Psycheliana laughed. "I guess Uncle Dreamy didn't make smurfing back home that easy for you, Mama."
"He really didn't, Liana," Smurfette said. "That's why when he was sleeping, your Grandpa Smurf has smurfed us all together for one final discussion of what challenge he might present to Dreamy, and that was the challenge that made Dreamy decide that smurfing home was the better option."
Then Psycheliana saw Dreamy wake up the next morning from his rest, to greet the Swoofs as they were gathered together with Grandpa Swoof. "So what's going to be my final challenge, Grandpa Swoof?" he asked.
"Your final challenge, Astro Smurf, will be to swoof the hard and swoofed life of a Swoof, and that challenge will not be easy," Grandpa Swoof said gravely. "You must swoof food for all the Swoofs, swoof dishes when they're finished swoofing, and sweep and clean and scrub, and you must never swoof a word while you're swoofing it."
"Oh my," Dreamy said, sounding a bit astonished.
"But that's not all," the Swoof that sounded like Brainy added. "You will have to prostrate before every Swoof you meet, and you will have to swoof their feet."
"What?!?" Dreamy said, sounding a bit shocked.
"At night, you will have to swoof on a bed of sharp swoofs," the Swoof that sounded like Duncan McSmurf contributed, "and you must swoof up three times to swoof around the camp, all without singing or whistling, no matter how happy you swoof."
"B-b-b-but..." Dreamy tried to say.
"And the only food you'll get to eat is edelweiss," the Swoof that sounded like Greedy said.
"And all you get to swoof is oil," the Swoof that sounded like Tapper said.
"And that's only once a day," the Swoof that sounded like Nabby said.
Dreamy cringed as he heard other things that this challenge entailed:
"In you swoof time, you will swoof in the salt mines."
"And you will be swoofing that for 543 days."
"And you must never complain."
"You will always have the swoof upon your face."
"Of course, you won't be able to swoof part in the holidays."
"Only then can you swoof that you are a true Swoof."
"STOP!" Dreamy shouted, interrupting the Swoofs before they continued any further. He looked down toward the ground while he was trying to think of a response. "Well...uh, now that you've mentioned it, I do think that Papa Smurf is smurfing sick about me, wondering when I'm going to smurf home," he finally said with some uneasiness. "It was nice smurfing with you, but I do think it's time for me to smurf back to Earth."
The Swoofs let out a sigh of relief when they heard that.
A short while later, the Swoofs have all gathered around Dreamy's smurfship, ready to see him off. Swoofette seemed like she was going to miss him the most of all.
"I wish that I could swoof with you back to your own world, Astro Smurf," Swoofette said with some honest feeling.
"I wish you could as well, Swoofette, but I don't think your Grandpa Swoof would allow that," Dreamy said. "But no matter where I smurf, I will always think of you."
"And I will swoof of you as well," Swoofette said as she gave him a goodbye kiss.
He then turned to Grandpa Swoof. "Thank you for letting me smurf with you. I'm sure that my fellow Smurfs will be interested in hearing all about you," he said as he shook hands with the Swoof leader.
"May you swoof a safe journey to your home, Astro Smurf," Grandpa Swoof said.
Dreamy turned toward his smurfship and started to climb back on board when a Swoof handed Grandpa Swoof a glass of liquid. "Oh, I forgot, Astro Smurf," Grandpa Swoof said, stopping Dreamy before he climbed any further. "Here's a little something for you that will swoof you strength for your journey."
Dreamy climbed back down, removed his helmet, and drank the contents of the glass. "Mmmm...it's smurflicious," he said to himself. "It smurfs just like smurfberry juice."
He then climbed back on board the smurfship and got back behind the controls to start the propellers. The Swoofs rocked the ship and sent up smoke to make it look like the smurfship was ascending back into outer space as the propellers continued to spin. Eventually, Dreamy began to feel himself getting tired, and the propellers slowed down until they came to a stop, which meant that Dreamy was asleep again.
The Swoofs let out another sigh of relief. "I'm glad that that part is now over with," a Swoof that sounded like Hefty said.
"Now it is time for the antidote," Grandpa Swoof said. And so with the uncorking of another bottle, a translucent green mist covered over all the Swoofs until they were changed back to their original appearances as Smurfs.
"Oh, there's just nothing in the world like being a Smurf...nothing at all," Smurfette said, as she looked at herself after the transformation.
"You've said it, Smurfette," Vanity said, as he looked himself in the reflection of his mirror.
"I hate being anything other than a Smurf," Grouchy said.
"Hopefully this will be the last time we will have to smurf around like that, laddie," Duncan said.
"I have to admit, my good Duncan, it was rather fun while it lasted," Tapper said.
"Okay, my little Smurfs, it's time for us to get the smurfship smurfed apart so that we can smurf it back home where it belongs," Papa Smurf said.
"Yeah, well, I'd like to smurf him apart for having us have to smurf this whole thing," Tuffy muttered to himself.
"And so for the next two days, Liana, we smurfed through the routine of smurfing Dreamy's smurfship apart, smurfing it and him back to the Smurf Village, and smurfing it all together again without ever letting Dreamy know the truth about the whole thing," Smurfette said. "It wasn't easy, but in the end I thought that everything we smurfed for him was worth it."
And then Pscyheliana saw that the Smurfs have returned to the village and reassembled the smurfship, putting Dreamy back inside the capsule while keeping him asleep. "Everything is all set, Papa Smurf," Tapper said when the village leader joined the others at the site of the smurfship.
"Good," Papa Smurf said. "Now all we have to smurf is to wait patiently until he smurfs up."
The Smurfs stood around outside the smurfship, looking rather anxious. "Well? Is he going to smurf out here or what?" Grouchy said.
"Give the laddie some time, Grouchy," Duncan McSmurf said.
"How long is this going to smurf? I've had it up to here Dreamy's birthday wish smurfing true," Tuffy said, sounding upset.
"Wait...here he smurfs now!" Tracker said as he noticed movement in the capsule.
The door of the smurfship opened, and Dreamy soon stepped out to find his fellow Smurfs greeting him home. "LONG LIVE THE ASTRO SMURF! HURRAY!" they shouted together.
Dreamy climbed down from the smurfship and went over to embrace Papa Smurf. "It's so smurfy to smurf your face again after a long journey into outer smurf, Papa Smurf," Dreamy said wholeheartedly.
"Same here, Dreamy," Papa Smurf said, sounding pleased. "So how was your journey?"
"Incredible! Fantastic!" Dreamy replied enthusiastically. "You wouldn't believe where I smurfed to! There was this planet that I smurfed my smurfship on with people called the Swoofs!"
"Swoofs?" Papa Smurf said, sounding curious to know about them.
"They're a somewhat backwards people, Papa Smurf, but they were very nice," Dreamy said as he and all the Smurfs walked away from the smurfship. "They smurfed like I was the smurf of honor. Wherever I smurfed, they would always smurf down and prostrate before me. They also smurfed a great feast in my honor. I was smurfing right next to their leader, Grandpa Swoof...a smurfy guy, even if he is a bit showy, but still nice."
Papa Smurf glared sideways when he heard a Smurf snicker behind him as they were walking together.
"The next day, I was smurfing what Smurfs could do: smurfing a spear into a target, smurfing a fight with a big and strong Swoof," Dreamy continued. "I smurf that he must have been two smurfs tall."
"Me?" Vanity said. "But I'm hardly any bigger than..."
"Shhh," the Smurf behind him said.
"The Swoofs were smurfing for me to stay, but I knew that I couldn't, so I smurfed back home," Dreamy said as he finished his tale about his adventure.
"So...now that you're home, Dreamy Smurf, do you plan on smurfing other journeys into outer smurf?" Papa Smurf asked.
"Well, the idea of smurfing other worlds and smurfing strange new civilizations does smurf rather tempting, Papa Smurf, but...," Dreamy began to say.
"But what?!?" the other Smurfs prompted.
"...but when it smurfs down to it, there's no other place I'd want to smurf than here on this world," Dreamy finished. "So I'll be smurfing apart my smurfship."
"That's a very wise decision, Dreamy," Papa Smurf said before turning to the others. "And so, my little Smurfs, in honor of Dreamy's first journey into outer smurf and his safe return to our village, I would like to smurf a little welcome home party together."
All the Smurfs cheered at the thought of a party for Dreamy Smurf.
Smurfette came up to Dreamy and kissed him. "Welcome home, Dreamy," she greeted pleasantly. "I knew that your birthday wish would someday smurf true."
"That makes the two of us, Smurfette," Dreamy said, sounding delighted. "You know, there was someone on that other world who reminded me of you. She was really beautiful, but she's nothing compared to you."
"Oh...for a moment there, I thought that you were smurfing to make me jealous," Smurfette said with a slight tease in her voice.
"So how was it knowing that your smurfday wish had finally come true, my good Dreamy?" Tapper asked.
"Oh, it's the most smurftastic thing that's ever happened to me, Tapper," Dreamy said, smiling. "I really smurfed like I was Duncan McSmurf with that Swoof that I smurfed with on that planet."
"Well, I know you have the smurfs in you to smurf that Swoof in his place there, laddie," Duncan said as he approached Dreamy.
"Duncan, what's happened to your face? You smurf a little different without the sidesmurfs," Dreamy said.
"Oh, yes...well, don't get used to smurfing me that way, boy," Duncan said. "I'd be smurfing the whiskers back even if you thought of never smurfing back home to us."
"I would venture to say that every Smurf has missed you when you were gone, Dreamy, and I for one am glad for your safe return," Tapper said, smiling along with Duncan.
"So am I, Tapper...though I do wonder what has happened since I was away," Dreamy said.
"Oh, just nothing you really need to consmurf yourself about," Tapper said.
Just then, Orbit was passing by, singing, "Earth below us, drifting, falling, smurfing weightless, calling, calling home..."
Dreamy, Tapper, and Smurfette looked at Orbit for that moment, and then at each other, with Dreamy wondering what was really going on when he was away.
"I guess he must have been inspired by your travel through outer smurf, my friend," Tapper said with a shrug.
"Great Ancestors, Mama, that was a great story about Uncle Dreamy," Psycheliana said after Smurfette's story was finished. "It's too bad that Papa wasn't a part of it, like all your stories of what happened before he smurfed you."
"I know how you feel, Liana," Smurfette said. "Sometimes I wish that I could have smurfed your Papa when I was first created, but then I have a feeling I would have made all the other Smurfs angry and jealous like I would have if I ever smurfed the inclination of falling in love with your Grandpa."
"Uggh, that's just too creepy for me," Psycheliana said while making a face at the thought of her Mama and Grandpa Smurf being married.
"I wonder what made Uncle Dreamy decide to smurf that kind of fantasy again, Aunt Smurfette," Miracle said out of curiosity.
"Dreamy started smurfing letters to the Swoofs, and Courier Smurf didn't know what to smurf with all the letters he was smurfing that he couldn't smurf to wherever they smurfed because they didn't exist, Miracle," Smurfette said. "He was disappointed that he wasn't smurfing a response from them, so your Grandpa Smurf decided to smurf a letter in secret to Dreamy that came from the Swoofs, smurfing them how much they missed him and how they wanted him to return someday. That made Dreamy so excited that he resmurfed his spaceship from scratch, and then your Grandpa Smurf decided to smurf what was called a 'reality bubble' that would smurf the whole village into the Swoof Village. Unfortunately, Brainy didn't smurf the whole 'reality bubble' spell completely, which made Dreamy upset when the Swoof Village changed back too soon and he realized for himself that the Swoofs weren't real."
"I feel really sorry for Uncle Dreamy, Mama, but at least he got to smurf up into space for real when that spaceship landed in the Smurf Forest years ago, and Papa and Uncle Handy were with him on that trip," Psycheliana said.
"Do you think we'll ever smurf into space for real in this lifetime, Aunt Smurfette?" Miracle asked.
"Who really knows?" Smurfette answered honestly. "For now, let's smurf home for dinner so we can get rested and smurf ourselves ready for another day."
"Yes, Mama," both Psycheliana and Miracle said together.
"This smurf wants to speak alone with Narrator, Smurfette," Empath requested. She nodded and proceeded onward toward their house with the two children.
"I know that listening to Smurfette smurfing about her life before she met you isn't easy, Empath, and I don't blame you for how you feel," Narrator said when they were alone together.
"This smurf does wonder at times if you were ever a witness of a story where Smurfette loved somebody more than anybody else right from the start," Empath said.
"As a matter of fact, I have been a witness to one particular story," Narrator said. "However, she would later find herself competing for his full affections when another Smurfette came into his life, and he would end up marrying her first instead of Smurfette."
"Great Ancestors," Empath said. "This smurf can only wonder how he was able to deal with two Smurfettes that were in competition with each other."
"It wasn't easy, let me smurf you," Narrator said. "But in the end, all three of them smurfed their peace and their happiness with each other. The other Smurfs in that story also became satisfied with the female Smurfs that smurfed into being through a magic mirror that they have found."
"Hmmm, a magic mirror that creates female Smurfs," Empath said, pondering that thought.
"Empath, supper's ready," he heard Smurfette call out.
"This smurf acknowledges," Empath said, realizing that now was the time to end his conversation with Narrator. "Well, until we meet again, this smurf might as well let you smurf back to your stories."
"No problem, Empath, I will know when to find you," Narrator said as he watched Empath depart.