"The Betrayal Of Smurfblossom" (original French title La trahison de Bouton d'Or) is the second volume of The Girls' Village Collection was released in English by Papercutz on January 15, 2019.
Synopsis[]
The river that borders the girls' village suddenly dried up. Accompanied by the Brainy, Clumsy, and Hefty Smurf, some of them are dispatched to understand the origin of this phenomenon. What will they discover? What new danger will hover over the group? Is not the greatest threat rather the enmity that seems to grow between Storm and Blossom?
Summary[]
Every year, Smurfy Grove holds the Great SmurfTree Games, an event Smurfstorm is used to dominating. This time, however, Hefty Smurf has chosen to compete as well. Despite his fear of heights, he manages to pass the second-to-last trial, much to her outrage. The two are pitted against each other in a race across a series of posts leading under a waterfall. Two sets of posts enter, but only one goes out.
The pair reach the waterfall at the same time, and Storm is determined to prove herself superior. But right as Hefty slips, his crook clonks her in the side of the head, knocking her down as well. She immediately insists that doesn't count, while he insists that they're tied.
Meanwhile, their audience notice something far more troubling: the waterfall is fading to a trickle right before their eyes. But never mind that, Smurfstorm insists -- they've got to know who won! Blossom suggests that they just accept a tie; stung, Storm accuses her of going crazy... or worse: having a crush on Hefty. Surely that's the only reason she'd claim that he'd tied with her.
Heartbroken and humiliated, Blossom runs off to cry. Clumsy follows after her, insisting that Storm didn't mean to hurt her so much... but Blossom is convinced otherwise, hardening her heart against her former bestie.
At the council meeting, Smurfwillow declares that they must send a scout party to investigate why the river is drying up. Hefty volunteers; though Storm dismisses that, claiming they don't need any help from boy smurfs, Willow overrides her... and declares that they should take Blossom and Clumsy along, as she doesn't take kindly to those who skip meetings.
As they make their way along the riverbed, Storm continues needling Blossom about her 'crush', leading the others in mocking her. This quickly wears on Blossom's last nerve, making her increasingly irritable the longer their mission goes on. Finally, they discover what's happened: the Growlers have dammed up the river with rocks and built an enormous den.
Brainy wants to report back to Willow immediately, but Storm declares that they can handle the situation on their own, calling the others cowards for wanting backup. She opts to stay behind... and so does Blossom, eager to get back at her for all her pointed comments about her supposed crush. When she climbs a tree to get a better view, Blossom follows... and the branch cracks under their combined weight, sending Smurfstorm crashing down into a bush. Blossom's immediately remorseful, but is unable to reach her landing spot, forced to hide from the Growlers overnight.
Meanwhile, the scout party rushes back to the grove. The next day, they return with reinforcements, and Blossom explains what happened... though guilt makes her dodge around admitting precisely what happened in the tree. Though Willow and Hefty find her story suspicious, finding Storm takes top priority, and he sneaks into the bush, locating a hole hidden beneath the leaves. That night, they carefully lower Hefty into the hole, using fireflies to help light the way. When he reaches the end of his rope, he cuts it in order to make it the rest of the way down, finding himself in a network of tunnels.
The next morning, he returns to the rest of the group along with Smurfstorm, who's sprained her ankle. Storm immediately accuses Blossom of intentionally making her fall. Overcome with guilt, Blossom runs off; sneering that "she's always sniveling," Storm reveals that she's come up with a plan to deal with the Growlers' nest by destroying the tree at its core. By setting a fire outside, they can smoke them out, then chop down the trunk while they're away.
Willow agrees to her plan; however, she forbids Storm from reentering the nest, not wanting her to risk aggravating her injuries. Storm fumes over being left out until Hefty agrees to take her along, forcing Brainy to remind behind and risk Willow's wrath for disobeying her orders. Things go according to plan until the wind shifts, blowing the smoke away from the nest. The Growlers return and surround the pair, and things look bleak... even after Blossom runs in and tries to help fend them off.
Suddenly, the tree trunk gives way under the weight of all the Growlers climbing down it. Water starts seeping in, and the trio rushes to safety... until Storm's ankle gives out, and she's caught by a rushing torrent, banging her head on a submerged rock. Blossom dives after her and pulls her out, and Brainy, Clumsy, Willow and the rest are able to haul them to safety. She apologizes, blaming herself for everything that happened; however, Hefty insists that she was incredibly brave, rushing in to help them time and again.
Storm reluctantly admits that she might have gotten a bit carried away, and the two girls reconcile. Yet Hefty doesn't understand: why are they acting like he's responsible for all of this? And Brainy still wants to know whether or not he and Blossom were actually sweethearts, much to his frustration.