"Don't worry, abuela. I will be ready for whatever might come!" he says and tries to sound as knightly as possible.
"Of course you are, my little Camilo."
"Hi!"
*Camilo gets so startled that he automatically shapeshifts into a child, which he was not meant to do, and realises that it was the foreign girl who had spoken to him. - While in deep thought, he had gone into town to help out grabbing some groceries for one of the old ladies that lives further down the road - He swiftly shifts back again and tries to pretend like nothing happened*
"You-you changed shape…" she says in total shock, and with her jaw dropped. He turns away and grabs some food that he puts in a straw basket.
"No I didn't." he denies.
"Yes you did! How did you do that?!" the girl asks and stands in front of him. Her bright eyes and big smile make him blush a little and he has a hard time making eye contact with her. He can't really get any words out since he has no idea how to deny what she just saw. "Well I uh…."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have startled you." she says after backing a little bit when she saw how uncomfortable he got. "You're a part of the family that greeted us, aren't you? My name is Alexandra, what's your name?"
"Uhm… I'm Camilo." he says and manages to snap out of his blushing.
"I can't believe I just saw magic in real life!" she yells and bounces lightly of excitement.
"Magic?" Camilo asks, completely clueless. She gives him a hesitant smile.
"Yes. You know what magic is, don't you?"
"Ehm…" is the only thing he can say, and Alexandra looks at him as if she doesn't believe him.
"You don't know what magic is?"
Camilo hesitates but then lowers his head a little, "No, not really…" he says and starts walking back to the lady's house, passing Alexandra who walks next to him. She tries to figure how to explain it.
"Well, it's kind of what you do. What you are able to do is not possible for other people and so we call it magic. Some think magic is when you use spells, like wizards and witches, and incredible powers is presented. It's like from another world." she says, and her smile never drops. Camilo contemplates if he should say anything to her about his family, but when she looks at him again and he makes eye contact with her, something tells him that it's fine.
"My family calls it gifts, given by a miracle when mi abuela was young."
"Wait, you mean your whole family can do what you do?" she stops for a few seconds.
"They have other gifts than me, but we were all given them the same way." He says and moves on, and of course she walks up beside him, excited about his story. "Wow, amazing!" she yells.
"Yeah, the Madrigals are sort of the village caretakers. We help around as much as we can with all sorts of tasks." He places his basket of groceries in front of a door which Alexandra guesses is one of the tasks he mentioned.
"Really? That is so kind of you."
Camilo looks at her and then at the village behind them. "Well, we aren't the only ones that work. The whole village takes care of each other, especially when someone is in need of help. Kind of like a big family."
"Your home sounds incredible." Alexandra says in awe.
Camilo says with a smile when looking around the village: "It is" and places his hands on his hips. Alexandra's face turns into something between sadness and almost a little envious.
"I wish my home was like this." She says and Camilo is unsure if she said it to him or to herself. Either way, he'd like to know.
"What do you mean?"
"It…" she's not able to finish when Mirabel shows up behind them.
"Camilo, I've been looking for you."
