Chapter 5: That Damn Dam
Smurfette retraced her steps back to where she'd last seen Lively and Posie, and followed the path they had taken. She skipped along, humming to herself.
A branch snapped, and Smurfette turned her head towards the source of the sound.
Huh. No one was there. Smurfette continued on. The path was straight, with no splits, and she easily got to the dam. The "way up high platformy-thingy" that Lively Smurf had mentioned was right up against the dam, with a ladder leading up to it, and she quickly climbed up. There was the lever! Smurfette grinned and stepped forward to pull it. But before she reached it, she heard a voice.
"What are you doing? Huh? Huh?"
Smurfette looked up. "Who's there?"
"Hi!" A Smurf stood up on the platform, on the other side of the lever. "You're the new girl, Smurfette, right? Where are you from? Why are you here?"
"I'm here to work on the dam," Smurfette lied.
"Really? Who told you you could, huh? Huh?"
"Papa Smurf told me I could," Smurfette said. That was the leader of the village, she assumed from the knowledge she’d gathered. "And why are you here?"
"I just wanted to smurf a little peek at what you were doing!" The Smurf said.
"Well, I have work to do. So if you could just leave..." Smurfette grabbed the lever and yanked it towards her, opening the floodgate. The Smurf gasped and tried to grab it back from her to close it, but she held on tight.
"You can't open that!" The Smurf said.
"But the water is so pretty!" Smurfette said as she pulled, trying to re-affect her innocent persona.
"Smurfette, let go!"
Meanwhile, in the village... water rushed through, interrupting dinner as it flooded the outdoor tables. Stubborn Smurf clambered up onto a table, leaning down and helping others up as well. They were soon joined by Stormy Smurf, and the two of them managed to get many Smurfs up onto the tables. The water was rising fast, though, and soon it would overtake them.
"Where's all this water comin' from?" Clumsy asked.
"The dam must have broken!" Another Smurf told him.
"If the dam's really broken, we need to go fix it!" Hefty said, and ran off, gesturing for the others to follow him. Several did, including Stormy, who waved to Stubborn as she left.
"My hair!" Showoff Smurf cried out. "It's smurfed!" She held her long hair in her hands. The water had soaked the ends of it, washing away the dye she'd used to color it red and revealing her natural brown underneath.
"Your hair? What about..." Archivist jumped off the table and attempted to slosh through the water. "My books! I need to save my books!"
"My books!" Brainy realized, coming to the same conclusion Archivist had- his books would be damaged. But he stood paralyzed on the table. He didn't know how to swim, and his stout stature meant he couldn't risk testing the depths of the rising water.
And back at the dam...
"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?!" said the Smurf that Smurfette had been fighting with for control of the floodgates.
"Yes! And you sure aren't helping any!" Smurfette pulled even harder, finally wrenching the lever from the other Smurf's hands- and breaking it. The lever, and Smurfette, tumbled into the rushing floods below.
She barely heard the Smurf calling out her name. I'm going to drown, she thought. My second day of life, and I'm going to drown. I'm sorry, everyone. This is my fault. Those were Smurfette's last thoughts before she blacked out.
"Watch your step on these rocks," Papa Smurf said. "We need to get to the dam before it's too late."
Hefty nodded as he looked to see how far they had left to go. He was completely drenched, as was the rest of the team- Timber had even taken off her woolen hat several rocks back when the spray of water had made it far too heavy.
As Hefty looked, he saw black in the water. Black and brown, and he quickly realized it was an unconscious Smurfette, clinging to a piece of wood.
"Papa Smurf, look!" He yelled.
"We need to save her," Papa Smurf said. "Grab hands, we're going to make a chain." Hand to hand to hand to hand, the Smurfs formed a chain into the water, with Papa Smurf at the front. He grabbed a hold of Smurfette's hand as she drifted by. With all their strength, the team of Smurfs tried to pull her out, fighting against the rushing current, but it was far too strong.
It was lucky for them, then, that the water seemed to stop flowing at just that moment, draining out and leaving them all safe.
"What happened?" Hefty asked. "Why did the dam break?"
Papa Smurf frowned. "I don't know. But it might have something to do with how Smurfette ended up here."
"She's still alive, Papa, just unconscious." Stormy said, checking Smurfette's pulse.
"That's good. I want you and Tracker to bring her back to her house, to make sure-"
"Papa Smurf, Papa Smurf!" Another Smurf came running down the path. From the direction of the dam, not the village. "I smurfed down the floodgate, but we need to fix the lever."
"Nosey Smurf?" Timber said. "What were you smurfing at the dam? We ended construction for the day a few hours ago!"
"Probably something to do with what the Smurfette was doing." Stormy muttered. "That medalaganario saw the opportunity to smurf on a new Smurf and took it."
Nosey purposefully looked away. "I didn’t mean to…"
"Nosey Smurf," Papa said, "were you down at the dam just now?"
"Well…"
"Saying yes won’t get you into any trouble this time. I promise. I just need to know what happened that caused the dam to break."
Nosey Smurf explained everything. How he had followed Smurfette because he wanted to see why she wasn’t going to dinner, how Smurfette had climbed up to the dam, how she’d said that Papa Smurf had told her to come here-
"I said nothing of the sort," Papa Smurf interrupted. "I haven’t had time to smurf with her since I set her up with a house this morning."
-and how she’d proceeded to open the floodgate, before falling into the waters below as Nosey tried to close it.
"The Smurfette... tried to flood us?" Hefty said, frowning. He'd trusted her. He'd thought she was very sweet.
Papa nodded. "There's no reason to doubt Nosey. Stormy, Tracker, change of plans. Bring her to the storehouse and lock her up."
"Tato, Papa."
"That we shall, Papa."