"Camilo, we really shouldn't be here." Mirabel pleaded, trying to keep up with her older cousin.
But unfortunately, the shapeshifter didn't seem to listen as he lightfooted jumped from one stair step to another. "C'mon, Mirabel, don't be a coward." He requested, taking a bite of one of his arepas he snatched from the kitchen this morning.
"What if the grown-ups find out that we are here?" The little girl argued and poured out the sand out of sandals. Breaking into Tío Bruno's tower didn't seem to be a good idea anymore.
"Nah, they are all busy preparing for your gift ceremony tomorrow. Besides, do you want to chicken out?" He turned his face into the face of the chicken farmer, still needing some practice with his new powers.
Mirabel fixed her glasses. "No, I'm just trying to be the smart one. Also, we shouldn't be around when he has a vision." She whispered the last part, shivering only of the thought of her Tío looking into the future. Her sisters told her some scary stories about that.
"Rubbish, little chicken." He refuted. "We are going to his tower because he promised Abuela to have a vision for your ceremony. And I am older than you; you can't be the smart one."
Mirabel thought about that. The grown-ups always ensured that the kids never were close to Bruno when he had a vision, but she couldn't help but feel curious about that.
"If we don't hurry up, his vision will be over before we get there." Camilo rubbed his chin, trying to look older and wiser than he was. It's a long way to Tío Bruno's cave; there is no way they could make it in time with their tiny legs. Then, suddenly, an idea formed in his head. He shape-shifted as the donkey delivery guy and grabbed his cousin's hand.
"Hop up; I give you a piggy ride." He smirked, giving the girl no chance to hesitate. With the strength of Osvaldo, he took the remaining stairsteps in no time.
"And Tío Bruno really has to go up these stairs up and down since he is five? Every day?!" Mirabel regretted that she looked down when they reached the top of the stairs. Hopefully, her room would be more like Isa's and less like the most depressing sandpit in the whole Encanto.
"At least it explains why he is so skinny." Camilo threw in. He couldn't keep his eyes off the images on the wall. "Don't you think his room is the coolest? "
"I think his room is the scariest." She flinched when a green light shined from behind a giant stone wheel. "Do you think that's the entrance to his…"
"Vision cave." Camilo stood there in awe. Then, before his cousin could stop him, he started pushing the stone block away.
"Are you crazy? Bruno will be angry if he…. " Camilo couldn't hear her. A whirlwind of sand struck him in his face, almost bringing him to a fall. He could see his uncle under the dome of sand; he kind of seemed to be taller than usual. The five-year-old stepped further into the cave, his curiosity getting the better of him. Something seemed to move under the sand… He didn't notice that his feet crossed the circle on the ground. For a moment, he could see some obscure images of doors and his family in the sand when finally his uncle turned around in horror. He could only hear Bruno screaming his name when everything turned black.
"I knew I should never let the kids build sandcastles in my tower. The tower is there for a reason, the stairs are there for a reason, the damn stone block is there for a reason!" Bruno rambled as he kept pacing through the kitchen. His nephew was still unconscious, but at least he was alive. Pepa stroked through the hair of her son; she couldn't care less about the raincloud hovering over her head.
"What if I couldn't get him down in time? What if he…. "
"Bruno, calm down!" She interrupted him. "It is not your fault, ok? We were so busy with the preparations that we didn't…. " Seeing his sister crying was the second last thing Bruno wanted to see today. He could sense that she too felt guilty for what happened.
"Calm down, both of you! "Julieta said, finally done cooking a healing tincture. "He will be fine, but I am not sure that he wouldn't have some headache for the next couple of days. A concussion is something even my food can't heal completely." Then, carefully, she dripped some of the liquid into her nephew's mouth.
"Why isn't he waking up?" Pepa panicked, her hand still holding her son's.
"Don't worry, his pulse is fine, and so is his head." Julieta calmed her siblings down. "Mirabel told me that he shape-shifted into Osvaldo and gave her a piggy-ride for all the stairs. He must be very exhausted right now." Her siblings sighed in relief, and the cloud slowly disappeared. "Give him some rest now. "
For the rest of the day, Bruno avoided his family as much as possible. He simply couldn't get the image of Camilo's body crashing against the cave wall out of his head, the feeling when he couldn't find his pulse first…
"Brunito, I know you feel differently, but it really wasn't your fault." He didn't notice his mother watching him wandering around the house. She smiled warmly at him, something she didn't do very often. "Camilo can be a handful, just like another young man I know." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, trying to comfort him.
"Yeah, but I never broke into a room that is so dangerous like the vision cave. What if Julieta couldn't help him? Or if Mirabel…"
"Bruno, you have to stop it." She frowned. "Don't torture yourself with those questions."
"How, mamá? How could I stop asking myself this question when I can literally see what harm my powers cause every day?" He couldn't say anymore as his mother grabbed him for a deep hug.
"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Brunito." She pledged. "Your gift has a purpose; you just can't see it yet." Alma gave her son a small kiss on the forehead before she finally let him go.
"Besides, were you able to see something? In your vision regarding the ceremony tomorrow night?"
"I don't know." He grumbled, looking up the ceiling. "There was not enough time to see the whole vision before… " Bruno shook his head as he physically tried to get rid of the memory. "However, it started like everyone's else: Mirabel standing before her door, Pepa was not causing a thunderstorm… She should be fine, I guess." His mother sighed in relief. "That's all I want to hear. I'm not asking you to have another vision, especially after all that happened today."
"You should rest now." She added, seeing that her son still didn't move. "There will be many people in the Casita tomorrow, and I don't want you to stress out." Then, Alma left, leaving her son standing alone in the middle of the casa Madrigal. Bruno felt tired, but he couldn't rest now. First, he had to find a way to get his tower child-proofed.
