Change Can Be Good - Encanto Fanfic

Chapter 5

Running, hiding, just trying to stay alive.

That's how Camilo felt as the thick of the night approached him and the land. Only the moonlight shed some traces of visibility for him. He began to panic, however, when the clouds overtook the sky and rain began to lash down.

He knew, deep down, why this was happening as someone was worried about him. Someone who controlled the weather itself.

His mother, Pepa.

~x~

"He's out there ALL alone!" She cried as she pointed out the window to the whirling storm before them.

"Please, Pepa!" Felix pleaded to her quickly, grabbing her hands and holding them tight, "If you panic, YOU'LL FLOOD THE AREA!"

The brunette woman took a few deep breaths in and out, in, out, and swallowed, closing her eyes and trying to think happy thoughts.

But those thoughts began to get construed and manipulated when she saw the mental image of Camilo huddled against a cave wall, her BABY out there! Helpless!

"Mama," Antonio said to her quietly, slowly approaching his mother and holding her hand, "He'll make it, he'll come back,"

It was Antonio who had told their parents. Dolores tried to keep him silent on the matter, but he disobeyed and did what his heart told him to do. To trust that with everyone knowing, Camilo would be found, whether as a boy... or a dog.

Pepa breathed out heavily at the touch of her son's hand in hers and she bit her bottom lip anxiously as the clouds slowly began to disperse and the moon shone on once again.

Mirabel was up in the nursery, only looking through her window in the deep of the night. The wind could be heard howling through the leaves in the forest far away and she knew with her own better knowledge that there was nothing she could do to help her cousin right now.

At least, not on her own.

She nodded her head and slowly crept across the room. She would find her cousin and scare him so hard he would bounce back into his original self and all would be well once again.

She hoped...

But right now, she needed help – and there was only one person who she knew could speak to creatures, not like herself.

~x~

Camilo was in a small indent against a mountainous wall. He quivered there, his doggy chocolate eyes looking out to the storm that was starting to clear away. He watched as stars slowly began to sprinkle across the canvas of the night sky, and the clouds gave way for the moon to show its light as well.

"Why was I such an arrogant fool?" He uttered to himself then, "Why did I feel like I had to prove something?" He wallowed in his own misery as he looked over his life and all the times he was confident, yet non the wiser.

He had been so many people, so many ages... taking on others' appearances and becoming them in seconds... why did he feel like he had to be an animal...? Let alone a dog?
But thinking that then, suddenly gave him an idea.

He was a dog, in both body and partly mind. He could use this to his advantage and he slowly got up on his shivering legs, walking away from the small cave and out to the forest. He sniffed the air silently, his eyes adjusting as best they could to the dark. He could do this...

He remembered when he had taken on the form of Mariano, and how confident he was in that man's body and image. He remembered the strength of the muscles, the assuredness in oneself.