Outside the Encanto

Visions for the Strong Hearted

You sit up, launching sand everywhere. You cough and spit, for sand has made its way into your mouth. Mirabel somehow escaped swallowing sand but now has it in her eyes. After a minute of recomposing, you take in the setting.

First off, sand. Sand is everywhere. All around you is just sand. A hand with its index finger pointing upwards says "Your future awaits," among a mass of hundreds, maybe thousands of stairs.

One of Antonio's toucans fly into the room and perch itself onto a rock next to you.

"Oh hello!" Mirabel exclaims. You've never seen a person so excited over a bird. "A lot of stairs.. but at least I'll have a friend-" the bird takes off towards the sky. "Nope.. he flew away immediately." She sighs.

"Hello? I'm still here." You say, annoyed.

"Do you really think of me as a friend?" Mirabel shoots at you. You stay silent. "That's what I thought."

So there's a clear boundary line. You get the answers you want, and in doing so Mirabel gets help to save her family. No connections are made, this is simply a matter of business.

"Alright." Mirabel says, adjusting her bag.

Do you even need to explain the stair situation? You did a lot better than Mirabel did, you can say that. For maybe an hour you climbed those stairs, forcing yourselves higher and higher. Mirabel had started singing something about her family, and you just thought about Papa watching you, saying how the pain only makes you stronger. By the time you reached the top, you knew you needed to rest.

"Aaaaaah!" Mirabel moaned. "Come on.."

You look over the top of the stairs and see a huge drop off. Mirabel took a piece of railing and flung it over onto a rock, and tightened it.

"What are you doing? I'll just carry us over using the wind." You say, and you know there's judgement in your voice. You do as you said you would, but Mirabel had other plans.

"I'll be fine. Just you wait." She calls, and gets ready to jump. "Okay.. I can do this.. ooh.." she shudders.

You were very impressed. Her swing wasn't too good, but Mirabel made it across.

"Hah!" She stomps her foot, and you just manage to wrap your arm around her waist and pull back before a good sized chunk of rock falls out from under her feet. You watch it descend, and wince when it hits the ground. You happen to notice the toucan watching it with you.

"Thanks." She gets out.

You enter a tunnel towards another room, one which is the strangest to you. Rock carvings of Bruno's face are everywhere, along with broken pots. Mice scurry around your feet, into rock Bruno's nose. The door we are heading towards opens ever so slightly. The toucan flies away.

"Quitter!" Mirabel yells.

You enter the room, although she catches up to you in no time. You're now in a rock dome, with boulders in the sides, carvings in the floor, and a sand pit in a perfect circle. You feel a gust of wind coming from behind me, and you turn to see the door shut on you. You're now trapped in Bruno's room.

You turn back towards the sand pit. Little green lights are coming out of it, giving the room a translucent lighting feel. The temperature drops ten degrees, and I give an involuntary shiver. You look around again, and do not see any means of escape. Mirabel has begun digging up the lights, finding glowing shards of green light. You begin to do the same. You piece together four, which look like the outside of La Casa Madrigal.

In front of you, the walls begin to crack. As you look around, tons of cracks appear. Mirabel is putting together three pieces.

"Me.." she whispers. Sand begins to fall on the pieces.

"Mirabel! Get the rest of the shards!" You command. You run beside her and put my four pieces in the bag. You stand, and use your earth manipulation to try and contain the cracking, to hold up as much as you can before it suffocates you both. Mirabel is struggling to get the last piece, as more and more sand piles on top of it. You hold up the sand, stopping the flow, and she reaches her arm deep into the sand.

"I got it! Let's go!" She yelled, now racing for the door. You back towards her slowly, holding up as much sand as you can. She's furiously banging at the door, unable to open it. You worry now, not for you, but for her. What if she dies here? The question repeats in your head, because although you'll never admit it, you think of her as a friend. Although she won't admit it, she does too. The rocks crumble around you, taking up more and more of the air you need to breath. You've backed all the way to Mirabel, and you're both chest deep in the sand. You're screaming for help, but of course nobody hears you. Even if Dolores could hear you, she'd never get here in time. Mirabel is now choking on the sand, and despite your best efforts, is being pulled under.

Then you see it. Your last hope. Although your body is pressed against the door, you use what little strength you have to make the sand push into the door handle, just enough to release you in an avalanche of sand. The two of you practically skate along, and stop just at the edge. You immediately pull back, away from the cliff, but Mirabel just lays there.

Suddenly you are afraid she's going to die. Not like a simple thought, like in the cave, but reality. You drag her from the edge and clean away all the sand you can. You breath in for only a second, then stick my fingers into her mouth and down her throat. As disgusting as it is, it triggers her gag reflex, forcing her to rid her body of ingested sand and anything else she might've swallowed. Tears well up in her eyes, along with yours.

You wrap one arm around her waist, she placed her arm around your shoulder. Both of you weak, you barely hobble down the steps.

You re-enter the nursery, and collapse onto Mirabels bed. Shaking, you hold hands. Casita forms a makeshift bed for you, and you don't question it. You simply lay down, not bothering to change out of the sand filled clothes.

Not another word was spoken that night.