Clumsy and the Greatest Treasure (The Devereaux Story)/Chapter 2

As Clumsy ran deeper into the mine, he called out for Miner, hoping that he was ok. When he finally found him, he was shining off a similar jewel.

"Hiya, Miner!" Clumsy almost stumbled.

"Clumsy, what are ya doin' down here?!" Miner asked him, "Papa told you to stay by the front!"

"Well," Clumsy tried to explain, "Papa and the others are taking a break, and I wanted to make sure you were ok."

"Well, that's mighty nice, lad," Miner calmed down, "Luckily, I did find those lavender Lazuli that Papa was looking for. We can head back and tell him the good news."

Suddenly, as they made their way back, Clumsy tripped over a mine and toppled onto Miner, which made him drop the Lazuli, rolling towards the abyss. The two tried to catch the jewels, but Clumsy's butterfingers and tripping prevented him to do so. The two watched in horror as the jewels fell down, deep into the abyss. Miner angrily looked at Clumsy, who smiled in guilt.

Later on, when they made it out, Miner told the Smurfs everything that happened. He was okay, but he lost the jewels.

"Clumsy!" Smurfette called out to him, "How could you?!"

"It...it was an accident, Smurfette!" Clumsy admitted, "I tripped."

"Well, you done just messed it up, son!" Farmer retorted.

"And you ruined our day!" Brainy added.

"Now, hold on!" Eska defended Clumsy, "Just because he made one mistake doesn't mean he ruined the day for all of you! You guys are so overdramatic!"

"But he prevented us from getting the Lazuli!" Brainy replied, "Thus, ruining the day!"

"Well, you ruined today because of your smart-aleck attitude!" Eska retorted.

"Both of you, enough!" Papa stopped them, "Clumsy, you better head home. We'll take care of the rest."

"But Papa, I wanna help!" Clumsy begged.

"I'm sorry," Papa shooed him off, "But, until you learn to control yourself, I have no other choice but to send you home. Now go."

"Yes, Papa Smurf," Clumsy obeyed and made his way home, stumbling a little on the way. He turned his head to see if they would change their minds, but they didn't.

"That Clumsy," Smurfette told the others, "He's always tripping over his own feet and messing everything up!"

"It's not his fault!" Eska defended, "That's just who he is!"

"You're right, Eska," Brainy added, "That is him. That's all he ever is. A klutz. And that's all he'll ever be. He'll never amount to anything other than messing up our jobs. He should just stick to collecting rocks. That's the only thing he can do right."

When every Smurf, except Eska, agreed, it hurt Clumsy so much, he cried the rest of the way home. He opened the door of his home and sobbed as he picked up his rock collection. He finally ceased when a sniff escaped as he picked up what he called his lucky rock, a completely round rock with a bit of moss on top.

"They're right," Clumsy agreed with the Smurfs, "Rock collecting is all that I'm ever good at. And that's the most boring job in the village. But...Eska..." He suddenly recalled what Eska said to him.

''We can see if we can add some pizzazz to your collection. Not that it's not interesting. It's just missing a little...something.''

"She's right," Clumsy looked at his collection, "It is missing something. Something important." He wiped his eyes with his arm, set his collection down, and packed a bag with his lucky rock. The other Smurfs were still at the mine, so Clumsy had his chance to leave the village. As he opened the door of his house, he looked around the partially empty village and made his way towards the end of the village.

"Goodbye, village," Clumsy waved to it, "I'll return someday with the key to bring back your friendship."

"Where you going?" A voice behind him startled him. He turned around and saw Spiro.

"I'm...going on a trip," Clumsy tried to lie, "I won't be back in a while so don't wait up. See ya, Spiro."

Spiro watched as Clumsy walked out of the village, and out of the barrier that hides the village. Spiro sighs and looks in Clumsy's direction, "Good luck, my friend."

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