Chapter Text
Long ago, before Smurfy Grove and Smurf Village were established and named, there stood another village. Smurfdon was large and bustling, with Smurfs of every gender roaming the streets and forests. As with any town, there were enemies, yet they were kept at bay with minimal effort.
Two leaders ruled together, working to ensure peace and each using the skills they had to protect and build up the Village. Smurf Hawthorne, the shaman leader who communed with nature to ensure her little smurfs were safe. Papa-Papa Smurf, who constantly got teased for his name by Smurf Hawthorne, was the alchemist leader using his skill with potions to ensure everyone’s well-being. The two had led side by side for years, both sworn to protect their village with their lives. A task which left them no time for romance, both had taken a vow of celibacy in their youth in order to protect the village. Both had led for nearly five hundred years, and they could feel age deep in their bones. They knew the time had come for a predecessor, and they knew the best way to keep an even playing field was to choose multiple.
Papa-Papa Smurf had taken on Ron, Ken, and Pieter. Three smurflings who arrived by the same stork and were raised as triplets. Hawthorne took her time observing her little smurfs and had finally settled on three of her own. Smurf Violetta, who showed a remarkable interest in the way the water affected the nature around them. Smurf Jade, who managed to include every smurf in her vicinity in her plans. Smurf Willow, possibly the one who showed the most potential of the three, Hawthorne had caught the young smurfling practicing magic and watched her succeed with levitating a leaf a few inches off the ground. Hawthorne knew that regardless of who took her place as leader, all three would make excellent proteges and that all three would be great allies.
What Hawthorne, or Papa-Papa, could not have predicted was how some of the smurflings would clash. And that is where this story begins.
Hawthorne knelt before the three girls and smiled, “Do you know why I brought you three here?
They all shook their heads, and Jade raised her hand, nervously looking in her eyes. “Are we in trouble?”
“No, my dear,” Hawthorne shook her head at the young smurfling. “I have brought you here because you three have been chosen as my new proteges. Do you know what that means?”
Willow raised her hand and spoke, “When you build something and work really hard on it.”
“Close,” Hawthorne chuckled as she stood and grabbed an old book before sitting between the girls, “That is a project. A protege means I am going to train you three to be like me and train you to become strong.”
“Ohhh,” All three nodded, and Violetta pointed to the book, “What is this?”
“This, Violetta,” Hawthorne cracked open the book and showed them its contents. “It is the story of how the Smurfs came to be. My leader showed it to me, and I am going to show it to you three. You know the training we have been doing?”
Willow nodded, “Where I get to practice sorcery!”
“Exactly,” Hawthorne smiled, “This is what you have been training for. It is time for you to meet the other students and begin to learn how to lead.”
On the other side of the village, a crash followed by three loud giggles interrupted Papa-Papa’s alchemy, and he removed his goggles with a small sigh. He glanced towards the noise and the pile of books on the floor, and raised an eyebrow, “Boys? What are you doing?”
“I'm looking for a book,” Ken replied, attempting to climb on Ron’s shoulders.”I can see it; I just can’t reach it!”
“Get off my you ogre!” Ron hissed, shaking to get Ken off. Pieter was laughing to the side, laughing so hard he was on the ground.
“Boys as Co-leaders, you are supposed to work together-” Another crash, and Papa-Papa watched a caldron fall to the ground as Ron and Ken began wrestling, eventually roping Pieter in. Papa-Papa sighed, smurflings. “-Work together to succeed, not pin your brother!”
Papa-Papa walked over to separate the boys, struggling to get a hold of them. Once he had a hand on two, the third would wrestle free and instigate another brawl. He missed the creek of the door opening and only stopped when he heard a throat clearing. The boys stopped, too, thank Merlin, and he glanced over to see Smurf Hawthorne standing in the doorway. She raised an eyebrow, arms crossed, “Am I interrupting something?”
“Not at all,” Papa-Papa replied, standing and straightening his clothes, “Is it time?”
Hawthorne simply nodded before turning to the three boys and softly smiling, “Would you three follow me?”
Hawthorne and Papa-Papa led Ron, Ken, and Pieter to the edge of the village. Before reaching the end of the village borders, they turned left and ducked into a small, secluded alcove. There, the group saw Violetta, Jade, and Willow sitting patiently. Papa-Papa knelt beside the boys, “Now, in order to be a good leader, you have to work together. These three will be your co-leaders, and you must learn to work together. Do you understand me?”
The three boys nodded, and they hesitantly went out to mingle. It started about as well as could be expected. The two groups separated themselves and mainly stuck to their siblings. However, after some urging and stern looks, the two groups started to mingle. Ron had begun chatting with Jade, who eagerly showed him how to make different crafts out of nature. Violetta and Ken had gotten into a heated discussion about who could jump across the creek further. Then they proceeded to run off and test it, which led to Papa-Papa and Hawthorne stepping away in order to stop them from getting completely drenched. That left Pieter and Willow.
Willow tilted her head as she stared at the bottles, “What are those?”
She told Hawthorne she would attempt to mingle with the other three, but her attention caught on the liquids in the bottles and the smurfling who took great care to mix them. He glanced up and back at the bottles, “Potions.”
“Potions?” Willow replied, trying out the word and scrunching her nose up, “What do they do?”
Pieter shrugged, “They can do a number of things. They can heal people-”
“Nature can do that!” Willow interrupted, and Pieter shot her an annoyed look. “Nature is better anyway because you don't have to rely on old bottles to move it!”
“No way!” Pieter exclaimed, “Alchemy is way better than nature! Nature is so dumb. You can do so much more with it!”
“Can not!” Willow screeched, “Alchemy is so old, it even sounds old.”
Ron and Jade stared at their siblings, unable to get a word in as the two smurflings argued and poked at each other. After around five agonizing minutes, the two leaders returned to see Willow and Pieter all but fist-fighting as they argued over which magic was superior. Hawthorne hardened her gaze, and Papa-Papa crossed his arms while clearing his throat loudly. The two smurflings turned to their leaders and looked like a deer caught in headlights. Hawthorne spoke first, “What is going on here?”
“She started it!” Pieter exclaimed, pointing a finger at Willow.
“Did not!” Willow let out an offended gasp and stomped her foot, “He started it!”
“I do not care who started it,” Papa-Papa said sternly. “I am ending it. What were you two even fighting about?”
“He said nature was dumb…” Willow muttered as she toed the ground.
“Only after you said potions were worse than nature!” Pieter hissed, and Hawthorne cleared her throat.
“That is enough,” Hawthorne said, crossing her arms. “As future leaders, I expect you two to work together. Alchemy and nature are equally important, as both rely on each other. Willow, follow me; we need to have a discussion.”
“Pieter,” Papa-Papa pointed at him, “You too, young man.”
The walk back to Hawthorn's house was agonizingly slow, and Willow stared at the dirt the entire time. She muttered under her breath, “Stupid Pieter… Stupid alchemy…”
“I can hear you,” Hawthorne glanced back, and Willow curled in on herself. Hawthorne slowed down and took Willow’s hand. “I understand you were frustrated, but that’s not an excuse to act like that.”
“He just…” Willow pouted, “He upset me!”
“And he will probably continue to do so in the future,” Hawthorne replied calmly. A good leader must learn to tolerate people who upset her, but a great leader looks upon the reason why she is upset. He upsets you simply because he practices something different from you, but you must learn to take his ideas and beliefs and incorporate them with your own. You must learn to work together.”
Willow was silent as they entered Hawthorn’s house and sighed as she stood by the door, “I have to apologize to him…”
Hawthorne smiled as she reached into a cupboard and started looking for something. “I am proud of you for coming to that conclusion on your own.”
Willow stared out the window and turned back to Hawthorne, “But I don’t have to be around him, do I?”
“I would prefer if you did,” Hawthorne grabbed a small wooden staff that came up to her chest and stood straighter, pulling it with her. “I believe it would do a lot of good for you to spend an hour a day together. Learn how the other works, what strengths the other has, and what weaknesses. That will allow you to rise to leadership.”
“Fine,” Willow pouted as Hawthorne walked over to her. “What’s that?”
“This—" Hawthorne held the staff out "-will help you channel your powers. It will ensure you can use them safely and to your full ability.”
Willow held out her hands and gasped, “Wow…”
Hawthorne held it out of reach and pointed a stern finger at Willow, “It is not for hitting. I'd better not hear that you have decided your disagreements need a staff to solve them. Am I clear?”
Willow nodded sharply, “Yes!”
“You have been taken on as prodigies, and if you become leaders, you must learn how to work together,” Hawthorne said, handing Willow a staff. “I expect the two of you to work together and learn to play nice.”
“How come you haven’t given the other girls this talk?” Willow asked, tracing the staff with her hand.
“Because the other two haven’t antagonized Pieter,” Hawthorne replied with a raised brow. “I heard this wasn’t exactly the first time you butted heads with him.”
Willow looked sheepish, and Hawthorne softened, crouching down to the smurfling's height, “You are destined for great things, Willow. You and your sisters, but you must be kind to each other and your fellow smurfs. Imagine Violetta, Jade, and you are already leaders, and Pieter, Ron, and Ken are your co-leaders. You do not want conflict within leadership, or enemies will strike, and when they do, they will win. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Mama Hawthorne,” Willow nodded, a determined look on her face, “I will do better.”
That night, Hawthorne sat on the roof of her mushroom, holding her staff in her hand. Willow, Jade, and Violetta had all gone to bed and had promised to make amends to the boys later tomorrow. Hawthorne smirked as she recalled the different lecture she had to give Violetta about why you didn’t challenge your co-leader to jump into a deep creek. She supposed there were various tactics for raising different children. She glanced over as Papa-Papa quietly sat down in the neighboring chair.
“Did you talk to Pieter?” Hawthorne stared into the darkness surrounding the village. Something big was brewing; she could feel it in her soul.
“Of course,” Papa-Papa replied, passing her a mug of coffee. “He has sworn to be less uptight about his alchemy. Did you talk to Willow?”
“Naturally,” Hawthorne took a sip and then held the mug in her hands, staring at her reflection in the dark liquid. “She agrees to stop the teasing and has agreed to work with them as co-leaders.”
“The two could be truly powerful if they both agree to work together.” Papa-papa muttered as he took a slow sip, “Willow’s sorcery almost matches yours at that age.”
“And Pieter's alchemy skills are remarkable for his young age,” Hawthorne leaned back in her seat. “We need to set apart a few days to swap them so they get a better view of what the other leader does. It will help Willow see how alchemy is useful and not old-fashioned. It may help further Jade and Violetta’s powers as well.”
“Brilliant idea as always,” Papa-Papa chuckled, “Maybe then Pieter won’t be so upset about the teasing.”
“One can hope,” Hawthorne chuckled as she took a sip. Her mood soured, and she stared out into the darkness again. “Something big is coming.”
“You feel it too.” Papa-Papa sighed, “I don’t know how much bloodshed this war will cause.”
“There’s truly no telling. Look at the last war,” Hawthorne sighed. “We lost so many. When the time is right, we must tell our predecessors, whichever ones we pick, we must let them know. They cannot be blindsided like we were.”
“The only question is which two will be able to handle it.” Papa-Papa stared out into the forest, calm on the surface but horrors lurking deep within. “Think we’ll survive it?”
Hawthorne was silent, and she took another sip. “I think we should prepare the six as well as we can and pick two to shoulder the burden.”