Hey guys! Back again with chapter 3! I hope you all have enjoyed so far and that you'll enjoy this chapter as well. It's a little shorter this time, but the next chapter will be longer. There's no song in this chapter, but I'll have the next chapter have the song as this will be the chapter where the new characters are introduced. As stated in previous chapters, I'm not a Latinx nor am I in the Hispanic community, so if there any tips or things I need to know, just hit me up either in the reviews or my messages. I made sure to research popular birthday traditions in Columbia so I hope that I got it pretty accurate. Enjoy!
The next morning came to the Encanto. Abuela Alma came out from her room, closing the door behind her before turning around. She sees down below the entirety of the Madrigal clan grouped together, looking up to where she stood with large smiles on their faces. Mirabel was standing front and center with a large tray of breakfast goods with the other grandkids bunched up next to her, while their parents were behind them. Julieta stood with her arm hooked onto Bruno's, who stood awkwardly next to her as he also looked to his mother.
"Feliz cumpleaños Abuela!" Everyone chanted together, while Casita shook its railings as they cheered
"Gracias, mi familia" Abuela smiled while holding a hand to her heart, then got to the bottom of the quickly made steps as Mirabel and the others moved closer to her
"Are you ready to have some fun today?!" Antonio asked her with giddy in voice and jitters in his stance from the excitement.
"Yes, I'm very excited. Today shall be wonderful, I'm sure" Abuela said as she lowered slightly to give him a pat on the cheek, the raised back up and took an arepa from Mirabel's tray as she said "Ooh, everything looks delicious."
Casita's wooden boards and tiles on the floor began to flutter as they made waves that rolled towards the doors, opening them to reveal several of the villagers waiting eagerly outside. Casita then jittered a table over where Mirabel could place the tray on before grabbing Abuela's hand and giving a big grin.
"Come on, let's go!"
The Madrigal family made their way out of Casita and into the town. Throughout the day the people celebrated, many activities were held, and the Madrigals were in the center of it all. Isabel made many beautiful native plants ground all around them while Luisa let younger kids swing from her arms. Camilo shapeshifted into an exact replica of Parce, then he and Parce ran in circles before the two of them stood next to one another. The kids who circled around them looked over to Antonio, who looked at the two identical leopards for a moment before leaning over and whispering into a young girl's ear, to which she smiled and pointed to the left leopard. The leopard on the right shifted back into Camilo, who then grabbed Antonio and playfully tousled his brother's hair as payback for revealing him. Abuela, with Julieta and Augustin next to her, chatted with several people and was given gifts of flowers and other presents. Soon, lively music began to play and a crowd formed in the center of the village to dance. Abuela was led to a chair to sit and watched as everyone was matched their rhythm to the music. Julieta looked over and saw her daughters, niece, nephews and a bunch of the village children sneaking up to them. Mirabel held a finger to her lips in a sneaky smile. This made Julieta smile as she understood what was about to happen. She quietly alerted Augustin and then the two of them stepped away while the kids all came up and started smashing eggs all over Abuela's head and shoulders. The smaller kids were only able to get up to as high as her waist, but it still got the job done. The dancers briefly paused for a moment to see what had happened. Abuela, though initially shocked at what just happened, began to laugh along with everyone around her.
"Please, everyone keep dancing. I'll get cleaned up and be right back." Abuela called out to everyone
The villagers clapped as she made her way through the crowd and back towards Casita then began to dance some more as the music started back up. Mirabel observed everything for a moment and then noticed Bruno standing near the wall, playing with his hands as he watched everyone have fun. She made her way over to him. When he notices her, he gives a small smile before continuing to spectate while she stands next to him.
"Having fun?" Mirabel questioned quietly
"Yeah. I'm just glad to be a part of all of this again" Bruno replied with a smile as he continued to watch
"You should join in," Mirabel said as she looked to him, then said "you know the steps now."
"…It's better if I just watch. Wouldn't want a repeat of yesterday" He replied with a nervous laugh
He looked at the crowd and saw Pepa and Felix dancing together with as much passion and gusto as they always did, looking at one another as though there was no one else there. Bruno gave a somewhat solemn smile as he watched them. Mirabel saw the look on his face and glanced over to her dancing aunt and uncle before looking back to Bruno.
"So, how are the flashes? Have you had any?" Mirabel asked, changing the topic
Bruno then began to quickly knock on a wooden table and mutter his usual chants of warding off bad luck.
"No and I want it to stay that way" He said before crossing his fingers and holding his breath
"…Tío Bruno, I really do think that you should consider telling the family. I know you're worried about what they might say, but I promise you that I -"
However, as Mirabel was talking, Bruno suddenly straightened up and his eyes turned green. He was then shown a short vision that began with Dolores talking with a young woman before walking away. As she was walking, there was a cart nearby filled with many different shaped clay pots, and a man was leading a donkey to the cart to be hitched up. Then the donkey saw a snake slither right by its hoof, which caused it to make loud sounds of panic and rear up in order to avoid the snake. The man tried to calm the donkey as he grabbed onto it's neck, but he was then thrown off the mule and onto the cart shafts. This sent all the contents of the cart flying into the air and crashed hard onto the stone ground right in front of Dolores. The sound of the pots breaking was so loud that Dolores was seen clutching her ears as tight as she could while inaudibly screaming in pain. When the vision was done, Bruno gave a look of pure terror and worry, as he began to frantically look around for his niece.
"What is it?" Mirabel questioned, seeing the look on his face.
Bruno didn't answer her, and kept looking around for Dolores. Finally, he spotted her, still talking with the other woman from the vision. Without a word, he sprinted off towards her, with Mirabel yelling "Tío Bruno!". He dashed through the crowd of bewildered people that he pushed through, till finally he got to where Dolores was right as she was starting to walk away from the woman. He ran over to her and grabbed her hand, which caused her to look at him in surprise, but was unable to say anything as he began pulling her as far away from the cart as possible while looking back over his shoulder keep an eye on it. At that exact moment, just as the vision portrayed it, the donkey saw the snake and ended up shoving the man into the cart shafts, sending the pots flying into the air. Bruno, seeing this over his shoulder, stops and quickly covers her ears as tightly as he can while closing his eyes to brace himself for the impact. As soon as the pots began to crash, Dolores winced and helped Bruno keep her ears shut by covering his hands with her own.
Once the sound of pots breaking stopped, Bruno and Dolores let go of her ears and looked over where the impact was, before looking at one another in shock. The people partying in the square were more focused on the commotion brought on by the donkey and the pots, watching as several people went over to help, so they didn't notice as Mirabel pushed her way over to them, a look of worry painting her face.
"Are you two alright?!" She asked, looking from Dolores to Bruno
"We're fine. Or well, I'm fine. Are you fine, Dolores?" Bruno replied, concern still masking his face and tone.
"Yeah…yeah I'm okay" Dolores quietly replied, still shocked over what just transpired
"Good" Bruno nodded with small smile, but then looked over at the small crowd and then turned and said "I've got to go"
"Wait, Tío Bruno, you don't have to leave!" Mirabel called out to him
"I know, but I've got…things I need to do before tonight. I'll see you two back at Casita before Abuela opens her gifts." He replied while not making eye contact with either of them before turning around and starting to hurry away.
"Tío Bruno!"
This made Bruno stop in his tracks and look back to them, as it wasn't Mirabel but Dolores who had called out to him. She actually raised her voice to get his attention, which was not something the girl with enhanced hearing did often. She gave him a small smile and look of true appreciation.
"Thank you"
Bruno looked at her in surprise for a moment, then returned her smile and gave a nod before throwing his hood over his head and hurrying himself away from the town square. Just as he disappeared, Mirabel turned to her older cousin with a knowing looking on her face.
"You heard us, right? You know about the flashes?" Mirabel questioned
"And the memories." Dolores replied as she looked to Mirabel
"He wants to keep it a secret…even from the family. You won't say anything, right?" Mirabel said as she gave a somewhat solemn look.
The two girls looked over to where the pots had broken and saw Luisa lifting the cart onto her shoulder while Julieta gave the man who had been thrown by the donkey a pan de bono, which helped him straighten up and look better than before, while several villagers and Augustin and Felix helped clean up broken mess. Dolores silently thought to herself for a moment before turning back to Mirabel.
"If had been standing over there when that happened, it would have…it would have hurt a whole lot worse. So I won't say anything. I owe him that. But I do think you're right that the family should know."
"…The flashes are different from his normal visions, he doesn't seem to have control over when they happen. But I can understand his fear of what the family will say. Especially…"
Mirabel and Dolores looked over to where Pepa stood, who was talking with several of the village women while watching the crowd of people from the earlier commotion that was beginning to die down.
"…mamá. So what should we do?" Dolores finished Mirabel's sentence with an understanding look
"For now, I think its best if we do as he wishes. At least until after tonight." Mirabel replied with a nod of certainty
"Okay" Dolores quietly nodded back
What the two girls didn't notice was the young Antonio Madrigal who was listening to their conversation from behind a corner. He looked down to Parce who looked back up to him.
"Come on!" He whispered to his leopard companion, who then took off down the cobbled road
Back at the Madrigal home, Casita was primarily empty as everyone else was in town for the festivities, save for a few villagers who were putting the final touches on decorations for the main party later on during the night. Antonio peeked his head through Bruno's door, then looked back for a moment to see if anyone was around. When he saw the coast was clear, he and Parce made their way inside and through the large cavern. Parce the lightly ran up to where Bruno's "bedroom" area. He hopped off of Parce and went over to the chest, opening it up and looking inside. Parce gave a sort of growl-type noise as he did this.
"You heard Mirabel, the family will know sooner or later. And it would be a nice present to Abuela." Antonio replied to the leopard's unspoken words
Parce made another growl noise while his face showed a look of disapproval.
"I know, but it'll be okay. Tío Bruno won't be mad, he might even be happy when he sees Abuela happy"
With that, Antonio turned his attention back to the chest that stood about as tall as him and began to move things around. Finally, after moving a blanket to the side, he found what he was looking for. A glowing, translucent slab of emerald from Bruno's vision of the past that had Abuelo Pedro's image etched into it. Antonio gave a smile as he put a hand on the tablet over his late grandfather's image. He then grabbed the same blanket that he moved aside and used it to wrap up the vision. He went over to Parce and tied the blanket around Parce's neck and hopped onto his back, making their way out of Bruno's room.
And that's all I have for you for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed. Sorry again for the wait, work and writers block are not a good mix. This chapter was especially difficult for me because I want the upcoming conflicts of the story to be done in a way that is easy to understand, so I wanted to make sure the build up to them is also understandable. If there are any comments or concerns about certain things of Colombian culture that I am unaware of, please let me know so that I can correct it, either hit me up through messages or through reviews. Like I said before, I'll probably have the next song of the story to be in the next chapter, but I'm not a song writer so please be kind. Though this next song will be sung by our dear Bruno himself and it's title will be 'Visions of Me', so look forward to it! I'll see you all in the next chapter!