The Madrigal Fox

You're Here...

Alma and Mrs. Guzmán were the only two speaking, the rest of the table sat in awkward silence.

Oliver pushed his food around, picking at it. He wasn't all that hungry. When he glanced up, Dolores was whispering to Camilo who started to change at random before eventually getting stuck on a messed up version of his own face.

The fox boy was quick to raise a hand to cover his mouth, trying not to laugh and catch the attention of the others at the table.

The information continued to be passed down until it reached Pepa who immediately tried to calm herself down despite the cloud growing above her head.

"So, Miriano, I heard you plan on proposing to my cousin?" Oliver stuttered out as all the attention immediately went to him. He immediately regretted trying to pull the attention away from his thundering aunt but Mirabel needed more time before Alma found out.

"Yes, however, I wanted to play a song first." Miriano smiled at the younger male. It made the boy pause for a moment before laughing nervously.

"Well," Mirabel quickly spun Isabela's chair as her cousin continued to speak. "It is a family tradition to sing after the proposal so get on with it."

Oliver tried to smile back at the boy that was supposed to marry his cousin, hiding his teeth and making his smile look more strained than he intended.

The older boy hardly got to propose before chaos erupted, small rodent animals exposing the vision Mirabel found while she desperately tried to cover up Casita cracking and falling apart.

"What is going on here?!" Alma shrieked, quickly standing up to look at her family for an explanation.

"Mirabel found Bruno’s vision. She’s in it. She’s gonna destroy the magic and now, we’re all doomed!" Dolores spoke quickly, clearly panicking.

"It wasn't a perfect vision, nothing is set in stone!" Oliver quickly tried to intervene, though he seemingly went unheard.

"What did you do?" Alma glared down at Mirabel.

"She didn't do anything wrong!" Oliver cried, yet once again he went unheard.

"I’m not doing anything! It’s Bruno’s vision! It’s…" The soft squeaking of rats cut her off, bringing both her and Oliver's attention down to a couple of rats rushing off with the vision shards.

The two quickly rushed after the small rodents, ignoring Alma's call for her youngest granddaughter.

It soon lead them to a painting where the rats quickly climbed inside, the two cousins following close behind. Once inside they saw a figure picking up the small creature, Oliver shying behind his cousin as all nine tails sprung out from behind him, each lighting up with bright purple flames.

The figure seemed to stop and stare at them for a single moment, their eyes lingering on the older boy for a moment longer than he felt comfortable.

When the figure turned to run, Mirabel ran right after it, ignoring her cousin's plea to stay.

Oliver sighed and quickly rushed after them, his tails swaying nervously. When he finally caught up to Mirabel, she was dangling over a large hole in the ground, her only means of hanging on slowly breaking.

The flames on the boy's tail grew in size as he panicked, desperately jumping over to the other side.

"It's okay, I got you. Just hold a second, okay?" Mirabel nodded slowly as the boy grabbed her arm.

"Give me your other hand, I promise I won't let you fall." He smiled at her, ignoring how she flinched at the sight of his sharp teeth.

Mirabel slowly lifted her arm up to grab his free hand, frightened tears slipping from her eyes. He pulled her up slowly, ignoring the cracking sound that came from the wood under him.