Since yesterday's offering was incomplete think of this as part II with questions, of course. I do have fun trying to figure out how they do the stuff that they do do... I also believe Pepa is far smarter than she's given credit for.

Day Eight: Question

Julieta stepped out onto the grass and shivered as she stepped into the afternoon sun. Though the large basket on her arm was covered with a towel, there was the hint of chocolate in the air now.

Well, time to get to it, Pepa thought.

Probably start with some mist. Mist was easy, she could make that with barely a thought because it was so much like rain. But this was going to be on another level. She'd never been able to localize fog, was an all or nothing kind of thing. There was also that dog to contend with. Pepa had seriously considered bringing Antonio along, but then they did not know if a dog loyal to its master would respond to Antonio or just be confused by it. There was also no time to test it. It was just one risk too many, so she decided this might be the best way to move forward.

Pepa thought back to the last time she did this. She'd studied a book on weather for weeks as she learned how to get it to change only in the places she wanted it to. She forgot the circumstances that prompted her to try to make fog, but it took enough out of her that she slept for two days straight. She'd thought about that failure over the years, and though she understood the mechanics of this type of event, she realized there were key elements that she'd left out of that attempt.

Hatred and fear.

They were the emotions she relied on the least. The ones she avoided at all costs. Anxiety she could deal with. Sadness was a snap compared to this. Before they got their Gifts, Bruno used to take every opportunity to frighten her. Just his usual jump scare nonsense. Post Gifts, not so much.

"So, what are you thinking, Pepa?" Julieta asked.

"Do you remember that time I almost got run down by that donkey cart? It frightened me so badly, and I was so mad at the driver that I inadvertently created a fog so thick the town came to a standstill? You couldn't see more than a meter in front of yourself, and the silence was just awful."

Again, her siblings exchanged glances and nodded.

"I want to create something similar to that, just need to figure out how to keep it from spreading to the whole town, and I don't want to rely on those emotions."

"Well, there was that time…" Bruno paused and looked at Julieta, she nodded, and he said, "You made something like that, but you weren't afraid at all, and it only lasted for... what about an hour?" again Julieta nodded.

"I have no memory of that."

"I am not surprised," Julieta said and uncovered her basket as she sat in the grass and pulled some glasses and a wine bottle out of the basket.

"What happened?"

"You were very drunk," Bruno said flatly as he sat next to Julieta and took the proffered glass, "Well, we were all drunk."

"I was not drunk," Julieta stated as she indicated that Pepa should sit and take her glass.

Pepa generally did not drink. She was ten times more volatile with any sort of alcohol in her. She had a hazy memory of Bruno getting his hands on a bottle of aguardiente when they were thirteen. Really was some awful tasting stuff as she recalled. She sat down next to her siblings, and Pepa took the wine glass from her sister. Julieta poured them each half a glass, and they toasted to a successful mission. Bruno snorted, Julieta and Pepa just giggled. After a few refills, Pepa was feeling good and smiled as the mist she'd started began to settle around them. She took another sip, and Bruno suggested she wait before drinking more to see how thick it got.

Julieta offered her a chocolate filled sweet bun in exchange for her wine glass, and they sat and waited. She and her siblings sipped their wine and discussed what to do about Bubo's Tío. Based on the spontys he'd had today, Bruno was of the mind they should not let the people in the mountains know that Paola was in the Encanto. Bruno mentioned that Bubo showed up in his sponty and seemed to recognize Paola but had been reluctant to admit that. He pulled out his sketchbook and Julieta and Pepa looked at the sketches from his most recent spontys and agreed that they should most definitely hold off revealing Paola's presence in the Encanto. He said he was going to do a vision when they went back inside. Pepa's irritation with the whole situation was making her furious. To calm herself, she started to hum, but the mist still deepened, turned to fog and did indeed get very thick.