Bruno's day had not started off the way he'd had preferred. Bad luck again. He mad sure his pockets were well stocked with salt and sugar before he slipped out the door, crossing his fingers and holding his breath. He slipped around the corner to take the right amount of time needed to knock on wood the appropriate amount of times. If he really wanted to seal the deal he'd do it three times in quick succession, throwing salt and sugar over his shoulder before each round of knocks. There. Now he could rest easy for a little bit before the bad luck found him again and he really needed to stay away from bad luck right now.
He cradled a vision tablet against his chest and crept his way around the side of the house before making a beeline for the trees. He wandered around, not entirely sure where he was going aside from 'away'. He needed time to himself to try and figure this out. He wasn't about to hand over a bad prophecy to someone again. Once he felt he'd looped around enough he pressed his back to a tree and slid down to sit at its' base. He let out a breath before pulling out the tablet and squinting at it. He chewed on his lip as he stared at the emerald glass slab. It was a simple enough image. A bull, a dead bull that looked to have fallen victim to a large cat. A bull that looked very expensive from Bruno's point of view but, according to this, that animal did not have long left on this earth. For a rancher, losing a bull was a big deal. They were worth a lot of money and the one rancher in the Encanto had only one bull. He'd been scrambling to get another but so far he hadn't able to find one.
This would cripple or maybe even kill off the man's ranch. He had a family. This would not end well. What could he do? If he handed it over people would just get mad over another bad thing from Bad Luck Bruno. He could figure this out. These could be changed but only under the right circumstances. He just had to find that circumstance that would stop this from happening and keep the rancher and his family in business with a roof over their heads and none the wiser of their close call. He just had to figure this out. He had to figure this out, without anyone knowing what he was doing, figuring out how to save a gigantic bull from something large enough to take it down, and do it all by himself…..without anyone knowing what he was doing. Which was a problem because Felix was Felix. Hence why he's out here and not in his room. A closed door meant nothing to that man!
Granted Bruno was kinda procrastinating on that deal they had made. He hadn't slept in his room for a week.
It's not like it was Felix's fault….okay no scratch that it was. It was absolutely his fault that Bruno was all the way out here, in the middle of the woods, sitting in the damp undergrowth, and staring intensely at his own doom ridden prophecy while trying to solve it. He could be home, on his nice warm bed figuring this out but nope. Although, Bruno took a moment and Felix's words rang though his head.
"You're a part of this family and family looks out for one another! If you're hurt, or afraid, or something goes wrong, you are supposed to come to us!"
He bit his lip. No. No Felix didn't understand. Not-not yet he didn't. Maybe eventually he would. Maybe he'd understand why it was so important to keep these things to himself. It wasn't because he was afraid, well that was a huge factor but, he was worried. Something like this? People might panic. Especially after that jaguar attack. Oh this was the worst time! People had to have thought that was brought about by him but it wasn't. Wouldn't stop people from thinking that. He hadn't gone in to town since but, another jaguar?
He squinted but, Bruno couldn't see well enough to find anything else that might be there. Maybe he should have the vision again. He'd thought about going to Antonio for another crazed animal situation but no. That was putting him at risk. He was far too caring and trusting of things. He was too young and shouldn't have had to see what he did. It wouldn't do to have it happen again. At least it wasn't attacking a human so points for that I guess. He leaned in closer and squinted at the bull. The cat must have been brought in by the scent of the other. When the markings started to fade it must have decided to claim this place for itself. Would the village just have to deal with the presence of a large wild predator and not Antonio's pets?
The cat must've been strong and big to take down a bull like that. Only a large male might attempt that. Parce hadn't done so well in his earlier fight and Bruno wasn't sure if that jaguar could take on a wild male like this. He ran his hand over the smooth surface and chuckled when Frida climbed up into his hair.
"What huh?" He reached up to pet her, tablet hanging loosely in his lap. "You want to help me out?"
"Sure do!" Bruno fumbled for the tablet that had suddenly been snatched away by none other than Mirabel herself.
Oh no.
"Whoa." He snatched the tablet back out of her hands, shoving beneath his ruana. "That's uh.."
"Bad. I know." Bruno whispered.
"Why are you whispering it's just us?"
"Well until twelve seconds ago I thought it was just me." He cradled the tablet carefully beneath his ruana. "Didn't your mamá ever tell you not to snatch things from people?" He sulked.
"I don't know." She shrugged. "Didn't your mamá ever teach you how to share?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Touche." Was all Bruno could think of.
"Soooooo." She waved her hand in a universal gesture for him to continue and he sighed.
"I don't really know." He sighed. "I came out here to think about it and….try and understand more, b-but that's all I've got!"
"That's Liam's bull right?"
"He's the only rancher we've got so I'm going to say yes." Bruno rolled his eyes.
"That's-"
"Bad, I know."
"Well….I'm sure we-"
"Me."
"What?"
"Y-you said we." He rubbed the back on his neck in agitation. "No, not this time Mirabel. This is a me problem."
His gift. His power and he decided how it was done.
"There are no "me" problems in this family."
"This is different. My gift is different. People see things and panic and get mad and then nothing gets done. Well….I'm gonna make sure that things get done. So, it'll be me. I'll figure this out."
"Is that what you told yourself when you left?" She looked at him with pleading eyes.
She was right though.
"Didn't really help in the end."
"Wrong." Bruno lifted his head. "Everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to. If I hadn't left…." He sighed and shook his head. "It would've turned out differently. Everything in that prophecy came together and that's why it was so strange. The sands were trying to show more than they could. It was jumbled and out of order but it still happened. House breaking, you at the center, butterfly, hug your sister, house breaks and magic dies, cue butterfly by the river and saving the day with another hug."
She just nodded.
"I'm not sure how it would have worked out if I...if I had-hadn't-"
"Hadn't left." He nodded.
"That's the thing about looking into the future Mirabel." He hung his head, chin resting on the tablet beneath his ruana. "Every time you look into the future, it changes. Because you looked at it." His gaze rose to meet hers. "Even if you go along with it. You still know so, you're going to act differently. Your reactions are going to be different and that can lead to a small change or a big one. It could even go so far as to erase that version of the future entirely, without any direct tampering."
"That sounds confusing." Bruno nodded.
"It gets worse too."
"Worse?"
"Complicated. Well," He wrung his hands. "-I-it can get-ugh I don't know! I don't know how to explain half of this…." He gestured to himself.
"You just gestured to your whole body."
Bruno nodded pointedly.
"Look, I can figure it out okay? I-not this time. N-not this time." He took the tablet back out. "This is too dangerous. This has to be one crazy cat to be able to do this and in case you don't remember we recently had an encounter with a hungry wild cat and it didn't really turn out that well. I don't think people would take too kindly to the idea that there's now a worse one to deal with."
He looked at the tablet again and the large, deep claw marks that raked the bull's back end.
"This is too dangerous." He leaned in and whispered.
"And it's not dangerous for you?"
"T-That's not what I'm saying-"
"Wouldn't it be less dangerous if someone else was there?"
"No. I-I said no. This stays with me an-and you say nothing."
"But we could-"
"No, we can't."
"But we could." She smiled.
"N-no."
"We could." She sang and Bruno had just opened his mouth to, hopefully, demand she return to the house when another voice joined in.
"What are we doing?"
Bruno shrieked and launched the tablet into the forest in panic. No one else could see that. He turned, found the same farmer, and winced at the shattering sound of the tablet hitting a rock. So much for that.
"Jumpy thing aren't you?" The farmer said, stifling his laughter.
Bruno did not think this was funny.
"You could've handled that better." Mirabel chuckled. "Do you even know his name?"
"Our encounters haven't exactly been long enough to trade names." The farmer rolled his eyes. "Leandro." He smirkedBruno ducked his head. "So, what are we doing?"
"Trying to stop a prophecy." Mirabel said excitedly.
"N-no no w-we aren't." He tugged her back by the collar of her shirt. "We aren't." He said through gritted teeth as he looked at her sternly.
"Mmhmm." Leandro nodded. "So, I guess that must have been some kind of arts and crafts project?" He pointed a thumb toward the section of forest where Bruno's prophecy had been launched.
Bruno's mouth opened and closed as he desperately tried to think of some way out of this.
"What are you even doing out here?"
Good job Bruno. That was the perfect thing to say. A real masterful piece of work right there.
"I like mushrooms." He held up a sackcloth. "What are you doing out here?"
Bruno officially decided that he hated this man.
"Well," He shrugged. "Doesn't matter anymore. Tablet's broken. You two get nothing."
"We could put it back together." Leandro reasoned to Mirabel, like Bruno wasn't even here.
"Good luck finding all of them out here." Bruno said turning around to make his escape only to be cut off by a wild eyed Mirabel.
"So do it again." She grinned. "Have another vision."
Oh no. Oh no not again. Please, not again.
"Seems like a good answer to me." Leandro added offhandedly as he came to stand beside the shorter man.
"I wanna go back in the walls." Bruno wailed internally.
"N-no." Bruno took a step back. "No n-not this time."
"Let me guess-" Leandro rolled his eyes.
"Bad." He and Mirabel said in unison.
"I-it doesn't matter. Neither of you are going to see it." He took another step back.
"What did it look like?" Leandro turned to Mirabel and Bruno gave her a look.
That did no good.
"Looked like another jaguar but this time it got Liam's bull."
"Oh yeah...he wouldn't take to kindly to that." He rubbed his chin. "I see the problem."
"Yeah, but if we could get him to listen-"
"There's no listening with Liam." He shook his head.
"Maybe someone else in the family?"
"No, no that still wouldn't work. Hrm. This is the worst time to have a close knit family."
"W-wha-no wait. This isn't happening!" He pointed at the two of them.
"The bull's typically separated from the rest of the herd." Leandro started up again like Bruno hadn't said a thing. "That does put him at a big risk. We haven't dealt with a wild animal like this in a long time."
Apparently Bruno didn't exist right now. Frida nuzzled his cheek. Well, I guess he did exist. He picked her up and cradled her in his hands petting two fingers down her back just how she likes it. It was interesting for her to have such specific petting likes and dislikes but he always had coddled her. He was never without her. Out of all his rats he'd never had a closer bond to any one of them than with Frida. He took a breath. It always felt easier to breathe when he had her. The world could be still for once and not turning on its' head all of the time. Everywhere he looked was filled with uncertainty and possibilities. Endless possibilities was not a good thing and Bruno had no idea why people like that idea. It was terrifying. There were a lot of days where nothing in the world made any kind of sense. Sometimes everything felt distant and he always had a little extra trouble with everything on those days. It was more of a lack of understanding built up from too much of everything. Like his brain would just fry out for an entire day, sometimes more. He never felt fried out with Frida and his rats. He was never overwhelmed and they were a known to be steady aspect of his life. Stability. Frida gave him stability by just being there.
He could think a little clearer now.
"Alright." He said but the two people in front of him didn't seem to notice, too wrapped up in their conversation. "Alright." He cleared his throat. "I'll do it."
He heard Mirabel squeal.
"But I want it on the record that I am not happy with this!"
"Noted." Leandro nodded.
"Now we need a big open space." Mirabel gestured with her hands.
"Big open space?"
"Oh...yeah. Oh you're gonna love this."
"My gift is not some kind of theatre show!"
"Eh but is it?" He tilted her head. "Honestly your whole life's a theatre show so why not this?"
"I sacrificed ten years of my life for you."
"And like you said, it worked out perfectly. Come on."
That. Was not. Fair. Leandro's snickering did not help his mood.
"A space Mirabel! Empty! Open! Nothing else there!"
"Yeah yeah." She waved.
"This is important!" He rubbed a hand over his eyes, cradling Frida with the other.
"Energetic." Leandro commented.
"Yes." Bruno groaned.
"Hasn't she done this before?"
"Yes." He groaned louder and Frida stretched up to rub his chin and he scratched her tummy.
"Never seen anyone other than your sobrino take to animals like that." He didn't sound disgusted by it. "Wild rats, untamable stallion, what's next?"
"I wouldn't say wild rats."
"They live independent? Get their own food? Find their own spots to sleep? Are they used to other people or just you?"
Bruno only thought back to the small rat city he'd molded onto his bedroom walls.
"W-well mostly? I guess."
"Think I could just handle one without getting bit?"
"Well...that really depends. Galtero? Stay far away from him. He thinks he's a whole army. Indigo is a no too. Maybe Allegre?"
"The fact that you had to think that hard answers the question. Wild. Rats." He threw the sack across his shoulder. "Let's pick up the pace. That kid's putting me to shame."
This was weird.
As expected, it didn't take long for Mirabel to find exactly what was needed, right down to the ritual aspect. How did she do that? She'd watched him do it once. Where did she get the sand like that? Was she just carrying large amounts of sand around in her pockets?! It was one thing when Bruno did that. He did that all the time and it made perfect sense for him. Not her though. Why was she carrying sand around in her pockets? He stretched his back and shoulders before settling down into the grass. He was never good with an audience but he'd never had more than one person with him. This was new, different.
Bruno didn't like different.
He made an attempt to shoo Frida off but she'd just hissed at him and darted under his ruana and settled into the pocket of her choosing.
"Well….I don't usually have any of them with me but, she can keep her head." Bruno rolled his eyes. "You remember." He pointed at Mirabel. "This was not my idea. In fact, I opposed it entirely."
"Yes, yes, you're absolved." She waved a hand over him.
He took a breath, cracked his knuckles, closed his eyes and focused. He thought about nothing and everything. He had to think without thinking. It wasn't a thought that he chased. It was a feeling. Once he found that feeling, he found his path and the sands showed him that path.
"Hold on tight." He reached his arms out, palms upturned as he latched on. It was like finding the right colour of ribbon whipping through the wind without actually seeing it.
There were a lot of ribbons to get lost in.
It had happened before. He'd gotten lost once. It was when he'd been living in the walls. He'd snuck back into his tower. He had wanted to try and see more with Mirabel. He'd wanted to put things together better but it had been so long. It had felt like those distant days merged with the feeling of swimming deep down and trying to hear the voices ashore. He'd had no control and he couldn't remember what he had seen but it chased him in his dreams. Or maybe he chased it? Either way it was there, waiting on the outskirts of his thoughts and dreams. He'd been catching more of it. It was something far away and cold. It was always so cold. Not like winter. It was an inside kind of cold. It sunk into his core and let his skin be. He breathed cold, he was cold and dark and…
This was not a good time to be thinking about this.
The way that his vision picked up was different this time. It was stronger, faster, and he could feel something bright filling him, something warm. He had nearly lost his grip and Mirabel gave a shout at it. She knew this wasn't normal. The sands began to pull together to give him the answer. The answer to his question.
What was this? What killed the bull? What was happening?
No, one question! One question! Don't lose it. He looked around. He found his path and pulled it in for the sands to show. He saw the bull in his pen. He started to panic. He broke the gate in his frenzy.
"Damn." Leandro hadn't moved an inch while Both Bruno and Mirabel had managed to pull each other to their feet.
"Why is it different?!" She yelled over the whirlwind.
"It's not!" He yelled back, pointing at the images.
The bull plowed through splintered wood and there was a flash of something before the bull stumbled and fell to the ground.
"I can't see it! I don't understand! I should be able to see it! I can see the bull plain as day!"
"Day! Plain as day!" Mirabel clapped.
"Your point?!"
"Can you tell night from day in your visions?!"
"I can't say I've tried!"
"Try now! Can you not see it because its' dark?!"
"Th-the flash! What's the flash?!" He gritted his teeth and pulled as hard as he could.
"Hold it. Hold it. Hold it." He chanted to himself as his feet started to slip. "No. No. No, hold it!"
The wind caught him in the chest and blew him off his feet. The vision ended and he tumbled backward and hit the ground, landing on the back of his shoulders. It knocked the wind out of him and he could hear something else hitting the ground with a much lighter sound.
"The tablet."
He groaned and felt two pairs of hands helping sit up.
"What was that?!" Mirabel yelled.
"That wasn't normal?!" Leandro was in absolute shock.
Bruno had a really bad habit of just not warning people what was about to happen.
"I don't know." He mumbled. "Stop yelling." He rubbed his face. "I don't know. It's never been so strong. I-there was no flash the first time."
"Looks like your cat theory holds up." Leandro said as he gathered up the tablet and handed it to Bruno who squinted. "Eye-shine."
Bruno tilted the tablet back and forth and watched how the shine faded and grew.
"It's like mine?"
"N-no that's-that's not what this is." He said slowly. "It's background light. It's catching the light from something. "S-shouldn't there be something else to see?"
"Not if it's a good hunter." Leandro leaned over to look closer.
"It's in action right now! I could see the bull but not the cat? Why?"
"Maybe the bull is more important?" Mirabel asked.
"Oh bite your tongue!" Leandro exclaimed. "That cat is far more trouble than a bull. Hell I'd sacrifice ten bulls to get it out of here and I'm sure Liam would agree."
"I need to think about this." Bruno held onto the tablet. "I-I need to g-go and….I need to go."
He stood up, left, and hurriedly made his way back to Casita.
