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 remain 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.
This story contains examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: "Challenges for Hefty Smurf" concluded with Storm accepting that Hefty wasn't a Miles Gloriosus, praising his bravery and even suggesting he become an honorary member of the grove. That doesn't stop her from making the exact same accusation when he wants to warn Willow about what they've discovered.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Brainy starts lecturing Smurfwillow about how "Papa Smurf always says...", she snaps back that Papa isn't here and that he answers to her authority right now.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Once Hefty returns with Storm, Willow declares that they're all happy to see her safe and smurf. Storm sarcastically asks "Everyone? Are you sure about that?" before accusing Blossom of deliberate sabotage.
- Bad Liar: Blossom's clumsy attempt to gloss over just how someone as nimble as Storm fell out of the tree only serves to make Willow and Hefty suspicious.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Over time, Storm starts wondering whether she was actually correct in her accusations. When she and Hefty are surrounded by the Growlers, she asks him whether he and Smurfblossom are really sweethearts, confusing him.
- Call-Back:
- The Growlers were introduced back during "The Squash Smurfs", having recently entered the forest. Here, they prove to be a much larger problem due to where they've chosen to build their den.
- Storm once again accuses Hefty of being 'all talk', just like she did during "Challenges for Hefty Smurf".
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Hefty sincerely doesn't understand why Storm accuses Blossom of having a crush on him in the first place.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Storm slaps Brainy for giving her mouth-to-mouth.
- The Confidant: Blossom and Storm serve as this for each other. As a result, the other girls immediately believe Storm's claims about her supposed crush, much to her mortification.
- Double-Meaning Title: Smurfblossom is both betrayed and betrayer; Smurfstorm sees her as traitorous for suggesting she accept tying in the SmurfTree Games, betrays her confidence with her accusations, then falls out of the tree thanks to Blossom and accuses her of deliberately causing her injury.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Storm is hyped up throughout the book as the strongest of the Grove Smurfs, agile and athletic enough that Willow clearly finds the concept of her falling out of a tree strange. The injuries she incurs from her fall make it tougher for her to get around, yet she still insists on participating in the plan, at her own peril.
- Fatal Flaw: Stubborn Pride spurs Smurfstorm to turn on her best friend, going out of her way to mock and belittle her in order to sell her claims. This also makes her determined to prove she can handle things all by herself, without anybody else's help — least of all Hefty's! This drives her into making mistake after mistake until it nearly costs her her life.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Storm is visibly jealous when Hefty comforts Blossom after her failed rescue attempt.
- Hypocrite: During "Challenges of Hefty Smurf", Storm mocked Hefty for not thinking outside the box during the waterfall challenge. When he manages to pass the gourd test by tossing his stick into it, she immediately starts complaining about him 'cheating', and is deeply upset when Willow calmly states that there was no rule against it.
- Ironic Echo: Doubling as a Call-Back; Storm's angry insistence that Hefty 'cheated' by throwing the stick mirrors his anger at how she won their contest in "Challenges for Hefty Smurf". Similarly, she's shut down by the one running the contest... only this time, Willow is a neutral third party, rather than Storm herself.
- Losing Is Worse Than Death: Even the prospect of a tie is too much for Storm to consider, and her desire to prove herself better than everyone else spurs her to repeatedly risk her life while dealing with the Growlers, even after her injury.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: Storm accuses Blossom of deliberately causing her to fall.
- Mistaken for Romance: Storm's pushing makes most of the other smurfs question whether Hefty and Blossom are actually sweethearts after all. Even Storm herself starts to wonder about it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Blossom is horrified at how she accidentally caused Storm's tumble from the treetop.
- Never My Fault: It takes Blossom saving her from drowning for Storm to admit she did anything wrong, and once she does, she downplays it as much as possible, saying she got 'a little carried away' and implicitly blaming Hefty for everything by hinting she was Driven by Envy of their supposed relationship from the start.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Seeing how upset Storm is over being forced to sit on the sidelines while the other smurfs carry out her plan, Hefty 'convinces' Brainy to stay behind while taking her along with him to chop down the tree. This ultimately puts Storm directly in harm's way when the plan goes sideways, as her sprained foot causes her to trip while running for the exit.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Growlers have the three smurfs inside their den cornered... but too many of the beasts climb on the central tree, causing it to crack and give way under their weight.
- Poor Communication Kills: Blossom's guilt over the accident means that when Storm accuses her of intentionally causing her to fall, she can only sob out an apology before fleeing, leading several of the other smurfs to speculate that she pushed her off. Storm, for her part, does nothing to correct this misconception, as she's too busy fuming over her betrayal.
- Skewed Priorities:
- When the waterfall starts drying up, Smurfstorm is far more interested in getting an official ruling on her contest with Hefty, outright demanding that they should rule in her favor.
- Blossom's frustration over Storm's constant teasing reaches the point that she considers pranking her even when there's Growlers around to contend with.
- Faced with a mob of angry Growlers, Storm decides to ask Hefty if he and Blossom are actually sweethearts after all.
- Played for Laughs at the end; when it's all said and done, Brainy declares that they need to settle once and for all whether or not Hefty and Blossom were ever really an item.
- Sore Loser: Smurfstorm, to the point that she won't even settle for a tie. No, she HAS to be declared the victor over Hefty, and her outrage over Blossom suggesting otherwise spurs her accusing her of having an ulterior motive for supporting him.
- Tempting Fate: Blossom does this twice over at the start, bragging about how there's no way Hefty could match Storm and about how close she is to her bestie, insisting that "she'd never betray me!" She's soon proven wrong on both fronts.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness:
- Unwilling to accept the notion of tying with Hefty, Storm decides to discredit Blossom by 'exposing' her crush on Hefty. Her stubborn insistence on selling this plan by harping on said crush leads directly into Blossom's own tragic mistake.
- Willow's decision to punish Blossom and Clumsy's tardiness by forcing them to join the scouting party unintentionally gives Storm the chance to keep teasing Blossom until she snaps.
- Blossom's anger over Storm's constant teasing spurs her to stay behind when the rest of their scout party heads back to Smurfy Grove, following her up into the tree with the intention of pranking her. Instead, she accidentally causes the branch to snap under their combined weight, causing Storm to fall and injure herself.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: It takes over a day for the scout party to reach the Growlers' den and makeshift dam, with comments made by several smurfs implying that they're well into the second day when they discover it. They then manage to make it back to Smurfy Grove by running the whole way back, rendering them so exhausted that Willow vetoes leaving right away, declaring that they'll set out the following morning. Yet they arrive before Blossom can properly investigate the bush herself, despite her resolving overnight that she'd check it out immediately.
- Twisted Ankle: Despite her insistence that her sprain won't slow her down, Storm falls victim to her injuries when trying to flee the flooding den.
