One of the inseparable elements of Smurfs' life is music. Everyone knows it, it's clearly stated in all comics, games and animations. The famous smurf song, an orchestra conducted by Papa and occasionally Brainy, a choir or small bands made the lives of these blue creatures more pleasant from time to time. All the Smurfs indulged in music with their whole hearts.

Music had always accompanied the Smurfs, and the blue pixies could infect everybody with their love for notes at a very fast pace. The Smurfs loved to perform with music, and since the Smurflings appeared in the village, a lot of bands competed in creating new styles and songs.

However, this tale doesn't take place in medieval times like most smurf stories. The Smurf Village stayed in harmony with nature and simply didn't recognize one hundred percent of the progress made by humanity, even in the twenty-first century. Of course, the progress in the village continued, but it developed in a different way, without unnecessarily destroying nature, so not everything could be achieved as quickly. Fortunately, the Smurfs knew about magic, which more than once had helped them adapt and understand modernity to some extend.

"Yes, yes..." Papa Smurf muttered under his breath, sitting by the announcement mushroom. The leader of the Smurf Village tapped his chin with a pen, making the last adjustments in his notebook. In a few minutes, he was to announce another happening in the village and he wanted everything already planned before making another step forward.

Harmony stood on the other side of the mushroom, looking his beloved trumpet over. This Smurf didn't stand out much from the others in terms of music, or rather he did stand out, but much to his own disadvantage. He could love music the most in the world, but what he lacked the most was the perfect pitch and talent. The trumpet must have been dirty, because the Smurf was trying to scratch the dirt from several places on the instrument every few moments.

"Do you want me to trump now, Papa Smurf?" he asked finally, leaning on the mushroom and stomping his leg lightly. The brown-haired was usually tasked to call the village with his trumpet at the request of one of the Smurfs, anysmurf who wanted to have a speech. Most often he was asked to do so by Papa Smurf, but sometimes he assisted Brainy, Smurfette or Handy, those three seemed to make speeches much more often than the other Smurfs. "We're here for quite some time, and you said it yourself that this was a message to be delivered immediately," the unfortunate musician continued, looking at Papa.

Papa Smurf sighed, taking cork plugs from his pocket and stuffing them in his ears. "Eh... Yes, you can trump now." Every Smurf knew it was better to stuff something in their ears when Harmony started to play his trumpet somewhere near.

The sound of the yowling trumpet spread through the village, knocking the inhabitants off their daily activities and duties. Everyone immediately headed for the announcement mushroom, curious and concerned. You never know why there's a sound alarm after all.

"Galloping groundhogs! I wonder what's going on," Sassette squeaked, hurrying after the other Smurflings.

The crowd of blue creatures gathered in front of the mushroom. Harmony stopped playing and quickly positioned himself among the rest of the listeners. Whispers echoed around, repeatedly somesmurf shrugged or shook their head. Brainy pushed through, elbows banging his sibling along the way.

"Hey, look where you're smurfing!" Hefty growled.

"Yeah!" Sassette agreed, rubbing her nose in which she had been punched.

"Silence!" Papa Smurf suddenly shouted. None of the Smurfs had noticed when the elder Smurf had stepped onto the announcement mushroom, all of them busy with confusing themselves more. "I've gathered you all here to invite you to the upcoming music competition."

The soft whispers quickly turned into louder murmurs, full of excitement.

"In exactly one month there will be a concert during which each of you will be able to show your musical talent. You can perform in a group or solo. What's more, the concert will be honored by well-known bands with good old pieces of music."

"What are the rules of the competition, Papa Smurf?" Smurfette asked.

"Yeah, what should the participants focus on in order to win?" Handy added.

"The rules are ambiguous," the village leader said mysteriously. "As main judge, I want to be surprised. Those who manage to stun me will win. The audience's opinion will be important as well."

"And what about the prize?" Brainy screamed, rubbing his hands.

Some of the Smurfs rolled their eyes at this question.

"I can't tell you that," Papa Smurf replied. "Just know that the prize is really worth the effort." After a moment of silence, he ended the meeting. "That's all, you can return to your duties. Only Harmony, Hefty, Handy, Painter and Tailor will stay."

The delighted Smurfs began to return to their activities, some of them already putting together a plan and trying to come up with ideas on how to surprise Papa Smerf at the concert. A month could be a lot of time or too little time, depending on somesmurf's abilities.

Brainy reluctantly left the meeting place. Once again he felt unimportant, because Papa Smurf didn't want him to stay after the meeting. And yet the bespectacled Smurf was very good at planning and distributing duties and overseeing the work, so he would have certainly be of a use to the village leader.

The brunet slammed the door while entering his hut. There was actually nothing to do for him. All the books had long since been transferred and put in a new order, his hut was clean, everything was perfectly in place.

Too bad. If Papa Smurf didn't consider him a Smurf needed for such a responsible task as preparations for the concert, he only had one thing left - take a part in the competition and win it. But how would he do it? Certainly not alone, he couldn't find it in himself.

~Oh, misty eye of the mountain below...~ he began singing softly, trying to think of something.

As for human music, it made it to the Smurfs as soon as it was born. Human music had long relied heavily on singing with instrumental accompaniment, while the Smurfs had mostly focused on either one or the other, rarely singing and playing the instruments at the same time. But humans' songs were catchy and more than once Brainy had found himself humming some of it when no one was listening.

Quite interesting, the brunet thought. The Smurfs practiced playing the instruments and singing separately, and occasionally trained singing accompanied by instruments. But how about singing and making instrumental music only with Smurfs' voices? Was it possible? Maybe in theory, but practice depended on the Smurfs, not just on him alone. It wasn't exactly the same as singing in a choir. There would have been several voices acting as instruments, but they wouldn't have sounded together in the same way as choral voices did.

It couldn't be shoddy, but Brainy didn't have much time to think. If that idea didn't work, he should have found out quickly to start looking for a new idea that would knock Papa Smurf off his feet.

"Aaah!" there was a shout from outside. "Watch your feet, Clumsy!"

The brunet looked out the window to see what exactly had happened. Well, he knew perfectly well what had happened. Clumsy, as usual, hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings and either had bumped into somesmurf or into something and made some damage. This time the victim od Clumsy's clumsiness turned out to be Painter, who had been probably walking through the village with some newest masterpiece just a few moments ago. Unfortunately, Painter was now sitting on the ground, holding the canvas torn perfectly in the center by the klutzy redhead.

Clumsy was kneeling in front of him, leaning his hands on the ground and trying to get his head out of the canvas. "Golly! I'm terribly sorry, Painter!" the red-haired Smurf tried to explain himself.

"You've ruined my newest painting!" the artist lamented, tugging at the edges of the canvas. "I've just finished painting it!"

"I'm really sorry!"

Brainy rolled his eyes and left his hut. With a vigorous step, he approached the participants of the accident and grabbed Clumsy by the arms. "Clumsy, how many times have I told you that you need to pay more attention to your surroundings?" he asked with a grunt, pulling his shorter brother.

"Golly! I know, Brainy, but even if I try my best, I'll always screw up!" the redhead moaned.

"Pull, Brainy, pull!"

After a while, several Smurfs came to their aid. Clumsy's head seemed to be stuck forever. The Smurfs on either side were pushing with all their strength, pulling, grunting and panting. The struggle lasted for a few minutes, but eventually it worked. Clumsy's head slipped out of the scraps of the canvas and most of the Smurfs hit the ground with their butts.

"Phew, we made it," Smurfette, who had also been helping free the redhead, sighed.

All the gathered Smurfs left without a word, leaving Painter, Clumsy and Brainy at the road. The bespectacled Smurf helped his klutzy brother to his feet as he watched both sad Smurfs. Painter remained sitting on the ground, staring with puppy eyes at his destroyed painting. Clumsy frowned and massaged his left arm, feeling bad because of ruining the effect of somesmurf's hard work once again.

"Happens," Painter muttered after a while, picking himself up from the ground and dusting his trousers. "Klutziness is just your destiny, that's all. I'll paint a new masterpiece tomorrow, if the sun shines as beautifully as today, it is," he added, forcing himself to smile apologetically. "Don't think about it too much, Clumsy. See you at dinner!" The artist walked away, dragging the damaged canvas behind him.

Brainy was looking somewhere between him and Clumsy, and tried to remember what he had been thinking about a moment ago. He definitely hadn't come here just to stare and help, it wasn't in his mean nature after all.

"Do you think Painter is angry with me?" Clumsy asked out of the blue.

"He's more angry with himself, because he didn't notice you," Brainy replied. "If he had seen you, he for sure would have avoided you, keep a distance or something."

"It didn't really cheer me up, you know."

"I assume so," the brunet sighed, thinking intensely. Why had he come here?!

"Golly! I was planning to move my biggest stone in my collection from my house to Farmer's yard!" Clumsy shouted suddenly, forgetting his sadness. "I have to go! See you later, Brainy!"

"Yeah..." the bespectacled Smurf grunted, a bit confused.

Clumsy began to jump away, quite rhythmically and somehow less klutzy than usually. Brainy focused on that rhythm and the feet, his ears lowered in awe. "Clumsy! Wait!" he called out and headed hastily in the same direction the redhead had taken.

"Oh, what is it?" Clumsy stopped and looked at Brainy.

"Can't this stone wait? I'd like to talk to you about something."

"Of course! That stone is not that important."

"I hope it's not," the bespectacled Smurf muttered under his breath. "Let's go to my house then."

Brainy put his arm around his brother shoulders and they both went to his hut.

Notes:

In my story, the Smurfs look different than the originals. They are still small creatures, but their silhouettes ar more humanlike shaped, they also have long ears, similar to the elves, but not entirely elven, flattened noses like the Na'vi from Avatar movie, hair of various colors, full clothing and long tails, similar to cat's or monkey's.

Songs used in the chapter:

- I See Fire (Ed Sheeran)

I guess that's all for now.