Dirt and darkness, is what a human eye would see. But Camilo, he wasn't looking through human eyes, no, he was looking at what a mouse would see.
His black eyes glanced from side to side, as the darkness made way to little ounces of light all across the tunnel he was burying himself deeper and deeper into. As he ran through the many different paths that lay under the earth, he quickly glimpsed ahead of the original mouse that was leading the way.
His gaze peered all around him, feeling the tiny dirt caves shiver when large feet of animals and humans stepped over them with no notice or any the wiser.
He eventually found a big open area to where the tunnel he was hurrying through led. He rubbed his eyes with his tiny mouse pink paws and looked on in amazement at the community of mice that hung in this large central open cave area from the many tunnel routes.
He would've gasped in amazement, but a mouse's body was not made for many expressions, especially human ones at that.
"Come, come!" The mouse that had led him called to him as it waved its pink tiny hand his way. Camilo gulped and nodded his head following the creature on as it led him to its family.
And it had a big family indeed.
~x~
Mirabel was getting worn in the body as she and Antonio kept an eye out for any trace of their loved one, Camilo.
The darkness was heavier now, the trees howling in the night as wind swept through them with no mercy.
Mirabel felt this was all her fault. She knew she should've never supported Camilo when he had told her that he feared he wouldn't be able to turn back human. And now, he was a dog for LIFE! At least, that's what she knew at that moment.
She stiffened just slightly when Antonio clenched her brown hand tighter and she closed her eyes, nodding. It felt like a defeated nod... maybe it was. They had to get out of this weather, and all that surrounded them was blackness.
But just by luck, a lightning bolt slammed through the sky and lit up the area for a few seconds. In those very bare seconds, Mirabel saw where they could be safe. There was a cave up slightly on a mountainous wall, and she pulled Antonio with her quickly as they headed for cover.
The two got under the cave roof just in time, fortunately, as the rain that had been building up in the thick clouds all day suddenly came lashing down to the forest that stretched all around them.
Mirabel let go of Antonio for a brief moment, hugging her bare arms together from the cold and the two of them only watched in silence, the cold hard rain saturating the area.
~x~
"Where's ANTONIO?!"
That was Pepa's shriek as she realized going through the rainforest, that she had not just lost one son, BUT TWO!
"I hear him breathing," Dolores chimed in quickly to her mother, "Mirabel is with him... though I can't pinpoint where he is in this storm."
"PEPA!" Felix called to his wife, placing his hands on her shoulders like he always did to calm her, "If you don't CALM DOWN the weather will only worsen!"
"I am CALM." She said back through strained teeth and only looked at the sky and the torment it was in, "I AM CALM..."
She closed her eyes, her thumbs pressing against her index fingers as she pushed out a deep breath and sucked in air like a vacuum cleaner. She did this a few times before Bruno yelled to the group.
"I SEE SOMETHING"
"Not another prediction, Bruno," Felix begged him quickly, the father panicky at the state of his family.
"No, I mean... I see shelter!"
"Where?" Abuela asked, trying to keep her calm but her old heart was thudding unsteadily in worry and fear.
"Come, come!" He said to her, to them all, and waved his hand in the direction for safety, "Follow me!"
~x~
Mirabel and Antonio gazed out at the lashing rain. The two were silent as they watched the forest flood just below them and Mirabel bit her lip gently, tears almost swelling to the side of her eyes with no control.
"I did this..." She said and Antonio slowly glanced up at her in shock at her words.
"What...?"
"I should've been against Camilo's shapeshifting into an animal... now he's out there... trapped as a dog."
Antonio stared at her amazed at her beliefs and turned his dark eyes back out to the storm below them. He took a shallow breath in and closed his eyes, resting his head against her waist, and uttered back quietly.
"We all did this... Camilo included..."
"Why was he so anxious about expanding his power, his gift?" Mirabel only asked silently and only smirked then to herself as she thought of a moment from months ago.
"Y'know," She said to Antonio quietly, looking at her small younger cousin and a sad pathetic grin slid up one side of her face, her eyes crinkling just the slightest, "I could swear... I nearly stopped time once..."
Antonio blinked up at her, a questioning expression on his face and he asked in a whispery voice, "Really?"
Mirabel nodded back and knelt to his side, leaning her forehead to Antonio's and just smiling wider.
"Yeah... the day you got your gift... something so strange happened."
"...what?" Antonio asked in a curious whisper. Mirabel looked into his amazed eyes and gazed back deeper, her smile nearly breaking her face completely.
"When the photo of the family was being taken... I just wanted everything to stop."
He watched her back quietly, in such awe and wonder at her words.
"I just wanted it all to stop... to not be there... and I thought I was dreaming, but I saw time itself just slow down... time itself."
Antonio's mouth only dropped open slightly and he relied in amazement, "You... you stopped time?"
"I thought I was imagining it, but yeah... I think I did."
Antonio's shocked face slowly grew into one of glee and happiness, "You DID!" He cried joyously and threw his arms around his cousin's waist as that was the height she was on him. He hugged her tightly, a big warm smile dancing on his lips and Mirabel only chuckled nervously.
"Maybe I did..." She said back, cautious of her own words, "Maybe I didn't,"
"You did..!" Antonio whispered, and let go of the embrace, looking up at his cousin with kind innocent eyes, "I know you did..." He beamed up at her, saying in all the truth he had ever known, "You did."
Mirabel smiled warmly back and placed her hand on his small shoulder, the two looking back again to the forest as the rain had become less heavy but was none the less, still dripping from the sky and drenching the whole area.
"Maybe... I could... again"
~x~
"There!" Bruno pointed out to the enclave on the mountain's side. The whole group of Madrigals that were present glanced that way quickly and followed the psychic on till they reached the life-saving cave, not knowing they were only a few kilometers away from Antonio and Mirabel.
Abuela patted Bruno on the back in thankfulness and the group of nine hid away deep in the shelter of the cave.
Pepa and Felix stood at the entrance though, looking at Dolores as she placed her dark hand to her ears, trying to hear the sound of Antonio or Camilo, but the rain was blocking out any distinct noise.
She didn't want to turn to her parents and admit her helplessness, so she bit her bottom lip, nodded her head hard, and said to her mother and father.
"I can't hear them from here, the rains too loud... I should go out and look-"
"NO!" Pepa cried like a woman who had lost everything, "I am NOT going to lose my daughter too!"
Dolores's jaw dropped just the slightest, realization coming to her that her family was in crisis and the ones left had to stay as a unit.
She watched as Pepa slid from the side of the cave's wall to the dirty ground, holding her tearful face with her pale veined hands.
Julieta looked at her sister as she rubbed her own hands together from the cold. She slowly approached the distraught woman and sat beside her, holding her hand softly.
"I may not know Camilo and Antonio as wonderfully as you do," She raised her index finger to Pepa's chin and made her sister look her in the eye, "But I know Mirabel... and she'll fix this."
"How do you know, Julieta?" Pepa asked, her eyes red now, but the weather seemed to relax outside as it was becoming three in the morning, and in the next few hours the sun would rise once more.
"Because," Julieta told her sister truthfully, "Mirabel is a Madrigal, and so are your sons."
Pepa wiped her eyes with the edge of her dress and only smiled weakly back at Julieta. Her sister returned the expression.
Dolores only listened to this exchange, as her eyes were looking onward to the trees, watching... listening... for something.
ANYTHING.
~x~
Camilo was immediately brought into the mice family. They were handing out pieces of dirt as they fixed up walls with it like it was human plaster of some sort. When the winds from above settled, they soon began to hand out crumbs and berries the mouse colony had stored for weather and times like this.
Camilo felt his tiny stomach growl ferociously and he was glad when he was handed a big piece of fruit. He devoured it, starving inside and needing to be replenished with energy.
And the chatter of the mice, it was like dinner and a show.
"He's a Madrigal!" The original mouse who had led him to this place proclaimed delightedly, "I know of his brother who can speak to us animals!"
"Woah!" The mice echoed through the ground chambers of their modest home.
"Yes," Camilo said quickly, confirming this story, "And I really have to get home soon and fix myself up,"
"Why?" A female mouse asked quickly, fluttering her eyes at him before she grabbed a berry and nibbled on it, "What's wrong with you?"
"I can't do animal morphs right..."
"But?" She continued confused and pointed at him in his tiny furry chest, "You're an animal RIGHT now?"
"And I SHOULDN'T be." Was all he responded with. The group of mice looked at him puzzled, before erupting into squeaky high giggles, but the lead mouse held out his tiny arms instantly, whispering.
"HUSH!"
The mice grew instantly silent and Camilo blinked his eyes, baffled, whispering to the mouse nearest him, "What's wrong?"
"Predators could be listening..." Was all the lead mouse said, directing his words to Camilo, "We're not as deep underground as you think..."
Camilo had to take his word for it. He knew he wouldn't be able to leave the colony tonight... but when day broke once more, he would try to shapeshift into himself once again, or else an animal with little to fear.
Above them on the wet ground, a jaguar walked in light steps, but the muddy and soaked leaves sounded damp from her touch.
The jaguar was getting hungry now and needed to hunt. A dog would've been an easy meal, but no... she would be hunted herself if she even touched a hair of a Madrigal.
Her golden eyes glistened in the dark when she heard the whimper of an injured animal in the distance.
She was going to satisfy her hunger for now... and would continue her search for the strange shape-shifting young teenage boy when the day was new again.
The night howled on with its stormy weather... but as day broke... the skies cleared.
And the search was on, once again.