Bonita

Ch. 1 - The Storm

~Luisa's POV~
(Word count: 768w)
(Warnings: None)

It was the morning after the big storm, and the first thing that I got was a lecture from Abuela for not moving the bridge yesterday during my chores. "I'm sorry Abuela. By the time I got around to it, it was dark and mamá was calling me for dinner." I stated as I moved the piano for the second time today already. "Well go out now and fix it before the whole encanto floods." My Abuela was so dramatic sometimes. I finished helping clean up after breakfast and left to go see what needed done today. I walked out and could easily see a lot of damage done. The storm was needed for the crops but sometimes I wish it didn't always bring down so many trees and boulders.

"Luisa the donkeys got out!" I heard Osvaldo yell from out of my view. "On it! Just gotta fix these trees out of the way!" I started picking up a bunch of the trees to try and break down later for the fire pit in the town. I could see the donkeys milling about eating what plants had been swept down by the rain. Once I sat the logs down I started my round of picking up the donkeys, knowing well that this would be the first of many times of moving them today due to Osvaldo not just fixing his fence. I continued on with cleaning up from the storm when I finally got around to moving the bridge to try and level the river water. The water had risen a fair amount and I started to feel guilty for not just missing dinner last night, I should have just taken care of it then before the storm hit.

I checked around to make sure nobody was nearby as I didn't want the water to overflow and take anybody down with it. Once I could see the coast was clear, I lifted the bridge to move it to a better spot, after I got it moved I could see mirabel walking over. "I've got a lot of chores mirabel, so I can't talk for long." I say with my hands on my hips so she understands I'm busy. "Yeah yeah I know sis, I just wanted to see if I could help, I don't have training with Abuela today." She said smiling at me, even though she had done more than enough to prove herself to the family, she still tried to help all of us do chores, that being whenever she didn't have training with our Abuela, she was to be the next candle holder in the family.

"You can help by picking up whatever limbs and rocks you can lift, any wood goes to the fire pit, and put the rocks in the pile I've got over there, I'll figure out where to put them later." Her smile widened and she started to move whatever wood she could. I knew having her help would almost take me longer than just doing it myself but I couldn't tell her no, she truly does just want to help. A couple hours passed of us picking up when we heard mamá calling us for lunch. We went back to casita to eat, only about half the family joined, but they all had their own chores to do for the day anyway. "Luisa, did you get it rerouted?" Ah Abuela again "Yes I did Abuela, Mira also helped assist me in picking up a lot of the limbs and rocks." She nodded and moved on. Dios mío could this day get any more boring, most of my days are pretty mundane since it's all the same stuff I did the days before, but today seemed to be especially long and dull.

After eating I went back out to make sure the water had fully leveled, and to see whatever the water dragged in, I knew all the spots that would flood by heart, so naturally I checked there first. I walked down the tree line of where the river sat, keeping an eye out for anything that may get in the way of the water or any animals that may have gotten caught up. I got halfway done when I spotted something in the water, I couldn't see it very clearly but it looked big enough to cause a blockage so I started my way down to get it out, I stopped dead in my tracks and felt my breath catch, there wasn't an animal in the river, there was somebody in the river, and it didn't look good.