Not The Only Ones

Chapter 4 - Come with us!

"Tio calm down!" Mirabel yelled grabbing her uncle's sarape as he tried to run away. "T-t-they said my name! THEY KNOW MY NAME." he whimpered.

The figure floated closer. He screamed louder. They stopped. "...I dont think I'm THAT scary..." they grumbled under their breath. "...these people literally move mountains and see the future but ooooooo~ floating personnnn~ scaryyyyyy~ . What sense does that make?!" they continued. They waited until Bruno had calmed down to speak again.

"Look. Its been a while since I last even took a solid-ish form and I only did so cause YOU all brought me here by looking for me. Granted it took me a few hours to manifest and I'm still not done" they paused waving their hardly visible hand infront of their face to emphasize their transparency. "BUT here I am. What do you want? This form is hard to keep. So please make it fast." They stood with an air of annoyance, hands on hips, looking down at them still.

Luisa and Camilo sat dumbfounded. Yes they were adults and reliable physically but all this mental strain to understand what was happening was really burning them out. Mirabel came to put them out of their misery.

"Uhhh well first of all...Hi! Im— " "Mirabel." they interrupted. "Uhhh yeah! Um I-I'm sure you already know a lot about our family and gifts. Hence your impatience" she laughed nervously. "But...could you humor us and answer some questions then...? Since you uh...went through the trouble of ..manifesting was it? For us already?" She said approaching them slowly.

The figure let out a long drawn out sigh again. "Fine. But only because you're my favorite and the least work to maintain." they said pointing a slender finger at her with a pout. "R-right." Mirabel said puzzled but definitely not going to bring up why.

".....Now come closer. Im not going to hurt you." they muttered again. The three of them looked to Mirabel and she reassuringly nodded at them. They scooted closer. "Closer." The figure demanded. A little more they did. "CLOSER!" they yelled. The group suddenly sprinted and formed a football huddle around them as if they were their coach. ".....Too close" the figure said holding back a laugh as hard as they could.

"Now. Lets begin. Lets see lets seeeeeee ...." They placed one fist into the other palm. "Oh I'll do that."

"That?" Luisa asked. The figure nodded, smiled and closed their eyes bringing their head forward. Almost as if it was instinctive the others did the same . They all pressed their foreheads together and leaned towards the figure. They were still slightly transparent but they could feel the warmth of their head already.

Images appeared in their minds.

"Who." The voice was now in their heads almost narrating. "Well for starters... Im human. So stop being scared of me. " they mumbled again, this time they didnt even attempt to lower the grumble. This person mumbled almost as much as Bruno. "My family is like yours. We have a gift but...pure...er? If that makes sense?." their voice almost sounded a little confused, like they didn't quite fully understand it themselves. But they continued. As they spoke an image of a family appeared. They wore red and white robe like clothing and each had gold accessories that matched them.

"They're...beautiful." The Madrigals whispered. The voice got squeaky. "Shut up. Don't be weird. Weren't you guys scared of me like two seconds ago?! Pick a side!" They cleared their throat. "Anyway..."

"As I said we're like you but our magic is just well...more. We can physically become just magic. That's the glow as Bruno calls it. Its just pure magic. Nothing more nothing less." The Madrigals all nodded in unison. While it may seem like an unsatisfying answer to most, they literally had magic in them. There wasnt much to question because well some things just are.

"Apparently the world has little pockets of magic everywhere and since my family were the first people to settle here many many many yyyyyy generations ago, we guess it just attached itself to us. As for how we continue being...when we come of age we go find a partner, bring them back, and uh" you could hear the fluster in their voice. "YOU KNOW. LIFE! Circle of life. Birds bees. All that stuff!"

The Madrigals snickered. A sharp pain hit their foreheads. "Ow!"

"And finally as for how we got involved with your family" .  A flashback. It was Abuela, much younger, with her babies....and her husband but this time it was a closer view to the people from Bruno's vision. "MY abuela was there with my mother. We usually dont intervene with others. We're born, we protect the forest's magic, we find someone, we start a family, we hand it over to the next generation, and we die. It starts over. Its how its always been. How it was always suppose to be."

In the vision...the young woman ran with her mother looking worriedly at her. Through the bushes, over the streams, through the rivers, staying hidden by the forest. They ran keeping a close eye on the monsters who were chasing the escaped people of the village. "Mom...?" The young woman panted while watching her mother. They never involved themselves, ever. But this time, it was different. This was EVIL. They were killing so many. So quickly. For nothing. "Mom! What are we doing?! Wh-what..what if they see us?!" The young woman asked again dodging under branches. Her mother, kept her eyes forward never breaking eye contact with the monsters, she had tears in her eyes. She was angry. Angrier than she'd ever seen her.  They got to the river and hid.

"We're going to help them." She said finally. Her golden earrings dangled and moved slowly as she began to glow. "But Mom..." "But nothing!" Her mother said sternly. "Only a little. Enough to protect them.  I can feel it. Those people are mostly good. Especially that woman. They wont abuse it. And if they do..we'll take it back from them. We can always take it back." The younger woman sighed and watched.

The Madrigals watched as light came from the older woman's core and went to her hands. It pooled into her cupped hands like water, she blew gently. It went from her hands to the candle. The rest was just as Abuela described it. The mountains grew, the forest thickened and the image in their heads ended.

They were back to normal. Everyone sat back and opened their eyes. Processing what happened.

"So when we lost our gifts years ago..?" Luisa started. "Like my grandmother said, we took it back. We gave it to you under conditions. That you'd use it to help everyone. Including yourselves." they finished.

"And now?" Bruno asked timidly. "Oh! Thats because you're too close to me!" They said nonchalantly. "Its like having smaller flames too close to a big one. They just get sucked right up. I was gathering all my magic to become physical again and I guess I took yours on accident too! Here! Now that Im done I can just—" they snapped. A small golden sparked generated that split into 3 then went back to Bruno, Luisa, and Camilo's chest.

Bruno immediately looked a younger but still feral as usual, Camilo quickly transitioned back and forth between himself and everyone there, and Luisa, poor Luisa sat as strong as ever, with tears all over her clothing.

"Sorry Luisa" they said. "Its okay." She said through a quivering lip.

"SO." Mirabel chirped. "Whats your name?!" "I dont have one." "Whaaaaa???" She said tilting her head. "My family has no use for names. We just exist. If anything we just call eachother by our relationship to the other like hermano, hermana, mom, abuela, etc." "Welllllllll...how about we just call you La Luz for now!"

"Youre naming me light? Like literal light?" They questioned. Well yeah. "Fine. In general I'll go as that. But.... I'd prefer a personal name from each of you when addressed one on one. It'd be weird to just go by one name." "Deal." They all said.

"Now lets go."

"Go?" La Luz questioned.

"Come with us!" The Madrigals grinned.