𝒮𝑒𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝓇 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 <<Bruno Madrigal>>>

Chapter 5

Carina haven't seen Bruno in days, not unless Alma makes him do errands around the village. She on the other hand, decided to bury herself in work, sometimes going against rules and going deeper into the mountain and almost reaching the top where you can mostly view the whole Encanto and beyond. It wasn't that surprising to find more mountains and empty plains. The villages she dreamed of seeing could be farther away than where she stood, around two days walk she guesses.

"We shouldn't even be going up here, Carina. Everyone can literally see us from down there," Julio takes a huge amount of oxygen to fill his burning lungs, not used to hiking up here unlike his adventurous big sister. "Come on, we need to deliver this to tio Franco."

She pinches his cheeks, "Aren't you even curious for just a little bit? We're already half way up here, don't grow up too fast. You'll miss your youth as much as I do."

"We're going to be in real trouble if Señora Alma notices us."

"In this distance?," she chuckles, "Not a chance."Julio groans, stopping beside a coconut tree. This is his limits, he clearly doesn't want to have anything to do with hiking up the mountain. Carina smiles, walking a few steps down to give him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "You go on back to the village. I'll be fine going on my own."

"Tell me you're not planning on going over the other side."

The woman shrugs, "I won't."

Julio shakes his head, hurrying back down with the path they took. It's just her and the glaring sun right now, and it's not even high noon but the heat sure does make your skin feel like it's roasting. Carina climbs further up to the spot she usually comes to, somewhere that doesn't seem visible from the village. Everyone's too busy to notice her anyway.

'It's still as empty and vast as last time,' she sighs, hoping to finally see at least one lost soul wandering through it.

Thud*

Carina flinched upon hearing the ground shake near her. Looking to the left, she sees a half naked man, lying face down on the rocks and looks as if he's on the verge of death. She quickly looks back up to the skies, then to the man, seeing him now staring at her through his dirtied shaggy hair.

Carina turns away and clasps her hands together, praying with all her might that this is just a lone spirit of the dead and not actually a living being that is mere meters away from finding the village. 'This isn't real. This is just my imagination. I never noticed anyone climb up from the outside and he wasn't there before I got here. It might just be a growing effect from a possible heat stroke that I might have to seek Julieta for help later.'

"Hey," he spoke in a parched voice.

The woman almost bit her tongue in surprise. Carina looks his way as he struggled to move, if he's so frail then how did he even managed to get to this spot?

"Please.... Please, help me.."

She's at a lost for words and just smiled, nodding, then stands up, putting a great distance between them. "I'll see what I can do."

The man didn't answer back, seeing that it was no use since the woman already dashed down to the other side of the mountain.

"Gracias, niño. I've been waiting for your mamá's approval for this. The village will be pleased to have this new project built for Encanto," Haidi calls a member of the community to spread the news. As Alma's close friend from their former village, she's always handling things side by side with the same level of responsibility on behalf of the inner problems in the community.

Bruno rubs the back of his head, searching behind her through the doorframe. There's never a sign of Carina whenever he comes down to the village, not that he's not used to it anymore. He's downright determined to cope with his own anxieties by himself that he barely does any village chores anymore. One random question from random people can trigger a completely undesired flash of consequences that he sometimes doesn't realize he's awake. Even a slight tap on the shoulder would make him see things he didn't want to, leaving him in a complete mess.

The thing that ran up his back slightly tickled him, making Bruno release a few laughs. Haidi looks at him in question, but he only looked at her with a straight face, waiting to be dismissed. "Oh that's right, wait here for a moment while I wrap up some empanadas. I know your sister Julieta probably makes better ones, but could you please bring these home with you and tell Alma that the Castillo family would want an audience with her soon, regarding their son Félix."

He smiles, knowing for a fact that Félix will plan on courting the family for a marriage approval with Pepa, "Of course, tia. I'd be glad to." As he makes his way back to the casita, his hidden friend, Pito the rat climbs out of his sleeve to smell the empanadas. He made a tsked noise and held the basket to the other hand instead, "No, Pito. That's not for you. I'll share some of mine once we get back home."

For the days that he isolated himself, he finally found a friend he can say things he'd never confront anyone about. And the great thing is the rats don't talk, so he's free to be himself without expecting to be judged or endangering anyone. And by endangering, it meant seeing other's future and possibly blurting out something by accident, making another wrong decision in his already complicated life.

"Pst."

He didn't dare to turn, not expecting anyone to call out to him. Bruno immediately halts when he notices a black butterfly fly past his face. He crosses his fingers, breath caught in his throat, he wasn't such a superstitious man before, but bad luck brought him to depend on those for a while. Seeing as his life gets a little bit better, he continued doing it like it would eventually take away his gift once and for all and not bring trouble for anyone anymore.

"Pst. Over here."

Bruno's head snaps to the left to where the palm tree is, Carina hides behind it, looking very troubled. He rushes over, mostly feeling overjoyed to have seen her after so many days. "Carina? What are you doing here?"

She shushed him, looking around to see if anyone's noticed her. "I've got no time to explain. Can you please bring any food made by Julieta?"

"For what? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?" He checks around her joints to see if they're fine.

"No no no, it's not for me," she moves away, fixing her dress which is noticeably covered in dirt and itchy cogon. "It's.... It's kind of insurance. Maybe? Just help me out here."

"What?" he couldn't see why she'd want a healing food right now. Her mother seems healthy, and so is her brother, Julio.

She groans, face-palming, "I'm freaking out so bad."

Bruno places a hand on her shoulder to stop her,"Okay, if I get you an arepa that my sister made, will you tell me what's going on?"

"Yeah. Sure. Okay. Just please hurry."

"Alright. Hold him safe for me for a moment," he gets Pito out of his sleeve and hands it gently to her, "I'll be right back." Bruno rushes up the hill to deliver the empanadas to his mother and to go get the healing food.

Carina stares at the rat on her hands just as it is staring right back at her. She sighed, all surprises had already left from her after seeing that man on the mountain. Meeting Bruno's little friend is nothing compared to the shock she's going through right now.