~💚~
Mirabel turns back to the House... to Bruno's tower.
On her way to Bruno's door, Mirabel sneaks past Isabela and Abuela who are talking about Isabela's arranged marriage to Mariano.
"Such a perfect match."
"So perfect."
"And so good for the Encanto."
Mirabel sneaks past the two and reaches Bruno's door. The young girl can tell no one's been in there for years... the door is dark and stiff, cobwebs and sand littering the entrance.
Mirabel lifts her hand to the knob, going to open the door.
"Mirabel?" A voice calls to her.
Mirabel jumps, spinning to face the person who had caught her.
"Nikolai~ uh, hi~" Mirabel stutters, trying to play cool.
"What are you doing?" Nikolai asks with slight aggression in his voice.
Mirable paused to think to herself for a second. How was she gonna get out of this? Nikolai hated people going near his father's door after what happened, and not only was it someone... it was Mirabel... the person his dad last tried to help before he left.
"I~ nothing, I'm not doing anything I was just~" Nikolai cut his cousin off.
"Come away from there... Abuela will have your head if she sees you..." Nikolai spoke with narrow eyes, closing the book in his hands as he watched his cousin with eagle eyes.
"Right of course..." Mirabel hopped down the steps, trotting off to her room.
Nikolai followed her movements before looking back up at the non-glowing portrait of his father... His eyes began to glow before he snapped his head away, stomping the few steps to his own tower door before entering and slamming the door shut.
Mirabel stuck her head out her bedroom door, making sure Nikolai was gone before heading back toward Bruno's door. She shoves open the door, revealing a dusty, dark anteroom. In front of her, sand spills in from above, creating a curtain she can't see beyond.
"Casita, can you turn off the sand?" Mirabel calls.
When nothing happens, Mirabel looks back where she can see the floor tiles as the doorjamb say "I cannot help beyond this point."
"You can't help in here?" She asks shocked.
The House responds "No... and I'm worried about you," after all, Mirabel has never been "without Casita's help.
"I'll be fine. I need to do this... for you, for Abuela... mmmm for me." She mutters to herself.
"Find the vision, save the mir-ack!" As Mirabel steps through the "sandfall" she falls.
Mirabel falls face-first and slides down a giant sand dune. She looks up to see she's in a towering room that widens to reveal a stone sign reading "Your Future Awaits," which points to the top of the cavern.
"Whoa..."
Hundreds of stairs lead up. As Mirabel looks up, one of Antonio's toucans flaps down next to her. It smiles and squawks.
"Oh, hello... Lotta stairs, but at least I'll have a friend~" Mirabel says, feeling better.
"~no, you flew away immediately." Mirabel watches it fly to the top. Mirabel grits her teeth and starts climbing.
"Alright."
"Welcome to the Family Madrigal..." Mirabel talk sings.
...
"~ there are so many stars in the Casa Madrigal..." Mirabel wheezes climbing slowly.
...
"~you would think there'd be another way to get so high cause were magic, but no~" Mirabel wheezes as she's on all fours.
"~magical, how many stairs fit in here! Bruno, your room is the worst!!" Mirabel cries out.
Later, Mirabel finally gets to the top of the stairs, only to find there is a gap in the path. She groans, exhausted. As Mirabel takes a breath... then removes a rope railing and throws it over a boulder above as an anchor.
"Okay, I can do this... Ooo~"
Mirabel goes to swing across, slips, and loses her balance, but... somehow makes it across. Stunned she succeeded, Mirabel pumps her fists
"Wooooo!" But as she stomps her foot to celebrate, the ledge below her cracks and plummets to the ground, nearly taking her with it.
She looks to the toucan, who looks at her, judgmental. Deciding celebration time is over, Mirabel turns to the entrance of Bruno's "temple." The corridors feel like a forgotten tomb. The toucan trails her, nervous. Mirabel looks around, focussing on a triptych of images depicting how Bruno's visions come to pass. As Mirabel investigates it she accidentally knocks over a pot. The rats startle Mirabel and scurry into a stone sculpture of Bruno on the wall. On closer inspection... Bruno's eyes have been scratched out. Disturbing. Mirabel hears a creak, which draws her eyes to... Bruno's "INNER SANCTUM." The toucan looks at Mirabel... turns around and flies away.
"Quitter!" Mirabel calls after it.
Mirabel enters the darkroom... there's an unusual circle of sand in the middle, but there is no sign of anything else. It's a dead end. Confused... she steps out onto the sand.
"Empty..."
The wind moving through the cavern sucks the door shut, plunging Mirabel into DARKNESS. Mirabel panics, stuck in the darkness... but then... a light. Something glowing green...she's standing on it... the sand itself seems to be glowing... Mirabel digs into the sand and finds... a glowing shard, of green glass similar to the color of Nikolai's eyes when he uses his gift. As Mirabel pulls more glowing emerald pieces from the sand, she realizes they form some kind of puzzle. She realizes this is Bruno's vision... smashed to pieces! Mirabel nervously connects the pieces to reveal herself...
"Me...?"
Suddenly... the entire cavern begins to shake, falling apart. Sand begins pouring in, covering the remaining shards underneath large mounds. Panicking, Mirabel tries to dig out the remaining shards and shove them into her bag as the cavern quakes and cracks snakes around the room. As pieces of stone and sand threaten to block the entrance...Mirabel races to collect one last piece, but as she dives to the door, it's locked! Mirabel bangs at it desperately and then... jiggles the handle. Whoosh! A tidal wave of sand pushes her out to safety, almost sending her over the cliff. Mirabel looks down at the shards... she has it, now she just has to figure it out...
Mirabel hurries out of Bruno's room and turns a corner, walking right into Abuela.
"Uch, where are you coming from in such a hurry?" Abuela asks.
"I'm sorry. I was~"
"What's in your hair?"
"Uh~" Mirabel stammers, shaking the sand from her hair.
Just as Abuela begins to look suspicious... crying interrupts them.
"My gift! I'm losing my gift!" Luisa comes up the stairs crying.
"What?!" Abuela gasps.
"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 felt really bad so I was grabbing all the donkeys but then when I went to throw the donkeys in the barn, they were... heavy!" Luisa runs off crying.
Abuela looks to Mirabel, concerned.
"What did you do? What did you say to her?" Abuela accuses Mirabel.
"Nothing. I - I don't~" Mirabel tried to defend herself.
Bells from town ring interrupting. Abuela looks away before down at her watch.
"Ach, I have to go get the Guzmans for Isabela's engagement... Stay away from Luisa until I can talk to her. Tonight we can't have any more problems. And whatever you're doing, stop doing it!" Abuela heads off.
Mirabel looks at Luisa's door which...flickers ever so slightly. Mirabel runs to her room and pulls out the shards of Bruno's vision, trying to understand. She looks at her face, confused.
"Why am I in your vision, Bruno?" A flash of lightning and thunder shake the room.
"Tía, jeez~" Mirabel sighs, coming down from her fright.
"Sorry, sorry, I- I didn't mean to --shoo, shoo, shoo," Pepa apologizes, shooing her thundercloud.
"I just wanted to get the last of Toñito's things, and then I heard "the name we do not speak," Pepa whispered before a rumble of thunder, and a cloud appeared over her head again.
"Great, now I'm thundering. And a thunder will lead to a drizzle and a drizzle will lead to a sprinkle~!" She panics.
"Clear skies, clear skies, clear skies..." Pepa tries to calm herself as she picks up a few of Antonio's remaining clothes from the room.
Mirabel looks at her before looking at the bag of shards.
"Uh, Tía Pepa... if Bru~" Mirabel starts but pauses as another cloud appears over her tias head.
"Uhh~ if he had a vision about "someone" what would it mean for them?" Mirabel rephrased.
"We don't talk about Bruno," Pepa stated.
"I know, it's just... hypothetically if he "saw" you~"
"Mirabel, please. We need to get ready for the Guzmans." Pepa turned to her niece.
"I just want to know if it was generally positive... or... likeless positive or~" Mirable continued.
"It was a nightmare!" Tio Felix burst into the room.
"Félix!" Pepa tried to hush her husband.
"Ey, she needs to know, Pepi~ She needs to know."
"We don't talk about Bruno."
"He would see something terrible, and then crack-ba-boom, it would happen!'
"We don't talk about Bruno!"
"What if you didn't understand what he saw?" Mirable asked worriedly.
"Then you better figure it out, because it was coming for you!"