For the past 15 minutes, Bruno had been thinking more about the prophecy he just had. His random visions were never as detailed or clear as the ones he purposely had, which was part of the reason he hated them so much. There had been multiple times where big misunderstandings had occurred because he couldn't fully understand what he just saw. This time, all he really saw was the river by the village raging and rushing and overflowing with water, large storm clouds up ahead. He didn't see whether it was caused by Pepa or not (though it probably was, which concerned him), and even though he didn't actually see anyone get hurt, that didn't mean no one would get injured. He only saw a little snitbit of time. There was a chance the river could trap someone in its flow, or that the heavy winds from the storm could damage houses. Anything could happen, really, and that didn't bode well for Bruno's current state of mind.

If someone did get hurt, wouldn't that mean it would be his fault for not foreseeing it? His mother always talked about the importance of using one's gift to help the village. If he just let this be and someone got injured either by the river or the storm, then people would be right for being mad at him. They'd be right for blaming him.

"Heh, I just can't catch a break, can I…"

Bruno heard a squeak and turned his head to the side. Sofia and another rat, Oscar, were sitting on his pillow only inches away from him.

"What? Oh, both of you also think I should look into that storm more, huh? Well I dunno…" He, of course, could not understand a single thing the rats were saying, but he'd taken up the habit of pretending they could talk when he was living in the walls. It was less lonely that way. Bruno rolled his eyes playfully, even though the small action only brought discomfort.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. I'll have another vision so we can be prepared and all that, blah, blah, blah. There, happy?"

Oscar the rat tilted his head to the side.

Bruno sighed dramatically and sat up. "I'm going, I'm going" He just wanted to keep laying down and never get back up again, but hey, duty called! "First day back with our gifts and I'm already giving a vision." He was hoping to avoid this. He just wanted to not have to think about his gift ever again, honestly. But, well…His conscience wouldn't allow him to just let this be after foreseeing some crazy weather.

It had been years since he'd had two consecutive visions in one day though. For ten years, no one asked him for any visions, so he didn't give any. That was perhaps one of the only things he was grateful that came out of that. There were days when he'd give prophecy after prophecy to the villagers, and those days had been exhausting.

He still had a headache now, and having another vision would probably only make it worse, but that didn't matter right now. He could deal with the pain if it meant keeping people safe.

It had also been ten years since he had a vision in his tower, but today already changed that.

Bruno's rats scurried up his leg and onto his shoulders. He stood up, started to open the door, but then froze. He didn't want anyone seeing him go back to his tower, whether it be a family member or someone from town. He'd have to be careful to keep himself out of sight. He pulled his hood over his head.

He threw some salt over his shoulder before leaving the room, and did his usual ritual of crossing his fingers and holding his breath as he left the room. He had to keep the bad luck away, especially right now. Bad luck could mean he'd see something terrible in his vision, and that would mean he'd have to tell someone, and then everyone would think he was a bad person again, and so on.

As soon as he crossed the doorway, he let out his breath and ducked down. He peered through the railing to look at the party down below. He didn't see anyone looking up here, so he was good to go. Still crossing his fingers, he hurried over to the door of his room, quickly opened it, and entered. Here he was back again in the tower filled with nothing but sand and stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. His bed used to be way up there. Once he got a new bed, he'd put it much closer to the door. There was no way he was climbing those stairs every night. It had been hard enough when he was much younger.

A part of him wished he could just return to the walls. Not permanently, don't get him wrong, but he'd rather sleep in the walls again than in here. He'd gotten so used to it that not sleeping in his chair in that little opening of his seemed wrong. Of course, he had no choice when the casita was being rebuilt, but now…Well, it would be nice to have a more familiar, comfortable place to stay. Sure, his walls didn't really match the definition of "comfortable," but it was all he knew for the last ten years. He felt more at home there than he did in his actual room.

This wasn't the time to think about that though.

Bruno started by drawing a circle in the sand and burning some leaves, the way he always did when he was about to give a vision. Many years ago, before he had a bad reputation, he even wore a ceremonial outfit while doing this. People from town used to line up outside his tower, waiting for their turn to get a prophecy. When he foresaw good things in someone's future they respected him, but if he saw even the slightest misfortune, suddenly he became a villain. He'd explain time and time again with tears in his eyes that he didn't want the bad things to happen; that he wasn't causing them. No one listened though. It was so much easier to blame misfortune on others than to accept you just had a bout of bad luck.

'Bruno's bad luck' or 'Bruno's cursed.' 'Bruno, why can't you try harder to see something good for once? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?'

Those were some of the nicer things people had said to him.

No, no…He couldn't keep having these negative thoughts, it would only bring the bad luck he was trying to keep away. Bruno stepped back from his circle for a moment to go back to the door. "Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock on wood," he said hurriedly, ending with a single knock on his head. The anxiety was still there, but you know, it-it helped a little.

He walked back over to the circle and took a deep breath, then let it out. He was tired, his head refused to stop pounding, and he really didn't want to do this. "More salt, I need more salt…" he mumbled to himself. He reached into his pocket but then only felt his nerves go as he realized he used up the last of his salt. He'd have to go back downstairs to get more, but he couldn't do that now. That would have to wait till later.

But if he didn't throw more salt over his shoulder, then bad luck would get him for sure.

"Okay, calm down, just calm down…It's fine, it's fine, I'll be fine." Still, he crossed his fingers. If he was out of salt, then crossing his fingers would just have to work. It had to, it had to, or he couldn't do this.

But the salt…Was it really fine to not have any right now? No, it wasn't fine, it wasn't, he could already feel the bad luck reaching him-

"I can't do this," Bruno said in a defeated tone, falling to the ground. He held his knees up to his chest and stared at the circle on the ground. The leaves were burning away, he'd have to get more and start all over if he didn't do this now.

"Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. I'll just do it, I'll do it." He just reallyyyy hoped that he wouldn't see anything bad in this vision. If he did then he'd be at fault for not warding the bad luck off properly.

So with another deep breath, he swung back his hands, clasped them together, and his eyes began to glow green as his vision started.