Squeak. Chirp. Hiss.

The sounds faded into Mirabel's consciousness as she slowly started to awaken. After that, the next thing she was aware of was the smell. It smelled like…like…well, she wasn't sure how to describe it, but it definitely pulled her out of any remnants of her sleep.

As she blinked her eyes open, Mirabel found herself peering right into another pair of eyes. Several, actually. A toucan, a capybara, a mouse, a coati…all gazing at her in—what was that? Confusion? Excitement?

The coati started bouncing up and down happily. 'Alive! Small human alive!'

'Happy! The vultures not eat him!' said the mouse.

Wait, said the mouse? Oh, right. She was in Antonio's body now, and in his jungle room surrounded by animals. No wonder everything smelled so bad.

"Wait, why did you guys think I was dead?" She asked them incredulously (holy smokes, she was talking to animals).

'Small human sleep different,' replied the mouse. 'Is dead or sick. But no! Alive!'

The animals seemed to be celebrating.

Well, this was odd. Mirabel took a moment to sit herself up, looking around to get her bearings. Goodness, she was so small now. She couldn't remember when her legs and hands were this tiny. How cute! She would be cooing over herself all day.

Meanwhile, the animals in the room continued to surround her, their voices and bodies conveying a mix of 'happy' and 'sleepy' and 'hungry.' On a branch above her, Antonio's usual partner, Parce the jaguar, was lounging around as if nothing was bothering him at all. When Mirabel looked to him, he sent her a short greeting before going back to sleep.

Mirabel had expected to hear, like, words coming out of the animals' mouths, but weirdly enough, that wasn't the case at all. The bird was still chirping and the mouse was still squeaking, but now she simply understood what each sound meant, as if she had learned all their languages in her sleep. Their grammar was all broken up, but the messages were clear. Maybe animals were simpler like that. She'd have to ask Antonio.

Luckily, Antonio hadn't left the room, and she quickly spotted him sitting on another hammock a little bit below hers. He was looking…tense. She could see how he was glancing around with his lips tight, balling a fist in the blankets next to him.

Mirabel excused herself from the animals and climbed down to where her cousin was sitting. "Morning, Toño," she said softly.

Antonio turned to her with a sheepish, somewhat forced smile. "Hi, Mira."

"Are you okay? You look a little uncomfortable."

Antonio's eyes darted around, and he opened his mouth a few times as if trying to formulate words. Finally, he just looked downward and shrugged. "It…it feels a little weird."

Mirabel grinned sympathetically. "I know, Antonio, it's okay. It's going to feel weird waking up in a body that's not yours. I would definitely know that by now." She thought for a moment. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to, okay? If you wanna just hang out in your pajamas for today, that's fine."

Antonio looked a little relieved. "Okay," he replied. A smile appeared on his face. "I do like being taller, though."

"Heh, I'm sure you do. Don't worry, you'll probably be even taller than me someday." She sighed dramatically and threw her head back in feigned disappointment. "I'm going to go back to being the shortest one in the family…how tragic."

This made Antonio laugh, which was exactly what she was going for.

As they headed down to breakfast, several of the animals incessantly followed, much to Mirabel's chagrin.

"Guys, please go back to the room," she groaned. "I'll bring you your food later."

'Hungry! Food!' cried the animals. 'Join small human!'

"Ay," Mirabel rubbed a tiny hand over her temples. "Why won't they listen?"

Antonio shrugged. "They always like to follow me, especially when there's food. I just let them."

"Well, not under my rules," Mirabel replied stubbornly. She turned back to animals and waved her hands. "New rule today, everyone! Don't follow me to the breakfast table! Wait in Antonio's room!"

Chispi the capybara tilted her head. 'No follow?'

'Different!' An indignant mouse chimed in. 'Join small human for food every day! Anger!'

Mirabel took a step back. "I-I know it's different, but—you see, I'm not actually the small human! I'm—" she pointed up to Antonio and looked at him questioningly. "Do they have a name for me?"

"They usually call you 'colorful human.' Because of your clothes."

"Ah, well, that's me!" She triumphantly put her hands on her hips. "I am actually the colorful human, and the colorful human is actually the small human! On the inside. That's why we're changing the rules today. Got it?"

The animals stared at her blankly.

'Small human,' said Nez the tapir. 'You are small human.'

"No, I just said, I'm colorful human."

'You look like small human. Smell like small human.'

"Yes, I have small human's body, but I have colorful human's mind! On the inside! My body is Antonio's, but my soul is Mirabel's! And vice versa! Got it?"

More blank stares.

'Small human give us food?' asked the mouse.

Mirabel facepalmed. This was going nowhere. Next to her, Antonio barely stifled his giggles.

"Do animals even know what a soul is?" Mirabel mumbled.

"I don't think so," Antonio replied. "A lot of them don't understand that kind of thing."

Mirabel heaved a sigh. "Alright, fine. They can come. But crumbs only."

The animals squeaked and sqwacked in joy. And they still smelled terrible.

Breakfast was the usual fare. Pepa and Julieta were zeroed in on their kids (and Mirabel certainly loooved all the attention on her while she embarrassed herself trying to climb into a chair. Being small had setbacks she'd forgotten about). As they fussed, Mirabel tried to divide her attention between eating and talking to Abuela.

"I mean, I'm trying to put my finger on it, but this one doesn't really feel like anything," Mirabel explained. "The animals make their weird noises, and I just…know what it means." She turned to Antonio. "Do you not understand them anymore at all, Toño?"

Antonio shook his head sadly. "Only a few sounds, that I remember what they mean. But it doesn't make much sense to me."

Pepa patted his back gently to console him.

"I see," said Abuela. "Perhaps this is because Antonio's Gift is still so new. Many of the Gifts start off small, and get stronger over time."

"Oh. Is that a thing?" Mirabel asked. She looked around the table for confirmation.

Pepa was the first to answer. "Yes, it's true! When I was small, I could only make sunshine and a little rain. The big hurricanes and snowstorms only appeared when I got older, hehe…"

"I could only make like two colors of flowers at first," Isabela sighed.

"And I only could hear the things inside our house," Dolores added. "Some of it wasn't very clear, either."

"Huh. Interesting." Mirabel excitedly wondered how Antonio's Gift would become stronger as he grew up. Maybe the animals would learn grammar.

After breakfast, Mirabel and Antonio spotted Parce sniffing at a pair of Bruno's rats. Mirabel wasted no time.

"Parce, no no no! Don't eat Tío Bruno's rats!" she cried. Without thinking, she pounced forward and grabbed at the scruff of Parce's fur, pulling back. Of course, the strength of a five-year-old was not enough to stop a whole jaguar, but Parce backed up on his own, confused.

At the same time, Bruno appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and nearly threw himself on the floor as he scooped up his little friends.

Antonio just looked confused at all the mayhem. "What are you guys doing?"

"Stopping Parce from eating the rats!" Mirabel called. She turned back to Parce, wagging her finger at him. "Bad kitty! Don't you know you're not supposed to eat those?"

Parce looked somewhat hurt. 'Not eat. Smell bad.'

Mirabel blinked. "Smell bad? What do you mean?"

Antonio perked up, smiling. "He means that they smell like Tío Bruno."

"Wh—hey." Bruno stopped petting his rats and frowned. "Rude cat. I don't smell that bad…"

"No, no, Tío." Antonio covered his mouth. "I didn't mean it like that. I just mean that they're the wrong smell for him to eat. I taught the animals to recognize your scent."

"…oh!" Mirabel beamed. "That's really smart of you, Antonio. So if they smell like Tío Bruno, they're off-limits to eat, right?"

"Uh-huh." Antonio rocked back and forth on his heels happily. "So you guys don't need to worry about anything.

"Okay…whew." Bruno seemed to relax a little. "That's—that's good to hear. I mean, I know I can't stop the stop the circle of life, or anything, but…well, I would rather they don't get eaten, you know? They're—well, y'know, they're my companions."

Mirabel smiled, watching Bruno fish a crumb out of his pocket and feed it to his rats. His words got her wondering, though. She glanced at Parce again. "Hey, Antonio…what does Parce eat, anyway? Do you just give him meat from the kitchen?"

"Sometimes," Antonio replied. "But I can't feed them all like that, or we wouldn't have any food. So they usually just go hunting." As he spoke, he scrunched his nose a little. "Just not in my room. Or while I'm around."

Mirabel blinked in surprise. She glanced between Parce and Antonio in bewilderment. "Wait…hunting? As in, eating other animals?"

"I mean…yeah. It's not really different from giving them meat from the kitchen, is it? Besides, I can't stop them. It's their instinct. They're wild animals."

Bruno and Mirabel both stared at him, mouths agape. That was a…surprisingly somber take coming from a small child. Mirabel spoke again, hesitantly. "Uh, Toño…do your friends ever…uh, eat each other? Do you let them do that?"

Antonio simply shrugged. "Yeah. I have to. Some of them are carnivores, so they have to eat meat or they'll die. Sometimes one of my friends disappears, and it's sad, but I have to let it go."

Mirabel and Bruno exchanged a concerned glance. This was…news to them. They hadn't considered that Antonio's Gift would expose him to harsh realities like this, and while he was so young, too.

Meanwhile, Parce was licking his paw without a care in the world. Mirabel could pick up on some of his thoughts, but it seemed the jaguar was unaware that he was being talked about. It was just a lot of 'cleaning time. Warm sun. Tired. Sleep after clean.'

Antonio stood up straighter and gave a serious frown. "But there are rules, though! No eating anyone's pets or farm animals. And no hunting in my room, or while I'm around. The animals are good at following those rules."

Bruno raised a finger nervously. "But, then…won't they prey animals just stay in your room all the time? So they don't get eaten?"

Antonio smiled somewhat sadly. "The prey animals don't know about that rule," he replied softly. "But even the ones that do, they always go outside anyway. They don't want to die, but they're not so scared of it like people are."

With that, Antonio reached over to pet Parce behind the ears. He had a content smile on his face, while Mirabel and Bruno simply exchanged another silent glance.

Perhaps they should talk to Antonio's parents about this. Mirabel made a mental note to bring it up as soon as their current mess was over with.

Throughout the day, Mirabel learned that animals say a whole lot, yet not much at all. Many of them only projected their feelings and intentions, and didn't understand bigger things like "what other animals say about me when I'm not around" or "the greater consequences of my actions." Some were smarter than others, but it was still fascinating to see just how differently they processed the world compared to humans.

Oh, and she also learned their nicknames for all the members of her family. Besides "small human" for Antonio and "colorful human" for Mirabel, there were a bunch of amusing labels that the animals had come up with to identify everyone.

Some of them made sense, such as "large human" for Luisa, "good-smell human" for Isabela, and "loud human" for Pepa (interestingly, only some of the animals learned to associate Pepa's moods with the weather. "Loud" could refer to either her voice or the thunder—or both).

Some were less obvious. "Happy human" could refer to a number of family members, but it was actually Félix. The animals could pick up on his mood based on his scent, apparently, which was rather adorable. "Warm human," was another vague one, but Mirabel was not surprised to learn it was Julieta. No one was warmer than her.

Dolores was "no-sound human," and the animals did inot/i like how they couldn't hear her coming from far away. In that same vein, they didn't seem to like Camilo much, either. It seemed that his changing appearance confused most of the animals, and they didn't know what to make of him. So they just called him variations of "strange," "confusing" or straight-up "evil human." Mirabel wasn't sure if Camilo would like that or not.

Speaking of offensive names, the animals had no self-awareness when it came to that, either. Agustin was known as the "falling human" or "danger human" and the animals had learned to steer clear of him. Her poor Papà. But that still wasn't nearly as bad as "slow human," which apparently referred to Abuela. They didn't mean anything by it! They'd just made the objectively factual observation that Abuela moves slower than all the other humans. It wasn't their fault. Mirabel still wasn't going to share that one though, and she was glad Antonio also hadn't.

Lastly, Mirabel had taken a long time to figure out Bruno's label, because the animals kept calling him "itchy human." It was because of the sand, but she never would have guessed it if one of them hadn't also called him "itchy sad human." Because of his scent. Hm. Yeah, she…she probably wasn't going to share these.

Still, though, it was fun to hear how they identified everything, from people to objects to other animals. Mirabel couldn't help but be fascinated by this new perspective. Antonio got to hear about it every day, for better and for worse.

It was in the middle of an enlightening conversation with Pico the toucan, that little Cecelia from the village ran up to find Mirabel on the front lawn of the house. Antonio was currently in the bathroom (with help from his mamà) and Mirabel was on her own. It took her a second to remember that she had to treat Cecelia like a same-age friend, rather than a little baby that she takes care of.

"Hi, Antonio," Cecelia said with a wide smile.

"Um—hi, Cecelia. Where's Juancho and Alejandra?"

"They're coming. But I wanted to tell you something." She was rocking back and forth on her feet, clearly excited. "My dad bought one of those new sound things from the outside. He put it in his office and said I could show it to my friends if I was careful."

Mirabel cocked her head. "New sound things?"

"Yeah. The thing that takes the sound and puts it on that big circle of tape so you can hear it again! He really likes stuff like that. Do you want to come see it?"

"Sure! Um, but…I have to ask my mom and dad first…"

"Okay."

Mirabel turned around and hurried back into the house. Pico followed her, but headed back to Antonio's room. Mirabel continued further until spotted Antonio and Pepa standing in the living room. Antonio was hugging himself, which made Mirabel pause, but he didn't seem too uncomfortable. Pepa was smiling and saying something to him.

Clearing her throat, Mirabel approached with a smile. "Hey, buddy. Is everything going okay?"

Antonio nodded and hugged himself tighter. "Yeah. I'm getting used to it." He glanced at his mother, then back at Mirabel, smiling. "Actually, I was just telling Mamà…I kinda like your body, Mirabel. Being a girl still feel weird, but your body is…really soft. And comfy."

Mirabel tilted her head, watching as Antonio squished at her body's cheeks and arms happily. She should probably feel self-conscious about all the squishy parts he was pointing out. But at the moment, she was just happy that all her softness was helping Antonio through this situation. Pepa seemed to think so too, as she pinched one of Antonio's cheeks with a giggle.

Oh, right, speaking of Pepa. "Hey, Tía. Cecelia just came up to me and asked to go to her house for a little bit. She wants to show me something. Or, show Antonio something, rather."

Antonio and Pepa both frowned. "What, right now?" Pepa asked.

"Yeah. I was thinking I could bring Toño along and say 'Mirabel has to come with us,' or something."

"I-I suppose, but…" Pepa wrung her hands together as a cloud began to form. "Will he really be able to pretend that he's you?" She glanced at him. "I mean, no offense, Toñito, but they might ask why you're still in your pajamas, or…"

Antonio looked down, dejectedly. "I'm not good at acting, like Camilo or Tío Bruno."

"Oh…" Mirabel rubbed her arm. "Then I can just say that I can't go."

"Ugh, but then Cecelia will come in here and start begging to know why," Pepa mumbled. "And I'll have to give some excuse, but my cloud will give me away." She huffed. "And people will start to notice that something is amiss, because I always want Antonio go play with other kids…"

Antonio glanced up nervously at the growing cloud.

Mirabel coughed. "Tía, I don't think—"

"You know what? Just go." Pepa waved her hand flippantly at her. "Go play. You can take care of yourself, right?"

"I…I guess…" Mirabel hesitated, then turned to Antonio. "And tomorrow, you can tell Cecelia that Mirabel wants to see the cool thing, so we can watch it together, okay?"

Antonio seemed to like this plan. "Okay."

Mirabel turned around and hurried back to where Cecelia was waiting.

Pepa called out behind her, "Remember, act natural!"

Mirabel snorted. She hopped back out to the front lawn. Cecelia was still there, and it looked like Alejandra and Juancho had joined her.

"My mom said yes," Mirabel declared.

"Yay!" Cecelia hopped up and down happily. "Come on, my dad is waiting at the bottom of this hill. We can go to his office together."

The kids started running down the hill, and Mirabel did her best to keep up. They sure were fast.

"So it can play the same sound over and over again?" Alejandra shouted.

"Uh-huh!" said Cecelia. "Dad uses it for listening to music, but sometimes we can record our own sounds too! He gave me a roll of tape to record whatever I want!"

When they got to the bottom, Cecelia's dad greeted the children happily. They all followed him to the building where he worked, and to the small office he used in the back.

When they spotted the recording device, all the children stopped to ooh and aah at it. Even Mirabel was rather impressed. Technology sure had advanced in the world outside during the past fifty years.

"Alright, alright, guys," chuckled Cecelia's dad. "You can admire all you want, but please don't touch it." He leaned over to the machine, and started loading up one of the big reels with the tape. Before they knew it, music began to fill the room.

"Cool!" shouted Juancho. "Where'd you get this music?"

"It was recorded in Bogota," the man replied rather excitedly. "Isn't it great?"

The kids let him listen to the song for about a minute, before Cecelia started tugging on his pant leg. "Papà! Can I show them my tape now?"

Her dad looked mildly disappointed for a moment, but he nodded. "Alright, Cece. Just give me a minute, dear." He turned the music off and loaded up a new tape, this one with less mass, but Cecelia looked excited all the same.

"Listen to this!" The girl cried. "My dad let me make a recording of my cat!"

Cecelia rewound the tape with her dad's help, and next thing they knew the sounds of impatient meows filled the area. Cecelia's dad chuckled and shook his head.

"Wow. That's a loud cat," Alejandra commented.

"Yeah," Cecelia giggled. "He was hungry."

"Your cat is so fat," Juancho piped up. "I bet he wants to eat all the time."

Mirabel was about to scold him for making fun of the cat, but Cecelia got her attention again. "Antonio, can you understand this? What's he saying?"

"Oh yeah, Antonio can speak cat!" Juancho added. "What's he saying?"

"Uh—" truthfully, Mirabel had forgotten to listen for meaning. She'd been too fascinated by the technology from outside. "I, uh, wasn't really listening cause everyone was talking. Could you play it again, Cecelia?"

"Okay." After getting some help from her dad, Cecelia started the recording over. "Everyone be quiet."

The cat noises came out of the machine once again, and Mirabel listened. Surely, with Antonio's Gift, she could understand every word, right?

…right?

Panic rose into Mirabel's stomach and settled into her feet, as she realized that she couldn't.

She vaguely recognized some sounds that she remembered from Parce, which were something like "need for attention" and "sadness." But the words were unclear, and it wasn't for lack of hearing, either. For some reason, now, she could barely understand what the animal was saying, even though it had come easily before.

What was going on?!

The kids were watching her expectantly. And it seemed that her panic was showing on her face, because now everyone in the room looked concerned.

"Everything okay, Antonio?" Asked Cecelia's dad.

Oh no. Oh no. Mirabel's racing mind struggled to come up with an explanation. "Uh—yeah! But, um—! Your cat is really naughty! He said a bad word!"

The kids gasped, and Cecelia's dad hurried to stop the recording.

"What did he say?" Alejandra demanded.

"He, uh—he said 'stupid!'"

The girls gasped again, though Juancho looked confused. "Stupid isn't a bad word. My sister says it all the time."

"Okay!" Cecelia's dad cut in. "I think that's enough listening to animals for one day," he chuckled. "Cece, you showed your friends the tapes, I think now it's time to play outside for a while, right?"

Nope, Mirabel would not be able to keep up this act for a whole outside playtime. She had to get home and figure out what on earth just happened. "S-sorry guys, but my mom said I could only come and listen to the recording. I have to go home now."

"Awww!" Cecelia pouted. "Can't you just stay a little bit?"

"Sorry, Cece! I'll play with you guys tomorrow!"

Despite much whining, Mirabel managed to get free from the group and hurry home. Her heart was pounding in her ears the whole time—though, she wasn't sure if that was from the panic or if because her now-tiny body was getting tired quicker.

When she got back to Casita, Mirabel wasted no time storming into the courtyard, where everyone was sitting. "Something's wrong with the magic!" She shouted.

Several heads whirled toward her. Pepa was already clearly worried, evidenced by her thundercrack. "What?!"

"Not again!" said Bruno.

"E-everyone, take it easy," Julieta piped up as the worried murmurs arose. She and Abuela exchanged a tight glance, then turned to Mirabel. "Mirabel, tell us what happened."

Mirabel took just a moment to catch her breath. "I-I was at Cecelia's dad's office, and she had me listen to her cat, and—and I couldn't understand anything! Antonio's Gift suddenly wouldn't work!"

The worried murmurs got stronger.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no…" Luisa grumbled, biting on her nails. Pepa's winds got louder while Agustín tried futilely to calm everyone down.

Abuela knelt down to Mirabel and firmly held her arm. "Mira. We must test and see if your Gift is fading. Let's go to Antonio's room and see if you can understand the animals there."

Mirabel nodded and allowed Abuela to lead her along. The family followed at a distance.

To her somewhat pleasant surprise, Mirabel found she could talk to Parce just fine.

"So you, uh, took a nap and then went hunting…? While I was gone?"

'Yes,' replied Parce, unbothered. 'Sleep, then find food. Ate a chigüiro. Loud human made water so I came back. Will sleep again.'

Mirabel cringed. "Do you only eat and sleep all day?"

'No. Sometimes look for mate.'

"Uh, okay." Mirabel looked up and around, where the rest of the animals were chattering away. And it all sounded perfectly clear to her.

She turned back around to Abuela and shrugged. "I don't understand. Everything seems to be fine here. But I know I couldn't understand that cat, and I was listening really hard."

Abuela frowned, her brows creased in thought and worry. "We need to pay strong attention to this. If you notice this anything again, you must tell me right away."

Mirabel bit her lip, her tiny heart banging in her chest. She didn't want this to happen. Not a second time. They barely managed to recover from the first time. Why? "O-okay, Abuela, but…I'm only going to have Antonio's Gift for a few more hours. Tomorrow, I'll be going back to myself."

"Ah, that's right. Then we all need to be paying attention." She paused. "You don't think this is the reason your whole situation has been happening, is it…?"

Mirabel's breath hitched.

Abuela didn't seem to expect an answer. She took Mirabel's hand and walked back down to where the rest of the family was waiting anxiously. They quickly filled them in on what happened, which just left everyone both tense and confused.

But Mirabel noticed a couple of newcomers to the group. "Oh, there you are, Toñito. Where were you?"

Antonio had a frown on his face as he held tightly to Dolores' hand. "I was getting a snack with Lola…what happened with Cecelia's cat?"

"Ah…" Mirabel exchanged glances with Dolores and Abuela. "D-don't worry about it, Antonio. We'll figure it out."

Antonio cocked his head, looking frustrated. "Can you tell me what happened? It's my Gift. Maybe I can help."

"Right." Mirabel looked around once more, but no one seemed to be discouraging her. In fact, they were all leaning forward to listen more. "Well, okay…I'm not sure what exactly happened. I was listening to Cecelia's cat meowing, but I couldn't understand what it meant. But then I came back here and I could understand Parce just fine."

Antonio blinked. "What was the cat doing?"

"Just meowing."

"No, I mean…was he walking, or sleeping, or…"

"Oh, no, he—he wasn't actually there. We were at Cecelia's dad's office and—" she gestured with her hands. "She was showing us this—sound recording device that her dad bought from the outside. She recorded her cat's voice on the machine."

Antonio burst out laughing.

Mirabel stopped talking. Uh…what? She looked around to see if anyone understood the joke, but they seemed just as confused as her.

"Well, of course you didn't understand!" Antonio finally said. "My Gift only works when the animal is actually there!"

"Wh—wha—Huh?"

Abuela leaned forward. "Are you sure, Toño?"

"Uh-huh." He stopped laughing so he could explain. "You can't understand an animal from just sound. Most animal languages are a lot more than sound. They talk with their movements too, and also their smells. Smells are really important."

Mirabel's jaw was just about on the floor.

"Sometimes I hear Pico cawing from really far away," Antonio continued. "And it doesn't make any sense. I have to wait for him to get closer to ask him what he said. It works best when they're close by."

"So—" Mirabel stammered. "So my Gift isn't broken?"

"Nope." Antonio rocked back and forth on his feet. "You were just using it wrong."

A collective sigh of relief arose from the family.

"I…I need to go sit down," said Abuela, before promptly turning to leave.

Everyone else started to disperse as well, glad it was a false alarm. Agustín sidled up to Abuela to help her toward the door. "Abuela, we're certain that this whole…thing ends after today, right?" he asked quietly.

Abuela nodded. "As far as we know. That's what Bruno's vision showed us."

Bruno looked up at the mention of his name. "Oh, yeah. Though, it was actually Mirabel's vision." He paused, chuckling. "Heh. That's weird to say."

Mirabel winced, feeling a little sheepish at her outburst. "S-sorry for the scare, everyone…" she said. Thankfully, no one seemed too upset, unlike last time.

She couldn't help agree with her dad, she was looking forward to the ending of this. But for now, she tried to let it go by tuning back in to the other kids' conversation. Currently, Antonio was happily diving into more details about how his Gift worked.

"As long as they're in front of me, I can understand them fine," he was saying, "but the closer they are to me, the better. That way I can smell them more."

Isabela looked a little grossed out. "Why do you need to smell them?"

"Because they communicate with chemicals sometimes! Their scents can tell me how they're feeling."

Mirabel blinked. "Wait, so that's what I've been smelling all day? Animal pheromones? I thought they just stunk."

Antonio giggled, excited to share his knowledge. "Nope. That's part of how they talk. And the scents are strongest around their butts, so that's why they sniff each other's butts a lot."

Pepa, who was still lingering in the room, whipped her head around at this. "I'm sorry, what? Antonio Madrigal, you tell me that you're not sniffing any animal butts!"

"No, of course not, Mamí! That's gross!"

Pepa put a hand over her heart in relief, before lightly smacking her snickering husband.

Antonio turned back to the group and kept talking. "But they do it to each other a lot. It's weird, but it's their instinct. I usually just smell their heads or their breath or something."

"Huh, I think I get it," Camilo piped up, stroking his chin like a scholar. "So Antonio's Gift basically makes him more attuned to the intricacies of animal language. It's a sensory Gift, kinda like Dolores."

Dolores perked up at this.

"Ooh, so that's how it works!" Luisa laughed. "That's really cool, Toñito."

Mirabel cracked a smile. "It is really cool." Who knew they would all be learning more about Antonio's Gift today. Maybe something good came out of this after all, She nudged her little cousin teasingly. "I bet you really want it back, huh?"

"Yeah, but it's okay," Antonio replied. "You can play with it for a little while longer, Mirabel."

Mirabel inwardly gushed. He still managed to be so adorable, even when he looked like her. That was a feat in it of itself.

Thankfully, the day went but uneventfully after the big scare. As Mirabel settled into bed that night, she felt a mixture of relief and sadness. The animals around her continued to chatter and she gave them a sad smile.

"You know, I'm kinda gonna miss you guys," she mused.

The animals didn't know what she meant, of course, but she wanted to say it anyway. As much as this body-swapping adventure had been crazy, she found herself looking back on it fondly now that it was almost over. It had been rather fun to see the world from everyone's point of view, even if each one lasted a day. It was too bad she didn't get to switch with Papà, or Tío Félix, or Abuela. What interesting perspectives would they have offered?

That being said, she was definitely ready to go back to being herself tomorrow. So, at the very least, she could look back on this and laugh now that it was past.

Mirabel settled into the hammock and sighed. She looked to her left, where Antonio was laying next to her. He was staring at the ceiling, frowning in thought.

"Everything okay?" She asked.

Antonio shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know if I'll be able to sleep…"

Mirabel chuckled, and snuggled closer to him. "No, don't worry about that, Toño. The magic puts us to sleep so it's easier to switch us. I think."

Antonio looked a little relieved. Then, right on cue, a long yawn escaped him.

Mirabel snorted. "Oh, see, there it is. Right on sched…..sch….."

She was asleep before she was even finished talking.