Ten Years Later

"With everything that needs to be done they shouldn't be coming now."

Julieta shot a look at her mother and felt the stirrings of annoyance flaring up with her. Unlike her hermana, however, she didn't need to worry about causing thunderstorms if she wasn't utterly cheerful all the time. So there was no reason why she couldn't express her feelings and let her mama know exactly how annoyed she was with yet another biting little comment. Except… rather than explode Julieta merely took a calming breath and forced herself to smile slightly and return to her work of preparing food for the village. It was just how mama was, she told herself. She worried. She didn't like not being in control. She didn't mean for things to come off as they did. It was her fault for reading more into it. She was an old woman, you had to be patient with her…

"Everything that is happening is why they are coming now, mama, remember?" Julieta said as she switched from stirring the noodles that were boiling in the pot on the stove to checking over the pastries she was working on, her magic leaking into each and every one of them so that they weren't just delicious but also erased all the aches and pains of a hard day's work, healed any injuries, and kept all strong. The horror stories her mother had told her of what life had been like before her gift, where broken bones could take months to heal, always remained with her and had driven her to help ever since she'd gotten her gift.

"There is just so much to do and this is another complication. Antonio's party must be perfect after the failure of the last one-"

"It will be," Pepa said as she entered before Julieta could comment on that little dig at Mirabel's failed gift ceremony. "We have everything ready. And it's not for another month, mama, so there is plenty of time to celebrate now without it intruding."

"And then there is Isabela's wedding," their mother said with a shake of her head.

"She hasn't even accepted the proposal yet," Julieta pointed out.

"Formality. I have worked it all out. It won't be sprung on me as a surprise and leave us running about to make sure everything is perfect."

Pepa and Julieta shared a look. Their mother had never truly forgiven them for both deciding to get married without letting her arrange the proposal… or who they were going to marry, to be honest. But once again Julieta pushed away her annoyances. Her mother just thought so highly of them that she wanted them to have the best. No man would have been good enough for them…

"We have four weeks before Antonio's ceremony and a date isn't set for Isabela's wedding," Pepa said as she sat down next to their mother, casita sending over a coffee cup. "Plenty of time to get everything settled."

"They are interrupting our schedule."

Julieta couldn't stop herself. "Mama, you make it sound like you don't want Bruno and Mirabel to come home."

"Of course I want them home," she snapped and Julieta winced, knowing at once she'd stepped into a minefield and there was no real safe way to extract herself from it. "They belong here, with their family. With the community. They should have come home years ago."

'Then why did you force me to send my baby away in the first place?' Julieta thought bitterly to herself, keeping her back to her mother as she stirred the noodles. 'And why did you allow my hermano to leave?'

Julieta had forgiven many things her mother had done, understanding that her heart was always in the right place. She wanted to do what was best for the family and for their community. She understood that they had all been so very blessed and that they needed to pay back those blessings through hard work. Her comments were never meant to be mean. Her actions were never meant to hurt. She just… wanted to everyone to be safe. Protected.

But she would never forgive her mother for convincing her to send Mirabel off.

"We tried to convince her and Bruno to return," Pepa chimed in. "And they did try. It just never worked out."

"Because they didn't want to admit that things weren't as wonderful as they tried to make them out to be," their mother said sharply, sniffing dismissively. "Their letters… I don't know why they wouldn't admit that journeying with Ernesto was a struggle but they committed to the lie and returning would mean revealing that all hadn't been so wondrous as they claimed."

Julieta said nothing to that. There was no point.

Mirabel and Bruno had both been rather good about getting letters to the family, letting them know what they were doing. Of course they'd all known that they were covering for Ernesto, who was ashamed that at long last his tall tales about his life and all he was doing when he wandered about the world were merely fantasies and fictions. Mirabel and Bruno had seen whatever little camp he had out in the mountains and knew that he spent his days gathering firewood and sitting by fires warming his hands. Boring and dull. That was what Ernesto's life was, mama was sure of it. Even as Mirabel sent off letters talking about meeting strange people with pointed ears and different colored skin and who were as short as her or taller than casita the family knew she was just being nice to Ernesto. The man couldn't admit that when he'd decided to leave the village it had been a grand mistake and his pride forced him to remain out there rather than reveal the truth and ask for forgiveness.

Then… Bruno had sent the letter 6 months into their journey saying that he and Mirabel couldn't return home as planned.

He'd claimed that he'd found some 'college' that taught people how to master visions like his own and he needed to stay there so that he could understand his gift better. Mama had scoffed at that; Bruno was the only seer in the entire world! There certainly weren't more out there and most definitely not enough to make an entire COLLEGE. But it had been Felix of all people who had argued that they should allow them to stay out a bit more because if Bruno truly had found some way to improve his gift… wouldn't that help the community?

Julieta had completely understood his logic, respected what he was saying, and refused to talk to him for nearly a year for keeping her daughter away from her. Because Mirabel had wanted to stay and help her Tío.

Letters traveled back and forth between the two thanks to the few people that were allowed to go for trips to the outside world for supplies so at the very least they knew what was going on. Slowly the adults had begun to hint that it was time for the two to stop hiding in the forest and actually return home. They tried to guilt them into it 5 years ago by bringing up Antonio's birth but Mirabel and Bruno had merely sent him presents on his birthday, as they did for everyone else, and also begun to send letters to the boy, which became such a favorite bedtime tradition that he wouldn't fall asleep unless they reread one of their letters discussing all the 'fantastical' things prima and tío were doing. Mama had protested that it was filling his head with delusions but Pepa had argued it was no different than the fairy tales mama had read the triplets when they were small so in the end mama had, in a rare showing, relented.

She didn't know what the other grandkids did with their letters, for Mirabel was very good about sending all of them messages. Camilo read his, she knew that, as Pepa had mentioned finding him curled up in a corner going over old ones when he missed his cousin who had been practically his twin during his first five years. Isabela claimed she read them but Julieta had her doubts on that as her daughter never really talked about her wayward hermana. Dolores… well, it was hard to tell what she did and what she simply overheard. And Lusia always seemed too busy to bother with the letters even if she was vocal in wishing for her little hermana to come home. But she did keep them, every one, in a locked box that she tucked in her closet.

"Well, they should be arriving any day now," Julieta finally said.

"Good," their mother said. "…but they picked a horrible time."

"It is never a horrible time for family to return," Pepa said, the hints of a cloud beginning to form over her head before she got control of herself.

"Of course, of course," their mother was quick to say before adding, "but there are better times for it than when we are dealing with so much preparation!"

"The only preparations we are making are for Mirabel and Bruno's welcome home party," Julieta reminded her mother. "We won't even begin looking at what to do for Antonio's ceremony for another two weeks. More than enough time to make them feel welcome."

"Right mama?" Pepa pressed.

"Of course," their mother said dismissively. "And it gives us time to figure out what Mirabel will be doing to help the community. Bruno will return to giving us visions so we might be prepared for the future but Mirabel needs to be given tasks."

"She is just coming home-" Julieta began.

"Yes yes, and we must help her settle back into the civilized world. There will be some adjustments, considering how she's lived…"

Julieta could practically see her mother's thoughts.

~MC~GF~MC~GF~

"Mirabel, time to get up!" Julieta said pleasantly… as she looked up at the tree here youngest was currently resting in.

Mirabel dropped down like a cat, the dirty rags she was wearing clinging to her lean frame, her hair a tangled mane like a lion who had suffered a bit of mange. She scurried about on all fours, skittishly darting about like a crab.

"What would you like for breakfast?"

Mirabel hissed.

"Yes, of course. And orange juice?"

Her daughter yowled like an alley cat and darted over to a fountain to lap at it.

~MC~GF~MC~GF~

"I don't want to overstress her," Julieta commented, finally reaching the point where she could sit down at the table as the food could be left to simmer for a few moments. Casita sent a cup her way and she poured herself some coffee. "I want her to get settled back in."

"All the more reason to get her a routine and duties," her mama said firmly. "A schedule will let her focus and give her some much needed structure I am sure she has been lacking. Now, I have decided that with her traipsing about the woods these last few years the best thing she can do is forage."

"Forage?" Pepa asked.

"Truffles, wild berries… she's had to find food out there with Ernesto as I am sure he barely managed to keep himself fed, so that will be good for her. It will allow her to find ingredients for you, Julieta. Perhaps if she proves capable of that-" Julieta ignored the dismissive tone in her mother's voice… she didn't mean to make it sound like she thought so little of her granddaughter that she expected her to be unable to manage the simple task of digging up truffles, something a pig could do, "-then we can move her on to making sure rodents and other vermin aren't getting at the crops.

Julieta was struck with a new image.

~MC~GF~MC~GF~

"That is the last of them!" Mirabel said proudly, holding up several dead possums by their tails, her clothing filthy and her body stinking of sweat and grim. "Tomorrow I will deal with the rats that keep getting into the corn silos!"

"Yes yes, but now you must deal with the crows."

Mirabel nodded and hurried to her post, stretching her arms out like a scarecrow.

~MC~GF~MC~GF~

Julieta opened her mouth to say something more only for Dolores to come in… with a rather befuddled look on her face.

"What is it?"

"I hear footsteps," the young woman said and the three in the kitchen waited, knowing she would explain further. "Coming from town. Heartbeats too. I… I have never heard them before. They are extra ones."

"You are sure?" Mama said firmly. "You have been listening for Bruno and Mirabel to return."

"They suddenly appeared in the village, just now! Not the mountain pass. There was a crack of thunder and-"

Pepa cut her off. "I have not made any storm clouds."

"But… there was a crack. It nearly drove me to my knees."

Pepa looked at her daughter. "It wasn't me."

"And these people appeared after the crack?" mama demanded.

"Yes."

Mama rose up. "Then we need to investigate. Pepa, find Felix and have him go down with you. Dolores, you keep listening, see if the new arrivals say anything. We don't want to cause a panic… but we must be ready to defend our home." Mother and daughter nodded and hurried off, leaving Juileta alone with her mother who had her lips pressed together in a firm line. "Mirabel and Bruno… they shouldn't have waited so long to return. Now people are sneaking into the village-"

"Mama, we have no idea who snuck in and we certainly don't know that it was Mirabel who-"

"Begin cooking more food in case anyone gets hurt," her mama snapped, sweeping out of the room.

That was the end of that conversation.