Over the Mountains (an Encanto story)

Chapter 22. When death gets a new chance in life

10 years earlier

It has been a few weeks since Mirabel left Encanto. She has been wondering around, seeing the miracles of modern Columbia.

She met a new frienemy, called money. In Encanto, the community used some kind of trade system. So when she realized that she has to make a shirt, give it away for money, and only then can she buy food, she was confused.

One of her first jobs was making a whole wedding dress. It was a beautiful, traditional-inspired gown, decorated with embroidered flowers and the whole family tree of the couple in the back. The bride noticed Mirabel's unusually embroidered clothes on the street, and when Mirabel revealed that she made them, the girl was amazed.

They paid for the dress by giving her accommodation and food for the time period of making the dress, along with a pretty good amount of capital to start her new life and business. They were some kind of landlords or whatever, not as if it matters at all.

She was traveling through the jungle, as usual. She was almost out of her madre's cooking. She made sure to keep it for emergencies since it could heal almost anything. She had no idea that her clumsiness would make her eat a lot of Julieta's food.

Something she expected less of was that the magical arepas wouldn't make a missing piece of meat grow back. Since Encanto is not that dangerous, nobody has tested that part yet. Long story short, she is missing one finger and two toes, and she has a huge and weird scar on her back that kind of looks like a peach-colored paint splash. Not even mentioning the smaller scars she had from avoiding immediate healing since they were not life-threatening wounds.

She was walking through a small town, having already finished her projects. It wasn't a long time before the traveling seamstress became a big hit. If she was in town, everyone wanted something from her, giving her a way to survive.

The only thing no one got from her was her name.

She wasn't comfortable even thinking about it. Whenever she did, her parents came into her thoughts, making her feel guilt and regret for leaving.

As she was leaving the town, her bad luck kicked in.

She was looking at the landscape. It was a beautiful mountain area. So beautiful, she didn't notice the cliff she was walking by. She only noticed it when it was way too late. She slipped and slid down a hill for about two hundred meters, hitting quite a few rocks and bushes.

When she was at the bottom, she was happy that she saw a road but not her leg. It was all blue and red. It was bleeding and hurting really bad, and it was most likely broken. As she looked in her bag, she was devastated to see that she only had one arepa left from her mother.

- Holly Mother Earth! Are you alright? – Mirabel was so distracted that she didn't even notice a caravan getting closer to her.

It had a bright green and blue color and was decorated with painted skulls and yellow flowers. It was pulled by two gigantic black and white horses, so big that Mirabel had never seen anything even remotely similar to them. A girl, seeming to be around her age, got down, looking at her leg.

- Oh, this? No worries. I can walk it off easily. – Mirabel lied to the girl, trying to hide her leg. She couldn't risk the magic of Encanto being revealed to the outside world by eating the arepa in front of an outsider. What if people hate magic?

- Oh my! No way! No worries, I'm a healer. I can fix it. – the girl said with the kindest smile Mirabel has ever seen. Only her mother could get near it with hers on her best days.

Only now did she notice the girl's features. She had scars all around her face, mostly unhealed ones, and toped them up with a bandage on her right eye.