Chapter 9: Purring
"Hey Wisp!" Clumsy called before he tripped and fell down into the cove with a thud. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Wisp standing over him, sniffing at his hat. He laughed a little before lifting himself off and petting her snout.
"Sorry about that, class was short today, want to know why?" He grinned.
Wisp suddenly backed up and away from the Smurf and looked over at him wide eyed, growling at him, causing him to stop walking. It didn't take him long to realise why. He reached into his satchel and felt the red flowers brush against his blue fingers. He walked back up the path and threw the flowers away, making sure they didn't come back in the valley's direction before he walked back down the trail.
"Sorry." He blushed. "We should both be more careful, it could've smurfed out much worse." He frowned.
He remembered the stories Granny had told him from her youth. Sometimes she and her village would find Dragonflies asleep in fields, unable to wake up, and they had no idea why. But now Clumsy knew why they didn't wake up. They couldn't wake up because they were constantly surrounded by the flowers, so they just lay there sleeping, slowly dying.
Clumsy was just grateful that he had been there to save Wisp.
He looked over at the Dragonfly and saw that she was trying to rub the back of her neck and her shoulders against a rock. Scared that she was going to damage the brace, he went over and placed a hand on her back. He looked and saw flakes of dried pieces of her shell like skin that was starting to peel off and iche her body.
"Let me help you." He chuckled and started rubbing and gently scratching the black body.
After a few moments, however, he began to notice some kind of oil on his hands that came from Wisp's body. Wisp let a faint growl eminiate from her throat and Clumsy guiltily continued rubbing the soothing oil in slow circles on her. The armor and muscles around her wings started to look brighter and healthier with the oil now in it.
Suddenly, he paused.
Something had rumbled, and it didn't sound like an earthquake. Clumsy walked silently to Wisp's head, bending down to put his ear next to the Nightmare's chest. His grin widened when he heard that she was purring. She didn't seem to notice though, to busy enjoying the massage he was giving her and leaning into his touch.
He was so focused on her purring that he failed to noticed his left hand slowly scratching down under her chin/
Suddenly she when silent and still as she fell to ground. Clumsy cried out, fearing the worst. He quickly looked and sighed in relief when he saw that not only was she still breathing but she also appeared to have a smile on her beak. She was fast asleep and it didn't look like she'd wake up anytime soon.
"Um... Ok... smurf you tomorrow." Clumsy smiled as he walked out of the valley and started heading back to Smurfy Grove...
It was really starting to get dark by the time Clumsy got back into the village. The smile was still on his face as he thought about earlier with Wisp. It would be nice if they could just spend more days like that, but they both had more important things to worry about. For him, it was not dying training and for Wisp it was to not get captured.
Clumsy shuddered at the thought, of her locked away in some cage, ready to be slaughtered.
He was almost at his house, when he walked past the arena and saw the door wide open. Granny never forgot to lock the door, and even if she did she'd never leave it wide open. Clumsy's mind instantly jumped to to the worst scenario and, as quiet as physically possible, he crept through the door. The light were still off and it looked like no one was here, but he listened anyway.
The sound of gentle footsteps came from the stairway to Granny's observation deck.
Clumsy held his breath and walked over to the stairs. He turned to face the culprit, and almost passed out relieved.
"Stormy, what are you smurfing here?" He whispered and the warrior nearly jumped out of her skin, looking over her shoulder at him, and mentally cursed herself for letting her guard down.
"Clumsy, don't smurf me like that!" She hissed.
"Gee Stormy, I'm sorry." He gulped. "What are you surfing here?"
Stormy sighed, before motioning upstairs.
"Come on." She said and started running upstairs, two at a time, and Clumsy had no choice but to follow her, albeit more slowly so he didn't trip, and make sure she didn't do anything crazy. By the time he caught up to the warrior she was already standing in Granny's booth, leaning as far as possible over the rail without falling over.
"Stormy, we really shouldn't be doing this." He whispered, worried Granny was going to show up any moment.
"Amazing aren't they?" She suddenly said.
He followed her gaze, and gasped. From the booth, they could see the whole arena, but that wasn't the best part. They could see inside the cages where the Dragonflies were kept. A Miasmas was pacing around its cage, a Snapifer and a Hotspot were snarling at each other through cages. But the cutest scene was a Bottleneck, curled up asleep in the corner.
The Inferno's cage was the only one they couldn't see due to the fact it was completely sealed up.
"It's amazing, everysmurf says they're so vicious but if you actually manage to smurf them when they don't feel scared, they're very smurfy." Clumsy muttered as he looked between the cages; the Dragonflies looked like they were all in prison cells. Stormy just laughed at him.
"Perhaps, but you have to smurf that these creatures have smurfed our village and our people for decades."
"I know, I just don't think it's smurfy that some of them are smurfed as a whole, it's like saying one man smurfs a crime so you need to smurf all humans in jail." He explained. "Do you still think all Dragonflies are bad?" He suddenly asked and Stormy frowned.
"Clumsy, if a man smurfs a crime, you don't smurf the whole human race in jail, you smurf that one individual to court, analyse the case and then reach a verdict and I've seen the evidence, and have already made my decision; guilty."
"Aren't there usually 12 on a jury?" He asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"You weird." She laughed and gave him a friendly punch to the arm. Clumsy chuckled and he nervously rubbed his arm.
"Thanks." He smiled.
"No problem, we should smurf home before we get caught" She said as she looked at the clock on the wall.
"Yeah, more training tomorrow." He groaned. Stormy just rolled her eyes as they started walking downstairs. All of a sudden, they both froze and their blood ran cold.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" Granny's voice echoed through the darkness.
Stormy knelt to the floor and lifted one of the boards. Hidden under the board was a small passage. Stormy jumped down and Clumsy quickly followed as the board dropped, leaving no trace they'd ever been there. They could still here Granny walking above them, and Stormy motioned silently for them to start walking.
They walked through the pathway for roughly 10 or so minutes, before Stormy came to a halt.
She pushed up an opening in the ceiling, before climbing through the hole and then helping Clumsy out. They looked around and Clumsy couldn't believe where they'd come up.
"The hall?" He mumbled.
"Yep, it's an old passage they smurfed when they first built the arena." She explained. "I better smurf it a night." She yawned before she walked out of the hall.
After a few moments, Clumsy walked into his house before collapsing on the bed, too tired to get changed...