Isabela was so scared. her sister had been gone for months. she'd just begun having a good relationship with her when she disappeared. the last time anyone saw her was when their mama checked to make sure she was okay after being in the middle of Casitas fall. she was declared dead just last week but no Madrigal could accept it.
Isabela sat on her bed in the recently rebuilt casita. the house looked the same but it didn't have the warmth and literal life of Casita.
"Isa come out! Dolores just remembered something!" Pepa declared, opening her bedroom door.
"what?" Isabela instantly perked up as she stood up off her bed.
"come on!" Camilo announced as he ran past and Pepa followed him, quickly joined by Isabela.
"so what did you want to tell us Dolores?" Luisa asked as she sat down at the dining table with the rest of the remaining familia.
"there's another town beyond the mountains" Dolores began.
"what? do you think Mirabels there?" Felix asked.
"yeah. I used to climb the mountains as a sort of past time and whenever I got to the top of the mountains behind casita I could hear another town in the distance. you can even see it if you look closely. once when I climbed up I'm pretty sure they were being raised by bandits" Dolores explained, earning gasps from everyone.
"so Mirabel is in the middle of a town that gets raided by bandits?" Agustin cried out.
"we have to save her!" Isabela announced.
"I think you underestimate Mirabel" Camilo spoke up.
"how so?" Pepa asked.
"I once watched her come up with a whole murder plan to kill some preteens making fun of Antonio. sure it just summed up to tell mama a heavily exaggerated version of what happened but still! I think she has more potential than anyone realizes. including her" Camilo explained.
"we still need to make sure shes okay" Julieta replied.
"yeah" "shes right" "how do we get there?" "Dolores can lead us there"
"lets go!" Antonio suddenly yelled before running out of casita.
"Mi-ra! Mi-ra!" a crowd cheered as the family approached the edge of town.
"what's going on?" Julieta asked a bystander.
"my kids saved the town" the bystander replied, pulling his shoulder-length hair into a ponytail.
"well you must be very proud" Agustin spoke.
"I am. my sobrina Daniela and sobrino Aaron have saved the town many times but its the first time my honorary sobrina Mira has been included and they used one of her plans. my names Andres by the way" the bystander, Andres explained.
"'honorary'?" Camilo repeated.
"Daniela calls her sister and Aaron calls her cousin and she calls them that back but shes not exactly biological or adopted" Andres explained.
"what's Miras full name?" Pepa asked.
"Mira Guzman. why do you ask?" Andres replied.
"has she ever gone by another name?" Julieta questioned, only to feel the sharpness of a blade touch her chin.
"why are you asking these questions?" Andres eyes narrowed as he gripped the handle of the knife tightly.
"we're looking for our family member Mirabel Madrigal" Isabela spoke up.
"shes got black coiled hair, green round glasses and really energetic, smile-inducing and wouldn't harm anyone" she continued as Andres put his knife back in its sheath around his calf.
"why do you carry around a knife?" Dolores asked.
"I've got a total of seven, maybe permanent, scars on me because I didn't have a knife with me when I got them. that and because people in my home town didn't like me being 'feminine' when I was supposed to be 'masculine' but what do those even mean? like has anyone ever thought about that? besides me and my kids" Andres explained.
"you said they were your sobrinas and sobrino so why do you say they're your kids?" Felix queried.
"saying 'my kids' is faster than saying 'my sobrinas and sobrino'" Andres shrugged.
"anyways Mirabel? sounds similar to Mira but I saw her almost cut a bandits hand off with her knife and shes really self-conscious" he continued.
"hey tio Andres! come on!" a familiar voice called from the crowd.
"speaking of Mira, thats her calling for me" Andres smiling before walking away and pushing himself through the crowd.
"that was definitely Mirabel. I could recognize her voice anywhere" Dolores spoke up, pointing into the crowd.
"I volunteer to stay back and check on her. stealth is one of my specialties" Camilo raised his hand before hiding his face behind his ruana.
"one of your useless specialties. I've spied on Mirabel sewing multiple times and shes never noticed me" Dolores replied, lightly hitting Camilo on the head.
"yeah but you had your super hearing back then. you were probably across the village" Camilo defended.
"Camilo, Dolores. stop fighting" Pepa practically growled.
"Mira!" someone yelled from the east.
they all turned to see a skinny boy with his hair tied in a ponytail.
"Lucas!" an all too familiar girl pushed through the crowd as she ran to him.
"I heard what happened! you were amazing!" the boy cheered as another skinny boy nearly identical to him followed him.
"oh it was nothi-"
"Aaron!" the second boy called out, to which another boy jumped up above the crowd. he was standing on a giant glowing light blue platform shaped like a star as he rode it down to the skinny boys and Mirabel.
"I heard what happened too! you three were amazing! did you really give one of the bandits a scratch on the neck with one of your stars?" the skinny boy in brown asked as the boy with the headband hopped off the star platform and it disappeared.
"we should go home. you three deserve some biscuits" Andres declared as he exited the crowd, dragging a flustered girl in red with him.
"yay! your biscuits are awesome!" the headband boy cheered while Mirabel looked at the flustered girl with concern.
"hey tio Andres, is she okay?" Mirabel asked, her words hurting Felix.
"yeah the bakers daughter just gave her congratulations. it happens after every bandit raid" Andres shrugged.
"I didn't know she had another tio?" Antonio spoke, visibly confused at the sight before him.
"she doesn't. shes found a new one" Felix replied.
"hey do you know anyone by the name Mirabel Madrigal?" Andres asked as the flustered girl shock her head and snapped back to reality.
Mirabel visibly froze up. that was when Julieta noticed something on her chest.
"is she injured?" she muttered under her breath, squinting at the scratch piercing Mirabels skin.
"no. no one in my old village has that name" the lie shocked the familia as tears came to most of their eyes.
"yeah I'm following them" Camilo spoke up before running into an alleyway.
"come on, we've got to get you two haircuts" Mirabel said to the identical boys.
"hooray!" the brown wearing boy cheered.