Catalina bit her inner lip, it was uncommon for the village chief to gather the community in the middle of the day for an announcement, especially in times like this when they needed to rebuild their house daily to protect themselves from the vines and wildlife. Their community was small, due to the attacks and the recent fall out of confronting conditions. As life was hard and food was rare, not much of them were left. The chief, a middle-aged man, fat build, curly short hair, looked at them with bags under his tired eyes.
" As you all know," he started tiredly hopelessness in his blinded orbs," the bamboo wall was broken last night and destroyed most of our crops. I found a message nailed into the wall of my home" he sneezes loudly undoing the material bow warped around the paper reading it,
" We, the Madrigals, rulers of Columbia, and possessors of your grounds have a proposal."
The chief cough for three times, his pale complexion a mixture of tanned skin and yellow. He continued:
" We want a girl, 16-18 years old, as a sacrifice to our family. Shall you answer our request, leave her at the gate of the village tomorrow at sundown, and we will cease tormenting your community, turn us down and you shall suffer your fate."
" They are insane! " most women from the crowd scream back at the chief " we ain't giving up our children to be tortured by them!" shouted another.
The chief sushed them with a hit of his cane on the dry ground. He himself was a father, and he couldn't imagine what horridness would await his daughter if she got there, but the chance of saving everyone from the torment and mental torture seem worth the sacrifice of one soul.
" We don't have a choice!" the chief silenced the crowd looking at grief and sorrow. " If we don't fulfill their request they will come back even more powerful and harm us even more. "
"But that a madness! We can't give our kids away! You are a father yourself, don't you have any soul?" cuss another holding her three daughters between the ages of 4 and 19.
" But cheif, how will we decide who will go?" questions an older man," Nobody will willingly give their kid up."
The overly exhausted man sigh, why did this decision fall on him?
" I have already made a decision " he looked to the side, " Bueromuerte, your kid stole food from outside and didn't share it with the village. Many families starve and you took the selfish path and only fend for yours. So, since Catalina took the food and hide it from us, I decided that she shall go."
" What?! But...but how did you know!?" the man backed off hugging his daughter and wife, sheltering them on his ripped shirt. " There's no way I give Cata up! She did what she could to help her family! She couldn't steal food for all the village, no way!"
" Mi decisión es final, ella se va o todos dejarán esta comunidad y se las arreglarán por sí mismos en la jungla. Understand?"
" No!" Catalina's mother becomes hysterical " No, please! Please don't give my child away! Take me but leave her be! Chief I beg of you por favor deje de!"
" I am sorry Ximena, I truly am," the chief, childhood friend of the woman concedes.
" This is rubbish! " the woman shouts back. " You are doing it just out of spite! You are still jealous that I chose Jose over you years ago and want to get back at us! How cruel of you!"
" Cálmate por favor," he pushed her back " regardless of what you think of me, this is my decision. But, if you can find someone else to go, I won't force your daughter. "
He put her on the spot, no one would give up their child, especially not to be sent to the cutter at the mercy of the Madrigals but what can she do? She looked the left, them to the right, apologetic figures but no glimpse of helping. She fell to the ground with screams of terror emerging from her mouth.
Catalina hug her, but the woman was unconsolidated, she might never see her again. And it crushed her heart, it killed her! She screams in terror while still holding onto her firstborn, Catalina cried back, cursing the day she had stolen those fruits.
" Mi amore, think of our younglings. They won't survive if we leave the village. "
" But Cata is my flesh and blood, don't rip that piece from me! I beg you, Jose..."
" Ximena you're making a scene mi amore." Jose talked back to the insane woman clutching her in his arms.
" I will go," Catalina contended much to her mother's disapproval. "But you have to promise me that you won't banish mama and papa.
" Cata no!" her mother fainted on the spot, but her mind was set, she couldn't live with the trough that they could be killed by the Madrigals after being banished because of her.
Of course, she was afraid but it was better to be anxious than regretful. And if this surrender will make the Madrigals leave their homes alone she was willing to make it. Not because she cared for the villagers, but for her own family. If they were fine then she would be fine as well. She didn't want to be remembered as a saint, hell no! She wasn't one, she did this for herself, to escape this life and starvation. And if her demise will lead to her family uprising, so be it!
" When do we leave?" she eyed the chief with hate, it wasn't his fault but his decision fall partially on him, and the news of him and her mother's past didn't help. Regardless, she made her mind.
" At sundown," answered the chief looking at the sun," tell your goodbyes until then. And don't try to fool us. "
" Vete al infierno, pendejo!"
The goodbyes were painful and full of sentimentality, Cata departed in the gaze of her heartbroken parents following her till her shadow was no more. They were tired after a night of crying and planning, but no matter how many running scenarios they made, how many escaping plans they still couldn't leave their home.
They had nowhere to go, and with an infant and minor survival would be impossible, especially in the territory of the Madrigals where the wildlife, sentient plants, and monsters would attack them. Cata had no choice, she knows she was walking to her death, but she had to face or deceive it.
The perimeter of the village was the spot everyone avoided because it was where the border that the attacks took place more often. It wasn't protected by guards nor by any geographical area like mountains or cliffs and it was there the vines broke in trough last night.
The guards lifted the heavy gate letting her slip through and closing them afterward after handing her a flower. It was probably a symbolic gesture or a goodbye gift from them, they weren't all bad people after all. She looked dazzled at the setting sun it was almost time. One minute, an eternity, two, when will this mental torture stop?
She could only imagine the terrible scenarios that awaited her, lifting her brided tails she covered her bronze skinned face with them. Whip-like sounds echoed through the forest, like vines slapping around in a rush to cut everything in their path, and the stampede of moving footsteps got louder. She closed her eyes in fear, time for dying.
" Lo siento madre, adios..."
Here comes the pain, or not? The loud sound stopped a few feet away, she stood in perfect silence for a few hundred seconds until she uncovered her brown eyes. There was nothing there, no one, not even an animal. But then what did she hear? She squeezed her eyes to focus on the forest better and made a few steps ahead before a flower-filled vine strangled her warping itself around her body and lifting her in the air.
No tears came out, her heart racing in fear, mouth open in shock but nothing came out. No shouts. No curses or angry words of defiance. Just silently screaming her lungs out, as heart-wrenching and painful as an actual one would've been. She was inept, paralyzed, and trapt in the strangling vine floating along the dense forest. How was this even possible?
As she passed by at a slow peace she saw horrifying scenes in front of her eyes, abandoned villages and houses overtaken by plant life with roots growing through the foundation of the house, scratched walls, and leftovers of human activity. She never knew that the villagers needed to move so far from their actual land, most of those places weren't even in her younger memories, nor in her parents, probably.
" How many homes did the Madrigal invade?" she asked herself out loud before suddenly stopping at an opening.
It was a big brick house with many rooms and a huge tower to the side along with a treehouse, it had a gate made out of wood but it didn't overshadow the house one bit, it seem special? Could this be the casita from Encanto?
Placing her to the floor the vines pulled her down till her butt hit the ground but never released her from their grip. She stared amazed at it, how can a thing that birthed numerously frightening stories be so beautiful?
" es irreal!" she gasped amazed but mostly confused.
" But who are you?" a voice interrogated from a distance of a few hundred steps. It was a short latina girl with round glasses and a white shirt and purple skirt surrounded by wild animals.
Cata didn't answer, only backed off in fear of the predators, she didn't want to be eaten.
" It's ok, they are harmless," she tried to assure her before being cut off by a flower magically puffing in her mouth.
" Ah, there she is!" a third member joined the party, a beautiful princess-like girl dressed in purple descended on a vine made swing to the ground.
" Isa," Mirabel spit the flower out," you know who she is?"
Isabella rolled her eyes in bother.
" Yes, Mirabel, I brought her here. Isn't it obviously by my power clearly warped around her?" the brunette pointed out at the youngest.
" Why?" the young Madrigal asked yet again much to her sister's annoyance.
" Dolores send me, " she answers shortly gesturing with her hand. " Now let's see you. Slim, long pigtails, baby browns? You are pretty cute! I agree, I will take you inside!"
They both ascended, carried by vines, and with a confused Mirabel after then inside the house. If the outside was stunning the inside was a mess. It was, storming?
" This has to be perfect! And I can't find my baby anywhere!" a redhead cried in frustration with a man trying to consolate her.
" Mi vida you're ruining the flowers," the curly-haired man spins her around lifting her chin to make her look at him.
" Did someone say, flowers?" the princess-like girl descended from the swing handing her a bouquet of roses.
" Thank you mi sobrina " the agitated redhead sigh with relief and the hurricane stopped.
" Is that her?" another question echoed silently from the edge, it was another girl, with a red bow in her hair.
" Yes," answered the princess controlling the vine to lower its captive down. Cata wanted to scream, hell she wanted to cry! She was terrified by what she witnessed! But the vine coveted her mouth making her unable to articulate even the shortest sentence or movement.
" So this is who I heard?" Dolores put a finger on her lips," I imagined her being taller. "
" She's a cute little thing, ain't she? Not as cute as me, of course, but she will do!" Isabella rolled her hand in the air.
" Do you think he'll like her?" Pepa asked panicked, " what if he doesn't? It will upset my baby!"
" Bruno should see her first, tía. Relax." Isabella calmed her down.