A Slow Burning Candle *Main story completed, additional scenes to be added*

Chapter 6 - Camilo's Day

Bruno was already awake when the morning knock on his door came. He lay back in his bed and stared up at his vision cave, his eyes tracing the long set of stairs upwards.

When it was just him, or when he slept, the bottom of the room cleared back the sand several feet, giving a large open space with a comfortable bed, a dresser, and any other accoutrements he desired. The rest of the time, the sand pit provided an experience for those that were being taken up to the vision cave to receive their prophecies.

He never asked for much from his room, except maybe for an endless supply of his favorite ponchos. Back when he'd still had hope that his gift would be a benefit to the Encanto, he'd adopted the poncho because he felt it looked a bit more mystical and magical than the average button-down shirt of the men in the village. More traditional too.

By the time things had gone sour, he actually liked the outfit enough to keep wearing it. Its hood provided a good way to hide his face in public and muffled some of the nastier comments that were thrown at him when he went out.

It also helped to conceal his frame, which helped when he was insecure about being one of the shorter, smaller men in town.

Brushing his hair out didn't help much, it remained unruly looking. He usually tried to avoid looking at himself in the mirror in the morning, he didn't like to see the bags under his eyes from his lack of sleep, the worn nature of his face from all the stress and anxiety that had been laid on him.

She was beautiful, what would she want with him?

It was only a matter of time before Pepa brought back some village Adonis who would gladly scoop up the new maestra and make her his wife. Then she'd probably come asking for a prophecy and find out one of her kids would fail math class and she'd turn on him for it.

And he'd have to see her. He was sure of it, he'd have to see her whenever he went out, on some other man's arm, tending to small children with their mother's curly hair.

That bothered him.

When Luz had first arrived, after his first few interactions with her, he had to ask himself if he was merely surprised that someone was being nice to him at all. After all, he mused to himself, he hadn't thought that way about any other woman in years. His last real dalliance in such matters had been just after he'd finished schooling.

All he'd wanted was to ask the girl to attend a yearly celebration with him, but she turned him down flatly, telling him that the idea of being caught in public with him was enough to make her run away in fear. Then she'd actually ran.

Since then, he hadn't entertained the idea of a woman liking him – in that way. Right now he had no proof that Luz did. He'd only just deduced that he had a crush on her, a real legitimate infatuation.

If he could have stopped himself, he would have. She had invaded his thoughts, some of his better dreams, and when she eventually turned him down, it would make it that much worse.

After all, he was more than ten years her senior, black sheep of his family, most feared man in the entire village - what could he offer her?

Resolving to put it out of his mind, he walked out of his room and down towards the dining area for breakfast.

On the way, he saw Camilo tear out of his room.

"Feliz cumpleaños, sobrino." He called after the boy.

"Gracias Tío Bruno!" Came the excited reply as casita turned the stairs into a slide for the birthday boy.

The family was already gathering downstairs, and the sound of excited chatter filled the house.