𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄 | 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝘅 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲. 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳

"𝘁𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿"

𝘆/𝗻'𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘃
𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗼𝗼𝗻....

"Before Tío Bruno left, he had some terrible vision about it. No one knows what was in it, they never found it. But if something's wrong with the magic, start with Bruno's tower. Find that vision. But be careful."

Those were Luisa's words of advice to Mirabel and I. As much help as she could give us. Now, Mirabel and I were sneaking into Bruno's tower without anyone else knowing. Great.

We entered through the old, creaky door and found a wall of endlessly falling sand. Mirabel touched it and said "Casita....can you turn off the sand?"

The tiles outside the door moved up and down.

Mirabel frowned. "You....can't help in here?" The tiles made some more noises. "We'll be fine....We need to do this." Mirabel assured Casita. "For you, for Abuela....and maybe a little for me...." she mumbled the last part.

"Yup." I agreed, putting my hands on my hips. "And I am going to help."

Mirabel and I walked into the sand together, letting out small screams as we fell. We landed in a large pile of sand and rolled down to the bottom.

My stomach dropped when I looked up and saw an extremely tall canyon with hundred of stairs leading to the top. You've got to be getting me.

"Wow...." Mirabel breathed from beside. The both of us were distracted by a small toucan landing on a nearby rock. "Oh hello...."

"Lot of stairs." she mumbled. "But at least we'll have a friend." I tried to lighten the mood, gesturing to the toucan. It got up and flew up the canyon, leaving us behind. "Nope. It flew away immediately." I told her.

Mirabel groaned and I followed suit as we both started up the stairs. It was gonna be a long day....

After hours of climbing, we finally reached the top, groggily pulling ourselves up. But we only groaned again when we saw a cliff before us. There was an empty space where a bridge had once been, but now there was no way to the other side, which was an entrance to a dark stone cave. The toucan waited mockingly on the other side.

"It's okay. We can do this." Mirabel took part of a rope connected to a wooden pole- probably part of the missing bridge- and swung it up, lodging the pole in the ceiling and letting the rope dangle.

"I'll throw it back when I get to the other side." Mirabel promised. She clung onto the rope and shrieked as she swung, her feet touching the ground on the other side.

The toucan squawked as she threw the rope back to me. I caught it and took a deep breath before swinging to the other side. I barely made it when the ground cracked and fell beneath me. Thankfully, Mirabel grabbed my arms and pulled me up.

"Okay...." I breathed heavily. "Let's go."

We entered the cave, the toucan hopping on my shoulder as I stroked its back.

The only light in the cave was coming from the door. It lit up the stone walls, which had engraving of creepy people on them. Rats squeaked and scurried along the ground and a shiver went up my spine. The toucan's beak chattered as it hid under my hair.

A circular door at the end of the hall creaked and moved a little. It was half open and I could only see dark beyond.

Done with it, the toucan jumped off my shoulder and flew out of the cave. "Quitter!" Mirabel called after it. I watched it go and thought: wow I wish that was me....

We opened the door fully, allowing a single ray of light into the dark, circular room. It was completely bare. I groaned in complaint and Mirabel mumbled "Empty...."

"Aw no...." I said as the door shut itself behind us, making the room pitch black.

My eyes widened in surprise, though, when glowing green fragments shone from beneath the sand. Mirabel got down on her knees to dig and I did the same.

"What's hurting the magic?" Mirabel muttered, examining the glowing green broken glass.

"I don't think it's gonna answer you." I pointed out. She made a face at me before we both began to dig up more pieces.

Mirabel was able to fit two pieces together, proving that it was like a puzzle. They were all like one big picture that needed to fit together. But I began focusing on something Mirabel hadn't noticed yet; the stone was rattling.

"Mirabel...." I said warningly.

"Me?" the girl mumbled, holding a piece of glass that showed her.

"Yes you! We have to get out of here!" I shouted with panic. We began grabbing all of the glowing pieces and quickly stuffing them into Mirabel's bag as the entire cave shook.

Mirabel barely managed to grab the last glass piece when I grabbed her arm and yanked her away from a falling rock. We climbed over a wall of sand that was forming in front of the door and barley managed to force it open.

When it opened, it was like a river of sand and the two of us rode it out of the cave and to the edge of the cliff. We lay on the ground outside, trying to calm out ragged breathing.

To put it simply, Mirabel and I got out of Bruno's room much quicker than we got in. We were in a hurry to be rid of the dreadful place and went as fast as we could.

Once we exited through Bruno's door, we found Abuela. She immediately began questioning us, but was interrupted by Luisa coming up the stairs.

"My gift!" she cried. "I'm losing my gift! Mirabel and I were having this little talk about me carrying too much. So, I tried not to carry so much, but I realized it was putting me behind. And I knew I was gonna let everyone down. And I felt really bad, and so I was grabbing all the donkeys, but when I went to throw the donkeys in the barn, they were....heavy!"

Luisa cried louder and stomped away to her room, slamming the door.

"What did you do? What did you say to her?" Abuela questioned Mirabel. "Nothing! I-" Mirabel was cut off from defending herself by Abuela's stern tone. "Mirabel." She checked the time and sighed. "I have to go to the Guzmans for Isabela's engagement. Stay away from Luisa until I can talk to her. Tonight, we can't have anymore problems. And whatever you're doing, stop doing it!"

Abuela went down the stairs and called up one last thing. "And quit dragging Y/N into trouble, Mirabel!"