Encanto: Familiar Stranger
Chapter 1: The Aftermath of a Magical Crisis.
Mirabel´s PoV:
Morning, the time of day were you either decide to sleep in, well knowing of the possible consequences…, or where you are already up and running, for a new day to start…
In any other house this might have been a choice you would make…, but not here in Casita.
If Abuela Alma was up, the rest of the house, minus Antonio, who needed his sleep, was to wake up as well, that had been so and it would most likely also stay that way, even here in the newly rebuild Casita.
As you might have guessed was I not really a Morning person, though if I was actually ready, I could go all day, believe me.
"Hnngh, five more minutes Casita, I beg of you." I mumbled in half-sleep, when the alarm rang loudly, right next to my ear, curtesy of Casita knowing me all too well.
5 more minutes, 5 measly minutes, 300 mere seconds….
But Casita would have none of that.
I swear to Dio, if this house had a voice, it would most likely say…
"Mirabel, it is time to wake up." I heard someone whispering in my ear.
I was no expert in Architecture, or in the believe that every object has a soul, though Casita surely has…, but I was also certainly sure, that I did not expect Casita to be male…, unless.
"Who?" I asked groggily, as I did my outmost just to open one eye.
"It´s your Tio Bruno." The one and the same stated, as my eye was finally able to focus on what stood right before it.
"Oh, I see." I mumbled and I was about to close it once more.
"Just 5 more minutes Tio Bruno" I repeated my plea from earlier.
"I´m sorry, dear, but I have the important mission to wake you up in time, your mother told me, emphatically I may say, that today is an important day." Tio Bruno explained, but my brain was still too tired to really follow the meaning behind his words.
Or so it should have been, on days where nothing truly important was to happen.
But today was none of these days, and Casita was more than eager to let me know.
She opened all of the windows at once, letting the cool morning breeze in, making me freezing, I wanted to pull the blanket tighter but just as that thought formed in my head, the same was pulled harshly back.
"Hnnn, Tio, please give that back." I asked in sheer desperation, I wanted to sleep, I needed to sleep.
"Sorry, sweetie but you got the wrong one, the culprit is Casita, for once." Tio Bruno explained with a chuckle.
I heard how some tiles on the floor rattled.
"What, I had enough times been blamed for things I have not done, and I am sick and tired of being called out for them, you know how I keep hiding in here, afraid to go outside and meet that crazy woman.
I swear to Dio, she keeps running around with that same Bowl of water and the dead fish in it, for the last 10 years.
You would think a normal person would have the brain to let it go after half a year or so, but no, not her, she always was one to hold a grudge, I knew that much, but this here is surely some next level BS." Tio Bruno stated, half mumbling to himself, trying to explain himself.
He knew, that curse words were not allowed in this house, by the royal decree of all three, Abuela, my Mom and Tia Pepa, mostly to not entice Antonio to repeat them and involuntarily teach them to the rest of the kids in the Encanto.
So, all he could do was to mumble under his breath whenever he did, after all, this man had all reason to swear like a sailor, in a way, as softspoken he used to be, you could have called him Tia Pepa how she is today, if nothing angers or worries her.
But nowadays, after finally getting a lot of things off of his chest, in a conference of La Familia Madrigal, he finally broke out of his shell.
The shields were all down, same as the walls he had begun to build around himself, from the day his childhood became a rollercoaster ride, on.
Senora Pezmuerto´s constant death-stare at him, was one of the things, he did not take without blowing a fuss nowadays, though I could understand him there.
There is a fine line to cross, between a simple resentment and a near obsession to hate someone, for over a decade no less.
More so over a damn fish, even though the same did nothing wrong but to die, by natural means most likely.
I wonder what she would have done, if anyone else but Tio Bruno would have told her that her fish looked, as if it was about to die…
Would she really have nearly stalked that person, in order to throw her hateful vibes at them.
I do think, and I am not alone in that assumption, that she only could hold unto her hate and grudge, as to the sole reason, because it was Tio Bruno who apparently prophesized the fish´s death.
The very Fortuneteller of the Encanto told her, that her fish would die, and the next day it did…, now there was the question of what she did in those hours between the prophesy and her fish´s demise.
There was a theory going on between us Kids of the Madrigal Family, Antonio excluded, that said that in the end, she herself might as well have been responsible for her fish´s death, due to her trying, desperately and with all might, to prove Tio´s prophesy wrong.
And that was also the Key point of the Discussion back at the Conference a few days ago, after Casita was rebuild and brought back to life.
Tio Bruno´s Prophesies and the way to handle them.
As we had seen in my case, just because something was predicted by him, did not meant that it all came true the exact same way.
If there was a way to change the future, then you had to act, rather than to let it happen and later on blame others for it.
A lot of the folks from town had minor resentments against Tio, for things he had prophesized but which ultimately laid out of his hands to change.
Let´s take Senor Osvaldo for another example.
Tio Bruno prophesied him, that he would grow a gut, as he always claimed, so why did he then not began to train and stay fit, instead of worrying over it and letting it happen due to frustration-eating.
There were a whole lot of apparently devastating Prophesies made by Tio Bruno, which could have been easily prevented if someone had the will to change their fate.
Also, People had to differ between a simple word, a joke and a damn prophesy that Tio Bruno made, seriously.
Sure, you might say that in the end Casita did crumble and that the magic was gone for a while, but ultimately it was neither destroyed and gone forever, nor was it entirely my fault alone.
If anything, it was both mine and Abuela´s fault.
She put too much pressure unto everyone in the family, with her expectations and ideals, while I tried too hard to prove that I could save us all on my own…, of course the ignorance of the Situation and my warnings, of most of my family members, did not really helped the situation, like at all.
If even just one of them actually would have listened and truly believed me, instead of telling me to stop or to not disturb them and the apparent peace in the Family, maybe Casita would have not crumbled in the first place.
I did think a lot about it lately, but maybe, one reason why Casita crumbled and Tio Bruno had this vision about me being the cause, was because no one, expect of Mother, Father and Antonio, really believed in me, not the rest of the family, not the towns-people…, not even my own sisters.
3 People out of the whole population in the Encanto seemed to believe in me…, and although I appreciated it, very much so, was it simply not enough, ever since my failed Ceremony, I felt more like a burden to my family than any real help, and I was more than often told so, though mostly by Abuela and Isabella.
And that's what I also told them in the Conference, for the Conference was for exactly that reason, to finally come clean with one another.
To show the family who you really are, deep down inside, without sugarcoating things and why you are the way you are.
Isabella for instance finally came clean with her desire, to no longer wanting to be the pretty perfect princess, in which everyone was putting their outmost expectation, that she wanted to be just herself, every hour of the day, 24/7.
Louisa finally came clean with her fears of not being enough, because she could not always shoulder everything, that she feared to one day let down the family, the pressure that made her tough surface cracking, was sometimes simply too great.
It was a lot of words needed to make it clear to her, that in those moments she simply had to hold unto us, instead of wise versa…
And yes, we also did told Senor Osvaldo to go…, well you know what I mean…, that man really had to learn how to build a durable fence…, or maybe he simply should not try and do things he simply was and is not cut out for.
If you have a job to do, then show some damn commitment for Dio´s sake.
He should not expect that Louisa or anyone of us will always help him out, just because he is too lazy to try it himself.
Step by Step many little or bigger things, about the other family members, came to light, which most of us either didn´t know or simply ignored.
Step for step into a prosperous future…, or at least that is what I hope.
Ever since my renewed Prophesy, Tio Bruno had no more looks into the future.
He told me, that he was sick and tired of having people hate him for petty things, that are about to happen, so that he would only ever look into the future if something was literally at stake, all other things would simply happen as they had to.
He announced that infront of the entire Encanto…, you should have seen Senora Pezmuerto´s glare of hatred, which Tio met with simple indifference, for him the Case was closed a decade ago, as it should be.
Life was going on in the Encanto, and we all had to put in some work to keep it running.
"Mirabel, I think your five minutes are already over." I heard Tio Bruno say with a chuckle, as he nudged me out of the trail of my thoughts and my drowsiness.
"Mmmnnnnnn…, okay fine, I think too much anyways, as if I could go back to sleep." I replied as I opened my eyes in minor annoyance.
"C´mon, Mirabel, today is an important day, and yes I know that you still worked hard on your project yesterday, and therefore must still be tired, but today it is all about you after all.
If the Guest of honor is sleeping in, it would give a bad impression to everyone." He stated and I know he was right.
After all, today was the re-take of my Gift-Ceremony, sure I still had no special gift like all of them, but I at least finally had a door…., okay I admit, the front door of Casita might not be so special, since everybody uses it like every day, but still, for me, a literal dream has come true.
"Uggh fine, I bet Casita won't let me sleep anyways, even if I would beg her." I muttered into my pillow, as I heaved myself up.
"That´s my sobrina, well then, go get dressed and ready, I see you at breakfast." Tio Bruno replied and I nodded.
"Okay, okay, i´m awake!" I stated as I landed on the floor, after I dived back in my pillow face first, just as Tio Bruno left the room to go downstairs.
Of course, Casita was still stubborn in getting me to wake up for sure, and so she simply threw me off the mattress.
Although the floor was cold, did the rays of sunlight warm me up somewhat.
The day was nice, it was slowly becoming summer after all.
Naturally in the Encanto it was almost always sunny, unless Tia Pepa had a really bad day again, the only way to determine the change of the seasons, was the force of the Sunlight either growing stronger or diminishing.
To be honest it was one of the things that made me think about a lot at night, when I was little.
What happened on the outside of the Encanto, in the rest of the World…, has ever someone managed to leave the Encanto even?
Tio Bruno said he once tried it, but the Mountains were apparently too steep or too high to cross, so he gave up on it and rather decided to live within the walls of Casita.
Some may say, that it was the Encanto who did not want him to leave and so made the Mountains literally unpassable from the moment he decided it.
But that was before one of the Mountains cracked in half and a Ravine opened up…, I wonder, since it never became whole again…, would it now be possible to leave the Encanto?
Still, even if, what would await us, what would anyone even do out there?
We have been out of touch with the world for 50 years.
5 years would still be acceptable, but 10 times that, no, if we were to leave, we might only feel like aliens arriving on a different planet.
What if the War which Abuela and Abuelo once fled from, was still going on…, who knows what has happened in 50 years, maybe a new War has started, somewhere….., the Magic has protected us for so long, but there must be a reason of why the Mountain never healed.
What if there was a gap in our protection, a gap through which people could get out…, but also come in…
To be honest, My Mother, Father and Tio Bruno had a discussion a couple of days ago, not due to a Prophesy or something but close enough to it.
The Question was, why did I say that the cracks appeared, when there were none?
Mother asked me that question, back when I saw the cracks during Antonio´s Gift-Ceremony and later on told everyone about them, they were nowhere to be seen.
She was certain, and I told her so, that it surely was not out of spite or for trying to ruin Antonio´s Ceremony, she knew that…
But then, during my argument with Abuela, they not only reappeared, no they also made the entire Casita crumble.
Camillo and Isabella were both still in approval of them having been my fault, as they only ever appeared when I literally exploded emotionally…, and I am honest here, I cannot truly deny that theory even if I do not understand it myself…
Then there was Louisa, who´s theory was that I too stood under pressure and that this pressure let me hallucinate until the same became too great and literally exploded.
From all other theories I heard this was the most agreeable in my mind.
The Heartbreak from being left out by the Magic Candle, as the only one without a Gift and the way no one ever truly believed in me, even if they told me so, was wounding my heart, my soul, it put cracks into it and they manifested before my eyes as cracks in my home, the place I once loved to stay at, but which became more and more impossible for me to do so.
The moment I understood, during Antonio´s gift-receiving, that it was not simply the power of the candle weakening, but that my gift-less self was her betraying me, in a way, was the moment I lost all faith in the Magic, and instead tried to rely solely on my own self.
Then when Abuela and I had that Argument, I knew I would not remain unpunished for defying her, it literally wounded my fragile soul so much, when she tried to make me responsible for all the misery, she and her pressuring of the family caused, that the same simply burst apart.
The words I said then, were the worst and perhaps the truest I had ever spoken, after all it was the truth, ever since my failed Gift-Ceremony, Abuela began to look at me as if I was a burden, 10 years long.
When I said to her that I would never be good enough to her, nor anyone else of us, that was the moment when my inner cracks showed on the outside, that what I held inside of me, burst out and affected reality.
When even Casita, who had always been on my side somehow, could no longer contain my pain, and felt as though she let me down.
So, in a way Camillo and Isabella, even Louisa were right, though it was also right to say that both Abuela and I were most likely responsible for the Magic disappearing.
Then again…, the Magic was back…, so, all´s well that ends well, right?
.
.
.
If only it would be so easy, even if I do not know what would come at us in near future, unless I force Tio Bruno to have another Vision, I know that we should no longer solely depend on the Magic and our gifts, sure we still had to use those gifts for the benefit of others, in times of need, but still, during rebuilding Casita, the others got a taste of how it is to not have a gift, how I felt my entire life.
Then again, Abuela, same as myself, never had a gift herself, so for her nothing much changed, only that she became more openminded to the suggestions and protest of other people.
When once her word was Law, it now became more a high-ranking suggestion, she still was the Matriarch of the family, let´s not forget this fact.
But she also accepted the fact, that she too made mistakes which she had to atone for, and would likely make even more in the future.
No one was perfect and free from any fault, Isabella was the best showcase for that, even if she always seemed effortlessly perfect, she was the least happy about it, all she ever wanted was to be accepted for who she was and what she does, not what everyone expected of her, all of us did that.
Even those without Magic, like Father and Tio Felix, had to understand not to take advantage of the gifts of others, though Tio Felix never truly did that in the first place.
Even Father swore to be more careful from now on, when before he always depended on Mother´s goodwill, love and gift, to fix him right up when he messed up again, and that did happen far too often to be mere coincidences.
Though it was not as if he only took total advantage of Mother´s Gift, if anything anyone in the Encanto did so, even myself to a point, I could not deny that, Camillo and I, we were wild children after all…
We all had to learn that maybe sometimes, the others just did not want to use their gift.
Louisa might not always have the time to move a church, redirect an entire river or, as in Senor Osvaldo´s case, collect a bunch of donkeys that fled from their barn.
Maybe Isabella had days at which she loathed to grow roses or other pretty flowers, and, when she was in a sour mood, just wanted to create cactuses and other stingy or potentially dangerous plants.
I could imagine, though I rarely got to see it, that Camillo did not always shapeshift, most of the time he only did it to entertain himself, other people, or to cause mischief, in our young years this was surely fun…, but I wonder how he truly felt every time he shapeshifted.
I was to a 100 percent sure that Dolores sometimes hated her gift, hearing things from miles away, constantly hearing anything that went down in the Encanto surely must sometimes feel like a curse.
So, it was no wonder her Room was absolutely soundproof…, though to her shame, it was that way only ever after she literally begged Casita to do so…, after a certain incident involving her Parents…, a rather embarrassing Incident.
And Tio Bruno…, well obviously he showed us all what happens, when a gift becomes too much of a burden to yourself.
Antonio had gotten his gift not so long ago, so for now he was still giddy and all gung-ho about it, let´s give it a few years, maybe it shows how he feels then.
As for myself…, as the only one in this family, except for Abuela, to not have a gift, I felt for the longest of my life that I had to prove myself regardless…, but now I learned that instead of trying to brute-force my way through life, I should just take it easy and do things in my pace instead, even if that was not quick, easy or perfect, it did not had to be any of that, it just had to be made by me.
If anything, everyone had to be a whole lot more like Tia Pepa, different than most, she never truly tried to be the perfect sunshine all the time, sure she knew, excessive negativity could only spell disaster for those around her and that she tried her best to stay positive, as much as she could in the day.
But if something angered her, she just let it go, literally.
She did not sucked things up, since her gift would have betrayed her anyways, so instead she was the sincerest of all of us.
If she was pissed you better go hide, if she was happy, she was the most likeable person to be around, if she was sad then better take an umbrella with you.
She was the first to forgive Bruno after the same admitted that all he did at her wedding, was joking around to lightening her mood, but due to the bad reputation and the rumors she constantly heard about her brother and all then things that had apparently happening due to his gift of predicting the future, there was a tiny, teensy bit of doubt in her mind, that in his words there could be truth…, and it grew and grew until it created a literal hurricane of emotions, that in the end also manifested on the outside.
A simple joke, was all it took, for her, who tried desperately to keep anything perfect and happy, on her wedding day, to flush it all down the drain.
In the end, Tia Pepa had to admit, that, different to her believe, fear and resentment, it was not Bruno, but herself that more or less ruined her wedding.
If anyone else would have told her that joke, she might have laughed it off, but it was fact, that in that moment, it was no one else but Bruno Madrigal, her very own Brother with the gift to predict the future, who told her that it looked as though it would soon rain.
In that moment, she had become just as superficial as anyone else, instantly assuming the worst from a mere word out of his mouth.
And over endlessly worrying in her mind, she realized too late, that her emotional turmoil did indeed trigger a Rainfall, alongside of a Hurricane.
Surprisingly, Felix always knew that it was just meant as a joke, he was inches away of doing it himself but Bruno beat him to it, or so he admitted during the Family Conference a couple of days ago.
That's why, in contrast to his wife, he never resented Bruno for his literal Marriage in a Hurricane.
He even admitted that he was prepared for that to happen, when he would have told that joke, a confession that earned him a back-head slap from Tia Pepa.
Overall, even though there were a lot of things to end and cracks to fill in our life, the Familia Madrigal of the Encanto was still going strong.
Let´s all just hope it stays that way, even in the yet unknown future.
To be continued…
A/N: Hello and welcome to my first Encanto story, I hope you all have a blast at reading it, this story will have 10 Chapters so in the half of the story the chapter may get longer than the initial prologue here, though I will try to keep it under 10K at most.
I hope you all like the story so far and wish to read more.
Next Chapter will be in Bruno´s point of view!
Until then, sincerely, yours truly, the Storyteller and his Books.
