Mirabel's Doppelganger

Chapter 18: Psychic Powers

I giggled as Mirabel firmly grabbed Bruno's arm to stop him from leaving the room. He seemed to give up and Mirabel all but dragged him further into the jungle making the executive decision to continue before Bruno tapped out .

Camilo and I shared a glance and he shrugged his shoulders before speed walked after Antonio and the other two who where walking with purpose towards a large open area in the room.

"Okay seriously though Mirabel," Camilo asked as he caught up to them, "What happened? And what are we doing,"

She sighed, "I found a secret passage in the wall, ran into Tio Bruno and eventually we talked about the vision. We need a big open space so he can have another vision to hopefully see more!"

Antonio chuckled as he trailed behind walking beside me. "She left out the part where Bruno ran away and she chased him causing them both to almost fall into a pit." He told me under his breath so the others didn't hear.

I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from bursting out laughing again. That definitely sounded like Mirabel, and from what I had seen of Bruno, it sounded about right on his side as well.

"Wait I just realized something." Camilo said with a chuckle, "Dolores could hear you all this time couldn't she? I thought she was crazy."

"Yes." Bruno smiled fondly. "She likes my telanovelas, especially the romance ones."

It seems Bruno liked Dolores a lot more than her gorgeous but apparently annoying brother I thought with a chuckle.

Movement caught my eye and looking to my left I saw a coatis carrying a jar that was almost as big as he was. Antonio quickened his steps and nodding his head in thanks took the burden from the little guy.

Turning towards Bruno he held out the jar carefully in front of him, "The rats told me you like to use sand, so we got you a jar of it."

Bruno stepped forward awkwardly and took the jar from Antonio suspiciously, before peaking inside. Having deamed it good enough, he set it to the side and started clearing a large circle area of debris.

I shrugged and moved to help him, the three of us, including Mirabel quickly cleared the area as Antonio and Camilo stood out of the way. The was one stubborn Capybara who refused to move. Bruno shook his head quickly to stop me when I tried to move it and it seemed to become agitated.

Once the area was clear Bruno took the jar and started pouring out the sand in an almost perfect circle. Mirabel and I sat in the circle, as I had decided to see the vidon first hand. When I motioned to Camilo to come into the circle he shook his head and smiled.

Antonio had apparently offered to give him a tour of the room by jaguar back. I snorted and shook my head but smiled regardless, of course Camilo would prefer that.

Mirabel was getting antsy, "You might want to hurry up."

Bruno paused his sand pouring for a moment as if to see if she was serious before continuing, "You can't hurry the future!"

He took a step around the rouge capybara and decided to just go around it with the sand circle.
He gathered some piles of leaves into a bigger pile in the center of the circle surrounded by four smaller piles surrounded by sand circles. Finishing up he shooed away some coatis and sat down cross-legged.

"What if I see something worse? If I show you something you don't like you're gonna be all, "Bruno makes bad things happen. Oh he's creepy, and his vison killed my goldfish." "

I snorted, "We don't think you make bad things happen, bad things just happen to be more important to see ahead of time then happy things. So of course you would see more bad than good"

Mirabel shrugged in agreeably, "Sometimes family weirdos just get a bad rep. You can do this!"

Bruno looked like he wasn't so sure he could.

Antonio reached into the circle and handed Bruno a stuffed jaguar that looked handmade. Most likely Mirabel's handiwork from the looks of it.

Antonio's seemed to smile knowingly, "For the nerves." The jaguar beside him growled in agreeance as Antonio gestured for Camilo to climb up onto his back.

Camilo shifted into a kid who looked suspiciously like himself but smaller before he climbed aboard. He must have wanted to make the jaguars burden a little less. That knowledge made me smile.

He seemed to have done that small kindness without much thought but there were plenty who would never have thought to do something so simple to help someone else. Especially an animal that would have managed either way.

Camilo smiled wide and looking over at me graced me with a wink in his kid form before Antonio jumped aboard and they were off.

We watched as they leaped out of veiw before Bruno took a deep breath.

"I can do this. I can do this." He whispered to himself before taking another steadying breath.

Out of his ruana he grabbed a handful of white stuff, it looked like either salt or sugar and threw it over his left shoulder behind him.

Lighting a match with the flick of his wrist he held it up to eye level seeming to become entranced by the flame before he snapped out of it and cupping his hand lowered it down to the center pile of leaves setting it on fire.

Shaking out the match flame he picked up a branch from the pile of leaves and used it to light the other four piles around it.

As he lit the last one a strong breeze flew through the area blowing leaves around.

It seemed to blow in a circle around the drawn sand circle.

Bruno took a breath and closed his eyes as he centered himself. When his eyes opened they were glowing a bright green.

It took a second to get over the shock but he held out his hands to us and Mirabel and I shootched in closer.

"You might want to hold on." He said calmly, we looked at each other before reaching out, each of us grabbing one of his hands, while holding each others tightly.

He seemed to nod firmly to himself before closing his eyes again. And as he did so the sand around us flew upwards into a spinning tornado surrounding us as it glowed with green light matching Bruno's eyes.

With wide eyes I glanced over and noticed the capybara sitting calmly watching us also inside the circle looking entirely unbothered.

Looking back at Bruno I saw him open his eyes and gasped when from the spinning sand around us scenes began to form.

First came a candle on a windowsill breaking. In what I assume was the magic candle. Then came the town and mountains cracking in two, while someone saved Antonio from a falling peice of wood.

Everything was flashing by so fast I was only able to catch some bits and peices.

Then came Mirabel standing in front of a both cracking and fine Casita that went back and forth moment to moment exactly how the prophecy we found had shown.

Bruno suddenly let go of our hands covering his head in frustration.
"It's just- it's just the same thing! I gotta stop-"

Mirabel interrupted him, "No! I need to know which way it goes! There has got to be an answer, something we aren't seeing."

From the corner of my eye I caught movement and turned my head to see what was moving, only barely hearing Bruno's reply in the process.

Out of the gloom appeared a golden butterfly.

"THERE! Over here!" I yelled interrupting Bruno.

They both turned to be and I pointed frantically towards the glowing butterfly as it continued to fly through the sand storm.

"Butterfly! Follow the butterfly!" Bruno said urgently as we started to walk in the direction it was flying towards.

"Where is that?" Mirabel asked as an image flashed across the area in front of us.