Chapter 6: First Try
That night, Granny and the gang sat around a campfire, roasting their dinner. All eyes were on Granny, who was telling a story most had heard millions of times.
"And then, out of nowhere, the biggest dragonfly you've ever smurfed! Its hide was littered with the weapons of fallen warriors, his face scarred, with one eye; the warrior smurfed her sword and woosh! With one swipe her sword shattered and then chomp! Her head was smurf off! Down the monster's throat it went, the Red One has never been seen since, and is roaming the wilds waiting it's chance of revenge!"
"I'll smurf the head of every dragonfly I fight!" Harmony smirked, but Granny shook her head.
"No, it's the wings you need to smurf for, if they can't fly then they can't get away, the dragonfly would be like sitting ducks, and a downed dragonfly is a smurfed dragonfly." She explained and Clumsy's eyes widened in horrifying realisation.
"All right, I'm off to bed." The old Smurf sighed as she stood up. "You should be, too; tomorrow we smurf to the big boys, slowly but surely making our way up to the Inferno, but who'll win the honor of smurfing it?"
"It's gonna be me, it's my destiny, see?" Blossom exclaimed and showed them her shoulder.
"Willow let you get a tattoo?" Lily gasped.
"It's not a tattoo, it's a birthmark." She pouted.
"OK, I've known you since we were smurfed and that was never there before." Harmony laughed.
"Yes, it was!" She argued. "You've just never smurfs me from the left side."
Clumsy silently ran off while they were still, but Stormy saw him. She almost looked like she was going to follow him, but Blossom called her back to the others. Clumsy continued running into the darkness, knowing this was going to be a long night...
Clumsy ran into the blacksmith store at the far end of the village. A few years ago, a few of the girls had been kind enough to take the time to teach him how to operate the equipment and craft many things.
He'd even helped Lily make a brace for a bird's broken wing.
Firing up the furnace and opening another book on dragonflies he'd found in the hall, he got to work. He knew he wasn't as skilled as he should be, but he thought he'd do well enough.
He found a piece of metal he thought would be perfect.
It was very thin and light but it was incredible strong. He began to carefully forge it into the shape he wanted. He worked well into the night and it was a miracle no smurf came by.
As the early morning sun began to rose, Clumsy wiped the sweat off his brow and smiled at his handy work...
As soon as he had packed his project up, he ran straight for the cove. After sneaking in through the path with his project in one hand and the other holding a large sack. He looked around and grew worried when he couldn't see the Nightmare anymore.
"Wisp?" He called into the silence.
He didn't know when he'd named her or why, but he just felt that name fit her. There was a low rumbling sound and he saw her half napping on a large boulder. She rolled off and watched him, still cautious.
"Hey, Wisp, I brought breakfast." He smiled as he dropped the sack and all sorts of nuts, berries and other assortments spilled out. Wisp perked up as she crawled over to the delicious pile of food
"I hope you're hungry." He grinned as she sniffed. "We've got some boomberries, smurfberries and a whole thorn root." He smiled as he helb up the greyish/brown root.
The second Wisp saw the root, her mouth lit up, her pupils slit and a fearful yowl bubbled in her throat.
"No, it's OK!" He cried as he threw the root away, the second it was gone, she calmed down and went back to sniffing at the food. "Yeah, I don't really smurf thorn root much, either." He sighed.
That wasn't a lie. No one in Smurfy Grove liked thorn root because of its sour and bitter taste. The only reason Willow had them collect any at all was because it was the best ingredient for most of her medicines and potions
"That's it." He muttered as Wisp started chomping down on the food. "Just smurf with the good stuff and don't you smurf me." He grinned as he crept around to her damage wing.
As she continued to eat, Clumsy carefully climbed onto her back placed the crumpled wing into the thin metal brace he had made. It was still noticeably creased but at least it was not bent out of shape. As he smiled with pride, he failed to notice Wisp freeze as she flexed her damage wing and her eyes widened in shock.
"That's not too bad, hope it works."
The second those words left his mouth, Wisp suddenly took off into the sky. Clumsy cried out as he gripped Wips' neck tightly. She was only able to fly a few feet before she started to fall. Clumsy looked at the wing and saw it was spazzing out in all directions while the other one stayed in one place. He screamed when he saw they were heading straight for a wall.
Out of pure instinct, he grabbed her antennas and pulled.
Wisp let out a screeched as she flew up, missing the stone wall by mere inches. When Clumsy opened his eyes he laughed as they flew around the cove, though they weren't flying as well as they should be. Getting annoyed with the Smurf sat on her, so when they were right over the pond, Wisp did a loopty-loop.
The grip on her antennas loosened as Clumsy fell into the pond.
The second he was off, Wisp growled in frustration as she found it more harder to stay in the air. She fell into the shallow end of the pond. When Clumsy surfaced he saw her crawl out onto the grass, her wings soaked and limp. She sent him a snarl before climbing into her tree to sulk...
"Today is about teamwork!" Granny shouted as she unlocked the massive cage, and before they could even see it fully open the arena was filled with an eerie green gas. Remembering something they all learned when they were smurflings, they gathered into groups. Lily went back to back with Clumsy while Harmony, Stormy and Blossom wandered off into the gas cloud.
"Now, a wet dragonfly head can't light its fire." Granny said. "The Miasmas is extra tricky, one end shots gas and the other lights it, your job is to know which is which."
Somewhere else in the thick gas, Stormy and Blossom were back to back, armed with their buckets. Just then something moved nearby and Blossom jumped and threw her bucket of water at a shadow in the fog. The fog thinned and Blossom blushed when she realised who it was.
"Hey! It's me!" Harmony growled, her clothes now soaked.
"I'm sorry! I thought you were the dragonfly!" She cried.
Suddenly, a large sea green tail came out of nowhere and knocked the two Smurfs over. Seconds later, they both came running out of the green gas, their clothes torn. As they ran past them, Clumsy gulped as he looked into the unknown. A large shadow emerged from the fog, and he screamed while running backwards.
Yellow-ish green eyes glowed above them, and Lily threw the water in her bucket at the closest thing to her, the tail.
But her heart froze when she saw the end of the tail started to glow as gas started to form from it as it's mouth started to spark. Its large head came down to finish Lily off but Stormy jumped. The older girl managed to commando roll out of the way as the creature's jaws only just missed them. It was just Clumsy and the monster.
Granny looked over to the others, and after seeing them safe turned back to him.
"Now Clumsy!" She cried.
Clumsy was about to throw his bucket when the Miasmas charged him. He went to dodge, but tripped up, causing the water to spill everywhere. The beast was about to strike when the thorn root slipped out of his hat and the Miasmas tensed. Clumsy's eyes widened as he remembered how Wisp had reacted to the root.
He put the root back into his hat and took a step towards the dragonfly.
The Miasmas hissed as it backed away and Clumsy smiled in relief. Everyone watched in awe as he herded the dragonfly back into the cage.
"Back, back, back!" He exclaimed loudly.
Another step forward, another step back. The Miasmas glared at him, all it could do was back away from the small Smurf. The others slowly walked forward as well, looks of shock on their faces. Stormy actually looked distressed; she'd not been able to do such a feat. The dragonfly was finally backed into the corner of the cage.
"Now, don't you make me smurf you again! Yes, that's right. Back into your cage. Now think about what you've done." He grinned as he threw the root into the cage and locked it.
He glanced back to see the others. They were all frozen is amazement, Harmony actually dropping her shield. Clumsy was slightly creeped out by their expressions, they were looking at him as if he was the dragonfly.
"Okay... so are we done?" He gulped but no-one moved, it was hard to tell if they were even breathing. "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow!" He grinned as he ran out if the arena, and could feel the daggers being glared into his back...