The team of Luisa, Antonio, Araya, Camilo, and Parce, Antonio's jaguar, has been on their way for about a week now. They have escaped Encanto through some kind of tunnel system, which the animals use to travel between the town and the outside world.
They stumbled upon some villages and got directions, but they were still lost. They had an old map from the library, but it was so old that most of the things weren't even there anymore. Or, in some better cases, there was something else where, back in the day, nothing was.
The technology was a mess for them. Cars, electronic lamps, and televisions. It was all new and scary. It was not once, not twice, that they were almost run over by some huge vehicle.
To their luck, the towns in the area of their destination were old-fashioned. No car available to the public was capable of getting there.
Surprisingly, caravans had an easier time. Some said the spirit of the area hated most technology.
But, at last, they arrived. Anhelaba Esperanza. As the name suggests, it is a hope-filled hideout for people on the run.
Not for criminals or anything like that. For people who fell in love with someone they weren't allowed to, people with different beliefs from their peers, or sometimes survivors of wars. Some people were from Japan even as survivors of the second big war, hiding from the shame of wanting to survive.
This did remind the Madrigals that around those years when the war happened, Dolores went nuts over hearing screams and explosions. It was so loud that even her less advanced hearing at the time could catch some of it. And almost all of it came from Europe.
The town itself was beautiful. It was next to a jungle and was obviously a Colombian village, but it had the influence of other cultures as well, mostly Mexico and Japan.
When they arrived, the people were preparing for Día de los Muertos. A colorful festival where they remembered their lost ones.
This surprised them a lot. In Encanto, they would have to sit in silence and pray for their ancestors, but here, it was a happy event, filled with love and joy.
The Madrigals found a quiet place just outside of town with some benches, tables, and a fireplace. They started to discuss their final thoughts about the place and the situation.
- Isn't that festival reminding you guys of something? – Araya asked the others, wondering what it could be.
- Isn't it the festival from the vision? – Antonio answered with a question while taking out some dried fruit from his bag, which used to be Mirabel's signature orange-pink embroidered axecory and still had her name on it.
- Now that you say, it is! – Camilo cheered with food in his mouth.
- Now the skull masks make sense. – Araya chuckled.
- I can't believe we're this close. – Luisa said this with teardrops in her eyes. – You guys think this is it? What if the vision showed something else?
- I don't think so. – Camilo answered his prima – If Bruno concentrates on something in a vision, it shows something related, if not specific. If neither Isa nor Mirabel are here, those girls... – he took the half plate out of his bag – they are here. And if they do have doors in Casita, they are Madrigals. And the only one who could be the reason they are here is Mirabel.
- But I still don't understand. She is clearly the lookalike of the scared woman, so she must be her kid. – Luisa stated, pointing at the girl's image on the plate. – But that woman is not a Madrigal, and Mirabel could only have kids with a guy.
- What if the woman is her sister-in-law? – Araya answered the question with another question.
- Like the kid got her looks from her father's side? It might make sense. – Camilo wondered about the possibility. It might be it.
They were quietly discussing the matter when, all of a sudden, Antonio made a surprised, almost cocked face.
As they looked in the direction he was facing, they saw someone they hadn't expected. The scared woman from the vision, with a little girl on her side, walked from the direction of the jungle towards them.
Her long, wawy brown hair was tied in a low ponytail. She wore a light green shirt with a darker green skirt and an apron decorated with yellow flower embroidery in the front. She had a big brown bag on her side with a red cross on it, suggesting that she might be the town's doctor.
The little girl had dark skin and even darker curly hair. She was wearing a teal skirt with a white shirt and pink sandals, and the look was finished with a white apron.
She reminded them a lot of Mirabel. Only her teal skirt looked more green than blue compared to the one Mirabel used to wear.
When they noticed the unfamiliar faces staring at them with surprise, the lady just smiled and waved at them, walking past them while the girl hid behind her.
They saw them in full color. The lady seemed to be around the same age as Mirabel and Camilo. Her face was covered with scars. One of them went through her right eye, blinding her.
The little girl was around five, and her face was decorated with countless birthmarks, but far too few to be considered freckles.
They were just stearing at them. They have figured that they will have to face the woman at some point, but this soon? Everyone was so shocked that they couldn't say a word until they saw them disappear into the crowd.
They stared at the emerald plate in Camilo's hands, the little girl, who wasn't even as little as anyone who ever opened a door inside Casita, and the woman holding the candle.
Before they could realize it, the woman and the child were so deep in town that they had no idea of their directions at all.
- Let's split up. We'll ask about Isabela and Mirabel as well. Maybe we'll have some luck. – Luisa said, standing up, followed by the others. – I'm not leaving without my sisters.
YOU ARE READING
Over the Mountains (an Encanto story)
FanfictionIt was expected. Mirabel also had enough, just like Bruno. She left on Antonio's birthday, fearing he would slowly drift away from her too. Ten years have passed since she left, and now the Madrigals are faced with a new challenge, one they never ex...
