Chapter Text
The hot sun beamed down, its shining rays giving life to lush green tropical foliage that surrounded a colourful bustling town. Through the crowded streets a short man in green with dark curly hair could be seen shuffling along, followed by a stern older woman and a bubbly young girl. “I don’t see why you and Mirabel had to come with me.” He gripped as he continued walking with the girls on either side of him. “It’s been a month, I’m sure I can find my way around Encanto just fine.” Both the girl and older woman gave him a kind yet apprehensive look. “Are you sure about that Tío Bruno?” Mirabel asked, “I mean you haven’t left Casita in a pretty long time, Abuela and I just wanna be sure you’ve had enough time to adjust.” “To go buy salt?” He scoffed. Abuela let out a faint chuckle and put her hand on his shoulder, “Adjusted or not, do I really need an important reason to want to spend some time with my favourite hijo?” He looked away but couldn't hide a small smile creeping onto his face. “Easy for you to say, I’m your only hijo.” He mumbled under his breath, “But really guys I’m fine! No need to worry about me.” He tries to smoothly reassure them as he takes a few steps forward into the squares clearing and turns around, giving them a confident look. As he does so a dog runs by him barking loudly, causing poor Bruno to nearly jump out of his skin and run back towards them. Desperately trying to hold back a laugh Mirabel takes him by the hand and leads him back out to the open square. “Sure Tío Bruno, but maybe you need just a bit more practice first.” Like always the market place was as busy as ever with shops, waggons and little booths set up selling anything and everything you could think of. Sending Bruno in the direction to where he can restock his salt, Mirabel starts scouring the place for anyone who might be selling some colourful yarns and embroidery threads. “Hola Mirabel!” A friendly saleswomen greets her as she approaches the stand. Mirabel waves and starts looking over her colourful materials, like a diamond in the rough, something immediately catches her eye, a type of yarn she hasn’t seen before. Unlike most of the yarn she uses which was only dyed one colour at a time, this yarn was dyed multiple colours in one skein, it wasn’t a harsh transition either, each colour of the rainbow elegantly faded into the other. The saleswomen noticed Mirabel eyeing it up, “You have a sharp eye young lady, I just got this new yarn in the other day.” “It’s beautiful,” Mirabel exclaimed softly, reaching into her bag for her coin purse, “Where did you get it?” The saleswoman takes the money from Mirabel and hands over the yarn. “Ever since the mountains around Encanto split apart it’s been much easier to trade and sell goods to people that aren’t from around here. I even heard that tomorrow there could be a caravan of new people coming here to set up shop and have a look around.” Mirabel gently puts the skein into her bag, being careful not to squish it. “Well if they’ll be bringing around more stuff like this the Madrigal family will be sure to welcome them to Encanto with open arms.” She said zestfully as she waved goodbye. Meeting back up with Abuela, who had just finished chatting with a few of the local shopkeepers, she looks around a bit before asking, “Where’s Bruno?” Suddenly they both hear a desperate shout from around the corner, “Mirabel? Mirabel!” Bruno comes racing up to her in a panic and grabs her by the shoulders desperately. “Mirabel you gotta help me! They’re rabid, they’re relentless, and they won’t take no for an answer!” Abruptly they heard many voices calling out, “Seeeñor Brunooo!” The older man quickly hides behind his Niece in fear as a herd of small children come running towards them. “Señor Bruno you gotta show us how your gift works!” One child begs, “I already said no.” He exclaims, trying to step away but is immediately surrounded. “Why not?” “Because I don’t do visions for people anymore unless I have to.” “But we’ve seen how everyone else uses their gift, we need to see how yours works too!” Another child whines and clings to his leg. Ignoring the sea of questions being spewed out at him, Bruno looks over to Mirabel as he tries to shake the kid off his leg, “Is this something you had to deal with everyday?” Mirabel can only let out a laugh as she nods her head and helps usher the children away from her Uncle. “Come on now young ones,” Abuela addresses them kindly but sternly, “If Bruno says no then he means no.” All the children let out a collective “Awwww” of disappointment as they look up at Bruno with big puppy dog eyes. Bruno takes one look at their sad faces before letting out a defeated sigh. “Ok, ok, fine I’ll do a vision, but just this one time, got it?” The group of children all jump up and cheer for joy, as they follow him over to the edge of town where there's an open grassy field. As he pours out some sand for his ritual he tells them, “Now remember this isn’t gonna become a regular thing ok?” He looks at them to make sure they understand, “We know!” They all say excitedly as they watch him work. He kneels down and lights a match, burning the little piles of leaves and sticks he put together. “Oh, and you need to promise me that no matter what happens, you won’t blame it on me.” “We promise!” All the giddy children reply, practically bounding up and down. Reaching into his pocket Bruno reluctantly throws a handful of salt over his shoulder, ready to get started but pauses. “Oh shoot, umm what exactly am I looking into the future for?” He ponders, looking over to Abeula and Mirabel for an answer. Taking a moment Mirabel remembers the skein of yarn in her bag. “I heard there’s a caravan coming here, why don’t you show us who’ll be here tomorrow?” “That’s an excellent question Mirabel.” Abuela nodded in approval. Bruno nods, closing his eyes and cracking his knuckles, he holds out his hands. The sand circling him starts to glow an emerald green colour, and after a moment begins spinning around violently, the particles glittering in the sunlight, lifting up off the ground creating a dome over his head. The group of children stare in awe at the magnificent sight before them and cheer. Bruno opens his eyes to reveal them glowing bright, almost neon green and looks up at the images starting to form in the whirring sand. At first hard to make out, they soon become clear and he starts to see a pack of maned wolves running through the fields that surrounds Encanto, almost as if they were chasing after something. The image then disappears and a new one shows itself, this time of a girl he doesn’t recognize, suddenly the sand around her starts glowing and turns a cool sapphire blue, the light reflecting like it would waves from the ocean. Abuela and Mirabel gasp at the sight, holding each other's hands for comfort. Her image wasn’t perfect, her face was hard to make out but it was clear that she had long messy hair and bangs that covered one eye, with what seemed like two tufts sticking up out of her head, “Almost looks like ears.” Bruno thought to himself as he squinted, examining the vision. Before anyone could get a clear look at the stranger's face, the image along with its blue colour quickly fades away as the sand starts to pick up speed, whipping around even faster. Standing his ground Bruno keeps looking for the next image, and just like that he sees three hulking beasts crash into view, with two of them teaming up on the other one, which seemed slightly smaller. With the wind blowing so fast the sand was blurry and it was hard to make out what these beasts were, but one thing was clear, that their brawl was destroying the town around them as they threw each other into walls and slammed into the ground. As Bruno struggles to take steps forward to get a better look, the smaller beast turns around and he gets a clear view of it. It’s a tall wolf-like creature that stands upright on two legs, snarling and growling as it shows off its razor sharp teeth. “Un hombre lobo?” He mutters to himself in bewilderment. Soon thereafter the sand starts slowing down, a sign that they’re nearing the end of the vision. “Wait, no, I gotta see more!” He shouts out, begging with his magic to grant his wish. With its last bit of power the sand conjures up one more faint image, the same girl from before running up and giving him an energetic hug. With that the sand dissipates and falls to the ground, leaving Bruno with a green glass tablet in his hands of that final picture. There was an eerie pause for a moment as Bruno stared down at the tablet. “That was totally wicked!” Someone out of the group of children shouted out, breaking the silence abruptly and all the children started frantically chattering amongst themselves about what they just saw. Quite nervous Mirabel rushes over to them, “Well that was quite exciting wasn’t it? Now how about you head back to town and play? And don’t forget to thank Tío Bruno before you leave.” “Thank you Señor Bruno!” A few of them called as they went running on home, but Bruno didn’t acknowledge them much as he remained standing there, lost in thought. Both Abuela and Mirabel slowly walked up to either side of him, taking a look at the tablet. “What do you think it means?” Mirabel asked him in a hushed tone. “And what will happen to Encanto if those monsters show up?” Abuela wondered, her voice full of fear. “And that girl,” She continues as she takes the tablet out of Bruno’s hands to get a better look at her. “Why was she surrounded by that blue aura? What could it mean?” “I-I don’t know,” Bruno stuttered. “Could it mean she has a gift of her own?” Mirabel blurted out, a hint of excitement peeking in through her voice. “What? Impossible,” Her Grandmother scoffed, hand waving the suggestion away, “This stranger isn’t related to our family, how could she have her own magic?” Stammering Bruno crossed his arms to try and comfort himself, “None if it was very clear, a-and everything changed so fast, I-“ Mirabel puts a comforting hand on his shoulder, “It's ok Tío Bruno, we’ll figure this out.” She reassures him, pointing to the tablet. “Besides it’s not all bad, it at least looks like you and this new girl become good friends.” “Well, I guess you’re right about that.” He admits taking the tablet back from Abuela. He frowned a bit looking at it, unfortunately the girl's face was turned away, so he was still unsure of what she fully looked like, but he could see just how tightly she had her arms wrapped around him, and how close their bodies were in the embrace. “Well we better head back to Casita and tell the others.” Mirabel let out abruptly, causing Bruno to jump and fumble with the tablet, nearly dropping it. “Are you ok Tío?” Mirabel tilted her head looking at him, “Your face looks kinda red. You didn’t exhaust yourself doing that vision did you?” Bruno lifted a hand to his face and felt heat radiating off his cheek. “O-oh me? Yea, I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” He awkwardly tucks the tablet under his arm and turns around, “Welp we better get a move on.” Abuela and Mirabel give each other a bit of a confused look from his strange behaviour, but trail closely behind him as he leads the way home. Once the three of them got back to Casita, they had barely gotten in the door before they were welcomed with the concerned faces of their family members. “Dolores told us everything.” Pepa admitted, a tall thin woman in a yellow dress, with frizzy ginger hair. “She said that Bruno saw monsters attacking the village.” Felix, Pepa’s short husband added. “And there was someone outside of the family with their own gift?” Luisa, Mirabel’s older muscular sister chimed in. “And that Bruno’s getting a girlfriend.” Camilo snickered as he slipped the green tablet out of his uncle's hands, taking a good look at it. “Hey, give that back!” Bruno ordered his nephew, snatching it away from him. “And she’s not my girlfriend.” he stammered. “Not yet at least.” Camilo cooed, mockingly. Bruno shot him a very unamused look. “Camilo!” Pepa scolded, a thunder cloud appearing over her head, “Stop teasing your Tío Bruno!” “Yes Mama.” He answered sheepishly as she shooed him away. “What are we going to do Mama?” Julieta, Mirabel's mother, asked Abuela. “I mean, do you really think there’s such a thing as un hombre lobo?” “What’s un hombre lobo?” They heard a small voice squeak out, looking up at the adults was little Antonio, Pepa and Felix’s youngest. Abuela took a deep breath, “A werewolf.” She finally let out. The whole Madrigal family gathered around closely to listen to the elder speak. “When I was a little girl I used to hear gruesome tales about the creatures. Unlike the gifts our family was blessed with, they were poor souls who were cursed to turn into ferocious, wolf-like demons under the light of the full moon.” A sense of fear washed over the family and little Antonio clinged to his mother for comfort. “Maybe at first they still have their humanity, but the more it transforms the more corrupt and rage filled its spirit gets, until eventually the beast inside takes over for good and its eyes turn red like a blood moon,” Abuela paused eerily, before taking a breath, “Once that happens the only way to stop the beast from rampaging is to kill it by piercing its heart with silver.” There was a moment of silence after she spoke, no one really knowing what to say. “And you think one of them is going to attack Encanto?” Isabela, the eldest of Mirabel’s sisters finally spoke up. “I’m afraid so, along with two others.” Abeula spoke out, urgency in her voice. “If those three monsters show up they’ll destroy the town and everyone in it!” The Madrigal family let out a collective gasp in shock and fear as they started talking at each other, frantically voicing their worries and possible solutions. Through the chaos Mirabel singled out Bruno, who had backed out of the family meeting and was hunched over, leaning against the wall, staring at the ground dejectedly. She knew he felt like this was his fault, his face said it all. “Hey, come on everyone, we can’t just assume the worst.” Gently taking the tablet from her uncle Mirabel flashes it to everyone. “We asked Tío Bruno to look to see who’s gonna be arriving on the caravan tomorrow and we saw this girl. If she was important enough to show up in his vision, maybe she can help us!” Mirabel's encouraging words seemed to lift the spirits of her family as they all started to brighten up. “Good thinking Mirabel!” Her mother praised, with her father Agustín giving her a big thumbs up. Abuela paused for a moment to think, furrowing her brow before stepping forward, “If we expect this new girl to help us we better really roll out the welcome mat for that caravan!” Abuela instructed clapping her hands to get everyone's attention, “Let us get the preparations ready!” The family cheered, and even Casita spun its tiles around rhythmically in excitement. Mirabel passed the glass tablet back to Bruno, as he takes it from her, he looks at her and softly smiles. “Thanks kid, I really appreciate what you said. You know, about not seeing the worst of it and all.” He kind of stumbles over his words but she can tell that what he said was genuine. “Don’t sweat it Tío.” She replies, giving him a friendly fist bump to the shoulder. “I’m sure by tomorrow we’ll have everything sorted out.”