Chapter Text
The Faerie had been fascinated to find such a marvelous haven in the middle of Columbia. It spent months trying to get in, the pesky magic was keeping it out. Finally it found a hole, tearing it big enough to slide through. Grinning a wicked toothy grin the Faerie ran through the woods eager to explore this new paradise and learn this strange magic that kept it hidden.
It found the human village and slunk through, avoiding iron as it went. It found the house on the hill that seemed to live and tried to enter only to be thrown out, quite literally. The house made it very clear it would not let it in, which was annoying because the source of the strange magic was inside and never left.
The old woman kept it inside where it couldn’t reach. It growled in frustration. But something changed. One of the women of the home had a baby. She kept him in a non magic room, with a window.
It figured if it couldn’t explore the source of this magic, it would experiment with one of the blessed in the home. The house was busy all day, tired from helping the woman and all the other children inside. The baby was left unguarded, no iron to protect him.
It knew the blessed of the household wouldn’t take well to it taking one of their young ones. So it made a little replacement. It twisted roots and bark together to make a little face, vines made up muscle and stone for fingernails. Hollow eyes that lit up as it breathed life into the changeling.
The Faerie threw magic out to grab the already tired house and shove it down. The house fought against its magic, thrashing as it tried to break free. It knew that its magic wouldn’t last long against the house so it rushed through the window. Setting the changeling down in the cradle it changed, hair turning from vines and leaves to auburn curls. Bark turned to skin, making the changeling a perfect copy of the baby in the cradle.
But before the Faerie could pick up the actual baby the house suddenly surged, a new wave of power breaking through the chains it had captured the house in. It screamed as it was thrown out of the room and out into the house's courtyard. Furniture and stones shot towards them crashing into the Faerie.
Desperately it tried to escape trying to dive out the door, but the magic that protected the town was unhappy that it had tried to steal one of its blessed and it burned in golden flame until there was nothing but a pile of ash that the house shoved out the door, a warning to all wicked fae.
Upstairs the baby and the changeling whined before sitting up. It was supposed to replace the baby next to it but the faerie who made it managed to fuck that up well enough. It looked at the boy and huffed in frustration.
“Shh… Isa we’re not supposed to be awake.” Someone whispered and the changeling dropped back down so as to not give away its true nature.
“I wanna check on him, Casita was freaked out and Tia and Tio need to sleep.” Someone else said. The door cracked open and a head of long straight hair poked in.
“Primito?” She said, as if the baby would respond.
The straight haired girl stepped in and a smaller girl with curls followed her as they peered into the cradle, gasping at the sight of a second baby. The changeling blinked up at them.
“There's two?” The straight haired girl, didn’t the other call her Isa?
“Can babies multiply?” The younger one asked.
“No. This is weird.” Isa reached down to pick up the changeling since it was the one awake. “Primito?”
Blinking at the new people the changeling felt the magic that changed their appearance to shift. It took a mix of their features, warm brown skin and dark curls. The girls gasped one again at the changing baby. The changeling babbled at them to get their attention back on it- her?
“Babies can shapeshift?” the little one said. “That is so cool!”
“Luisa, I think this is something unique to this baby.” Isa said holding the baby like her tia had taught her. “Where did you come from?”
The changeling just babbled at her again and stuck a hand in its mouth, getting used to the feeling of skin. They all just sat there for a while.
“Isabella, we should tell mami.” Lusia told her.
Isabella nodded, “It’s almost morning anyways. She’ll be awake to make breakfast soon. Can you go wake Abuela and Tia?”
Lusia nodded and the two got up, Isabella going to their mothers door as Luisa got their Abuela.
“Mija? What’s up?” Augustin asked, before catching sight of the infant in her arms. “Where’d you get that..?”
“She was in Camilo’s cradle.” She said holding the baby up for him to see. “She was just there with him.”
“Umm…” They left the room as the other members of the family rose to gather in the nursery. Pepa scooped up her son after ensuring he was okay. Tio Bruno wasn’t there but that was because no one wanted to make him walk down all the stairs before he had too. They’d just have to catch him up to speed later.
Abuela had Isabella and Luisa explain how they found the baby and Castia confirmed their story. When questioned about how the baby got there the house remained silent though. Eventually though they decided that if no one said anything about a missing baby then she could stay with them. Julieta and Augstin had wanted another child anyways, and their hijas were overjoyed to have another baby sister. Pepa and Felix were both happy that their son would have someone his age in the family and Dolores was enamored by the strange child.
Alma didn’t know how to feel about randomly appearing babies but they had a duty to the Encanto and that included no child being abandoned and unloved. Bruno though…
“I know what you are.” He said to the little girl he was holding. “You aren’t fooling me pequino hada. You may look all cute but I know what you are. You better not be malicious, or I threw out all the iron in the house for nothing.”
“Bruno, stop threatening Mirabel.” Juliet said, rolling her eyes at her brother. “But mi hija down and come eat.”
“You win this round, Hadita.” He told the baby putting her back in her cradle next to Camilo.
After the door to the nursery closed the baby sat up and looked at Camilo who just stared at her. “He’s gonna give me away at this rate.” She told him.
Silly human. She wasn’t going to harm anyone. After all they were her family now, they were hers. And she protected what was hers. She liked her name too. Mirabel, Wondrous.
“Welcome to the family I guess.” The ghost who hung around the candle told her. “I’m glad to have another nieta.”
The baby shrugged before rolling over. Perks of being a baby, she could sleep whenever she wanted. Being a baby was awesome.