It was early morning in the Smurf village. Papa Smurf and Sassette were in the former's laboratory huddled around a box on the table.

"What are we going to do with him Papa?" asked the your Smurfling as she looked down into the model hovel at the tiny Gargamel, the evil wizard looked so helpless and unthreatening now that he was no bigger than three smurfberries high.

"My priority at the moment is to find a way of changing him back to his correct size. I don't want him in the village for longer than necessary but we can't turf him out into the woods as he would not last one minute out there on his own. Isn't that right Gargamel?" smirked Papa at the tiny human.

Gargamel looked up at the giant Smurfs filling his field of vision. He wanted to shout and scream terrible things to them but he knew that they would just laugh at him. His reduced size meant that his voice would sound all squeaky to them and he would end up being humiliated.

He summoned up all his courage to just glare at them with all the malice he could muster under the circumstances but inside he was shaking like a leaf.
The two Smurfs just laughed and then the roof of the fake hovel was replaced. He was once again plunged into darkness save for the daylight coming through the air holes punched into the sides of his prison. He heard the door click shut as they left the mushroom house. He rushed to one of the small holes and stood on tiptoes to try and make sure that he was all alone.

He had never liked being confined anywhere. Even a town made him feel claustrophobic, that's why he liked living out in the wild far from others. This box on the other hand magnified his feeling of panic and he had to get out of here!
He did not feel that he could trust the Smurfs and he did not want to become their plaything, he'd rather die than be their pet.

He suddenly felt very angry and ran to the kitchen table, picked it up and threw it with all his might at one of the walls of his prison. The wall buckled a on by pure adrenaline and his desire for freedom he picked up the table once more and then thew it again and again at the wall until the wood splintered and a ragged hole appeared just big enough for him to squeeze through.

He was out! But how to get down? He was on the table in the laboratory. He looked around him and on the shelves high above him there were plenty of ingredients that he could use to make magic to help him, but he could not reach them and to his horror he knew that he might be stuck as a tiny human for almost a month as the main ingredient could only be prepared by the light of a full moon.

Feeling dejected, he sat on the edge of the table deep in thought. He had no way to get down without hurting himself. He could now appreciate how brave the Smurfs must be to be so small in the forest. They had one advantage over his frail human body. They seemed to have spring loaded heels just like grasshoppers. How else could they jump so high and fall from great heights without injury?
He looked down at the floor of the laboratory from his high perch and for a moment he felt very dizzy and had to move away from the edge. He had almost felt like jumping to his doom.
Gargamel tried to shrug off that horrible feeling, got up and walked around the circumference of the table trying to see if there was any way down. Maybe a chair or even a stool that he could at least jump onto. But alas, he was trapped and he knew it.

Papa had not gone far, Sassette had gone off to play with the other Smurflings who were helping Smurfette to water the flowers which surrounded her pretty mushroom house.
It was her pride and joy and was the only bright pink house in all of the village. Even Vanity Smurf thought it was garish but Smurfette just told them that they could not surpass her taste in home decor. Most Smurfs didn't argue with her on that point.

The elderly Smurf came to a plain looking mushroom house. This one was in natural woodland colours and blended into the forest very well. It was the home of Handy Smurf. Papa knocked on the plain wooden door and it was opened by a Smurf wearing tatty overalls and sporting a red pencil behind his right ear.

"Good morning Handy. Just wondering if you could help me with something?" said Papa Smurf with a cheery smile.

"Anything for you Papa. What can I do for you?" asked the younger Smurf who was trying to wipe some grime from his hands with a very dirty cloth and ended up making his hands ever grimier.

"As you know, we have Gargamel in our..care. I feel that the fake hovel will not meet his needs now that he knows he is going to be with us for a long time. I would like you to build a stronger 'habitat' for the human. Something where we can keep an eye on him but it has to be unbreakable and escape proof." answered Papa with a glint in his eye.

"Ah I see, of course it would have to be the 'fishbowl'," giggled Handy Smurf. Papa tried to suppress a smile but failed.
The 'fishbowl' was the one cage all Smurfs could not escape from. It was a large glass bowl that Papa Smurf had made by magic one day when he had wanted to see how good his little Smurfs were at escaping from cages and traps. The neck of the bowl narrowed dramatically at the top so that the only way to get in was to be covered in a slippery substance and pushed into it very hard like a cork in a bottle. The only way out was by breaking the glass from the outside.
Due to a special magic coating on the inside surface it meant the walls felt and had the same properties of metal but it was perfectly clear as glass. This cage was unknown to Gargamel and the Smurfs regularly practised escaping from cages and traps. They frequently spied on the wizard when he built his cages and other traps.
Armed with this information they would make duplicates of what they had seen. With constant practice they perfected ways to escape. This combined with distraction techniques meant that they ran circles around the old 'Coot' of a wizard.

Handy opened the door wider and invited Papa into his home. In the corner of the room stood the 'fishbowl' it almost filled the whole room to the ceiling. It was big enough for two Smurfs at a time and of course it would now be too big for Gargamel. The village leader went up to the bowl and took out a wand. He muttered some spells over it and it began to shrink so it was small enough to carry but large enough for the miniature wizard. At least ten tiny Gargamels could fit in there.

Papa made sure that the neck of the 'fishbowl' was reduced in size so that when the time came they could fit the human through it.

"There, that will do nicely! I'll magic some furniture and bedding in there and of course he will need some sanitary facilities. I think that could be done by magic. No sense in getting our hands un-smurfy," smirked Papa and Handy gave a wry smile.
Their greatest enemy was in the palm of their hands and they were going to take every opportunity to have some fun.

Whilst the Smurfs were planning his incarceration the evil wizard had a brainwave as to how he could get off the table. He hurried over and climbed into the fake hovel through the hole he had made earlier. He then stripped the bed of all the sheets he could lay his hands on and collected up anything else that could be made into a makeshift rope.
He then climbed back through the hole with his haul and methodically set about ripping each sheet into strips and tying each strip to the next. He soon had a usable rope. He now needed to find an anchor point.

He returned to the hovel and he gave it a push with all his might to see if he could move it. The wooden box barely moved but it was still too far from the edge of the table where he needed it to be.

With almost superhuman strength born out of sheer desperation and panic he managed to inch the fake hovel to the edge of the table. He put one end of the rope through an air hole and then climbed back in. Inside the gloom of the box he looked for somewhere to tie the rope onto. It would have to be strong enough to hold his weight.
His eyes rested on the overturned table, yes that would do and he started to tie his rope onto it, tying a double knot for safety.
He went back outside and snaked the other end of the rope over the edge of the table and saw that it fell short by about five meters. But it would be safe enough to let himself drop down from that height.

He gave a few 'test tugs' on the rope and slowly lowered himself off the edge of the table. His legs and arms were shaking with effort and terror and he willed himself to concentrate on a careful and steady descent. He tried to not look down too much and just kept looking straight ahead. One slip would mean disaster. After what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes, Gargamel literally came to the end of his rope.

He clung onto the last bit of cloth and now had to look at the floor below him. It was only a few meters to jump, he would just have to make sure that he landed on his feet with his knees bent. He took a deep breath and let go.

Not far away the Smurflings were busy in Smurfette's garden, they had watered all the potted flowers and were now doing some weeding for her. It was always easier to week in wet soil and soon only the pretty flowers were left in the immaculate beds. The useless weeds were left to wither and die in the sun. Sassette was just straightening up from weeding her own little patch of garden when a shadow fell across her. She turned around and a great big tongue gave her a slurpy kiss right on the smacker! It was Puppy!

"Oh you soppy dog! You've got me all wet! I'm going to have to change my clothes now. Yuck dog drool!" chidded the young Smurfling and she shooed Puppy away. The little dog gave a whimper and then scampered off to find some other Smurf to lick and drool over.
The other Smurflings watched Sassette leave and Nat went after Puppy holding a stick in his hand.

"Hey Puppy! Do you want to play fetch? Go get it!" and he threw the stick to one side. Puppy bounded happily after the piece of wood.

Smurfette looked up from her work and smiled at the scene before her. Now that Gargamel had been shrunk she felt that the whole village could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their enemy could not descend upon them at any time. As long as he was their prisoner he could do no harm.
Azrael was another problem that they would have to deal with when the time came. Puppy would protect them. With that comforting thought she went back to pruning the rose bushes.

Back at Papa Smurf's laboratory, Gargamel had managed to get down safely and looking back up towards the edge of the table he was quite impressed with himself. He did not like heights at the best of times and it seemed that his fear of the Smurfs had overwhelmed his fear of heights.

He made his way towards the mushroom house door and there was a crack in the doorframe. Thankfully he was slim enough to push his way through and once outside the mushroom he kept to the shadows trying to work out his next move.
In the distance he could see a garish pink house and then a flash of yellow and blue. He moved forward a little and squinted his eyes and saw that it was Smurfette.

That traitor! He had given her life and ever since the Smurfs turned her 'good' she had been a thorn in his side. It was a thorn that could hurt more than others. She was his creation and for a better word she was his daughter!

Then he felt a hot breath on the back of his neck and the world around him went black, hot and slimy as Puppy swallowed him up in one gulp.

To be continued...