slopped her a kiss with his tongue.

Empath saw this and knew that, whatever Papa Smurf had in mind for Smurfette, it certainly meant that Smurfette was in danger. He raced over to where Papa Smurf was and stepped on his foot hard. Papa Smurf growled in pain and clutched his foot, letting go of Smurfette in the process. Empath caught Smurfette as she fell into his arms.

Both of them saw that Papa Smurf was now enraged at Empath for taking Smurfette away from him. "Let's get to the woods where he can't do any more damage!" Empath suggested as he flew away with Smurfette still holding on to him.

"Papa Smurf's following us, Empath," Smurfette noted as they saw the muscular blue bearded giant tearing through the village, knocking down whatever got in his way.

Hefty waited as Papa Smurf got close enough to him, preparing himself for a fight. But Hefty found out that he too was no match for Papa Smurf, who just picked him up and flung him away, landing in a barrel as he fell.

"We're outside the village now," Empath told Smurfette as he continued to fly further away with her, Papa Smurf still trailing behind them. "Let's hide ourselves in the canopy of a treetop so that Papa Smurf wouldn't find either of us!"

Smurfette found a good tree for them to hide behind, and Empath set himself and Smurfette down at the crook of a thick sturdy branch. Both of them could look down but Papa Smurf couldn't find them unless he knew how to climb trees in the state of mind he was in. Empath decided to shield Smurfette's presence from Papa Smurf with his "minds-eye", hoping that he wouldn't be able to detect her.

As luck would have it, Papa Smurf stopped and sniffed the air again, though for a bit longer than the last time, as it there was something missing. He groaned sadly as he found himself unable to pick up a certain scent, then just moved onward into the forest to continue searching for that scent again.

"This smurf is guessing that he's trying to find you, Smurfette," Empath answered. "This smurf has shielded you from his presence with my minds-eye, so any scent you may be giving off won't be picked up by his nose."

"This smurf does not mean that you're letting off an unclean smell, Smurfette," Empath corrected. "This smurf means that you're letting off a natural smell, a pheromone, that can only be picked up by the nose of a male Smurf. Fortunately, the smell is too faint for any male Smurf to pick up from any distance or else every Smurf would be constantly around you."

"Those are questions we need to find answers for, including the question of how Papa Smurf got like that in the first place," Empath answered. He took Smurfette's hand and they flew off to the village, with Empath keeping Smurfette under constant shielding so that her scent wouldn't be picked up by Papa Smurf.