Smurfskip (Or: How Jokey Smurf Invented Parkour)

Chapter 4: [06:32]

Loop 6

Jokey's heading down the tree trunk almost before his eyes are open, the accursed bucket abandoned on the branch. He's most the way down when a squirrel jumps onto the empty branch, its tail knocking into the bucket as it leaps to the next tree.

"Ya've gotta be smurfing me..." Jokey mutters, hopping down the rest of the way and running into the woods, ignoring the bruises he gets from the short fall. He runs in a random direction, a horrible hunch telling him that it doesn't really matter what his destination is.

An hour later, he's back at the cliff.

"Smurf this." He growls, turning around and diving under the confused, sparkly pink fox. No way is he trying to climb the cliff again!

He runs back into the forest, the fox stumbling over itself as he tries to turn and follow him. Ha, he's actually getting ahead! Maybe this time–

He skids to a stop, looking up at the cliff that is once more in front of him. Nonono, how?!

It doesn't matter how. What matters is that Jokey has a longer headstart than usual this time, and he's going to make the most of it. He grabs at the handholds in the rock, pulling himself upwards as quickly as possible. He isn't strong by any measure and climbing isn't even close to his speciality; it would be hard work even with regular handholds.

But these handholds are tiny even by Smurf standards, partly hidden most of the time, and so smooth that it's almost impossible for him to keep his grip. The fox appears out of the forest, sitting beneath the cliff, looking up at him. He tries to ignore it.

He's a third of the way up, farther than he's ever got before. He sees a rock jutting out slightly, the best handhold he's seen so far, and reaches out for it with hope in his heart.

The rock crumbles in his hand, sending him tumbling towards waiting jaws.