Chapter 14:

(Isabella POV)

I went into town the next morning not sure if I regretted the deal I made with Caleb. I knew that if I found out more about him I might be able to figure out what he is doing here and what he might be looking for. Not to mention that he has been outside of Encanto before. I let out a breath as I made my way into town. Caleb insisted on meeting me here today and I let out a breath. the rest of the festival had been fun last night but Caleb left pretty early in the night.

I sat down in the middle of town and waited until he came. "Isabella," I turned to face him. "Hey, so where do you want to go today?" He shook his head, "No we had a deal 5 questions for 5 questions." I nodded my head, "Well then come on, I'm not doing this in the middle of town." He nodded his head and we began to walk toward the jungle of Encanto.


(Caleb POV)

I couldn't believe that I was finally going to get straight forward answers from someone in town. "Ok so here are the rules," Isabella started and I stopped and looked back at her, "Rules?" She nodded her head looking at me, "You can't ask me about anyone's powers in Encanto, who has them, what they are, any of that." Well that took away some of the things I was going to ask her about, "Fine, but you have to be completely honest about everything else." If I couldn't ask about the gifts I at least wanted the truth, "Alright but same rule applies to you." That was when it dawned on me if I had to be honest then that meant she could ask about why I was here or who I worked for. I looked at her "Then you can't ask what my job is or about who I work for." She paused for a moment before relenting, "Fine. So why don't you go first."


(Isabella POV)

He nodded his head, "You said that this entire place was encased in a mountain why is there that ravine now?" I smiled, "We were granted a miracle and we destroyed it. They way that we were using our gifts and treating each other it wasn't worthy of the miracle and it caused a lot of destruction, most of which was repaired except for the mountain. The mountain was never repaired. That's why I go out there everyday to make sure that we are still safe." He nodded his head and began to write something down in his notebook. I smiled, "My turn, can you tell me about where you grew up?" He looked up at me, "Can you be a bit more specific?" "Where do you live?" "Well I was born in this small costal village near the Port of Santa Marta and then when I was around 10 I moved to Bogota," he said as he played with the edge of his gloves. He always seemed to do that and I wasn't sure why. We continued to walk as he mindlessly did this.


(Caleb POV)

I never liked talking about myself. I knew that this was a part of the deal but, I didn't want to volunteer more information than I had to, but one look at Isabella and I knew that she wanted more. I took a breath, "Bogota is a very busy central city with a lot of trade, businesses and people. I have seen a lot of different people since I was brought there and I have lived there for over 25 years." I let out a breath, "And the Port of Santa Marta..." I started but my voice teetered out, "It was a place with a lot of trade right on the water. It was a nice place to grow up." I didn't want to explain anymore than that and hoped that my answer would suffice." She smiled, "That sounds amazing. I bet you just would want to go on a boat and sail away as far as you could sometimes." I let out a half-smirk, "As a kid yeah sometimes but once I moved I wanted nothing more to go back there." I stopped myself from continuing further and looked at her. She had a curious look on her face, "Well why didn't you move back there when you were older?" I shook my head, "Hold up it isn't your turn I need to ask a question now." She smiled, "Ok go ahead." Suddenly I couldn't think of anything I need to ask a question quick. Suddenly something I overheard people in town say came to mind. It would at least buy me time until I asked my next question.


(Isabella POV)

He nodded his head to himself, "Ok. So why do they call you Señorita Perfecta?" I stopped in my tracks, "Who called me that?" He smirked, "Is that a question?" I shook my head, "No, neither was that." He smirked, "You still need to answer." "Ok so a few years ago I was a lot different than who I am now. I was the perfect child in Encanto. Everyone loved me and I did everything to prove that I was perfect. I was even engaged to be engaged to marry this guy that everyone wanted me to be with."

I thought back on it and what everyone has said since then as I looked down at my lap, "They wanted me married off and to have already have had a bunch of kids now and to live in Casita and that I was going to be the next Candleholder because that was what my Abuela and the people in town wanted. And then their was a problem with the magic and it ruined my proposal and everything was going wrong until Mirabel, my sister the new Candleholder, told me it was ok that I wasn't perfect. Then she got into a fight with our Abuela everything was destroyed but after we rebuilt and she was in charge I never had to be perfect again. Some people in town keep waiting for me to go back to who I was before or they say that once I get married to the right young man I will settle down and go back to who I was before."

"But you don't want that." I nodded my head turning to face him having almost forgotten who I was talking to, "Truth is I like the 'Wild Woman' I became when I stopped caring about being perfect." He leaned back into himself almost looking guilty. He didn't say anything else and when things got to quiet I cleared my throat, "So what do you think about Encanto?" He quirked his brow at me, "You aren't supposed to ask about my job." I smiled, "I'm not, I'm asking what you think of my home." He sighed, "Well I mean people only just started talking to me, there was a fire not that long ago and it seems like no one is interested in joining the rest of the world." I rolled my eyes, "And..." He let out it breath, "It might be one of the most..." he paused for a moment and I suddenly felt nervous, "community-oriented places I have ever been. You all care so much about helping each other and making the community work for everyone. You are even so careful with an outsider because you don't want to ruin it." I smiled, "Yeah when the mountains came down there was a few people who wanted to leave but almost everyone else couldn't imagine being anywhere else." "What about you?" Caleb asked and I turned to face him. "What do you mean?" "Could you ever imagine being anywhere but here?" I let out a wistful breath, "My entire family is here. I have a gift that can be genuinely helpful when I choose to use it that way. I don't think my gift would be as accepted in the real world as it is here. I mean sometimes I wish that I could leave, not have people talking about or waiting for me to be the perfect Isabella again, but I don't think I ever could."

I looked up at Caleb and gave him a soft smile"What is your family like? Are you close to them?" He looked down at his gloves letting out a long breath, "My parents died when I was little." My eyes widened, "Caleb, I'm so sorry." He shook his head, "It's fine. The Gener- man that took me in after it happened was pretty nice and took pretty good care of me."


(Caleb POV)

I almost slipped up and told her about the General. I had to focus this was supposed to be about me getting answers not to talk about my parents. Besides it was years ago, it didn't matter anymore. She let out a long breath, "I can't imagine losing anyone in my family. I don't know how my Abuela, parents, tíos, Mariano, Olivia or Laura got through it all." I looked at her, "Wait all those people lost family. How?" She nodded her head, "Yeah my Abuelo died the night that Encanto was formed same with my Papa's Mama and his Papa died before my parents were ever married. Tío Felix never met his parents he was found abandoned in a cart that was pulled into town. Mariano's Papa died when he was little. Olivia's Mama died when she was little and her Papa disappeared a few years ago. And Laura's family got caught in a fire a few years ago and she was the only one who made it out by some miracle." I was so confused, "But I thought your Mama could heal people?" She gave me a sad smile shaking her head, "No questions about any of the gifts."

I let out another long breath, "My Papa was a tradesman, he wasn't even originally from Colombia, but he settled here once he met Mama. Her Papa was a tradesman as well and she was a weaver and made different textiles that were sold at the port. He was buying some of her stuff when they met. You probably know how the story goes from there. I loved both of them very much before they died, still do if that makes sense." She looked at me her eyes sparkling, "How did they die?" I let out a sad breath that I hadn't realized I sucked in, "A fire." I peeled off my gloves and showed her the scars I had on both my hands from my charred skin. They were now bright red marks across my hands that made their way slightly past my wrists and onto my arms. I hated looking at them, the constant reminder of what happened, "I tried to run in after them. The man who took care of me had been able to pull me out of the fire, but my parents..." I suddenly felt her hand run over the scar on my left hand as she looked up at me, "I"m really sorry."

I wanted to shake her hand off. I wanted to pull my glove back on and stop thinking about this, but I couldn't. It wasn't good how easily she was able to get me to talk about all of this. I hadn't talked about it in years and I tried to avoid thinking about my family at all costs. It was my fault that they had died and I didn't deserve the sympathy from others that was brought with it besides I was wasting questions. I needed to ask her something else about the magic.I let out a long breath, "So how did you get the miracle in the first place?"


(Isabella POV)

I wasn't sure how to answer this question. We both agreed to be honest, but I wasn't sure if I trusted him enough with the answer. Everything I had told him so far was stuff he could have easily found out from anyone else. I mean it was common knowledge about the people my family had lost, how the mountain was destroyed and who I used to be. But, how we got the miracle went into how the town was created and might give more away than the family would have wanted me to. The family? Why did a part of me want to tell him the truth?


Author's Note:

So I wanted to make sure this was clear but everything that Caleb said in his answers was true and will be relevant later in the story. I know that there was a lot to unpack here but, I hope you guys enjoyed it all.