Chapter Text
Sometimes you wish you could be free from this small village, be able to fly away like a bird. Not that it was bad by any means, it was lovely, but you always felt out of place. You always wanted that feeling of freedom and staying in the village was keeping you from that feeling ever so slightly.
Yet today you felt as if you were a bird forced into a cage. You found your papa had sold away your freedom without even telling you. He had arranged for you to marry the troublesome Madrigal son that you had always been told to steer clear of.
You hadn’t ever met the man, you may have known him a little in your youth, back when he wasn't considered "cursed", but other than that, he was a stranger. But of course, your father would never turn down the offer for his child to marry one of the amazing Madrigals. It would be the talk of the town, and he’d take the attention over your happiness any day. He was often like that ever since your mother left.
So, you did what you usually did when wanting an escape from life and rushed into the forest to find yourself alone and able to let out your frustrations to the trees.
“Unbelievable! He can’t be serious? Is he?” You begin to scream to yourself, pacing back and forth, “He hadn’t even proposed!”
This was completely unfair; you got no choice in this.
Your chances to fly from this village had faded, you were now a pigeon, unable to get far from where you’re from. A useless pigeon just stuck where you are. It made sense now how your mother used to always call you “Pigeon”. A silly nickname she liked to use, but now it felt as if she was telling the future.
After you could no longer pace around the forest floor from your legs growing tired, you found yourself picking at flower petals with your legs crossed in a sitting position. Your face is still painted with rage as you mutter to yourself.
“Typical,” you mumbled.
You tried to imagine what the man you were soon to marry looked like. Everyone claimed he was nothing but mischief and bad luck. You had sometimes seen him around the village, but you never saw his face, just a long green poncho that covered his tall frame. You had met his sisters before and maybe thought that he had some similar features to them. Maybe he had Pepa’s ginger hair? Or Julieta’s kind eyes?
Who knew? But it wouldn’t be long till you met the man in person, your papa was probably already setting up an engagement party with the Madrigals right now.
You held your face in your hands, you didn’t know what to do.
Squeak!
You peer down at your feet as you wipe the tears from your view to see a small rat looking right back at you.
“I probably look like a mess, don’t I?” You ask the small creature, resting your head on your knees as your arms curl around them.
Squeak.
You shook your head with a small laugh before looking off into the distance. Your face changes back to its present scowl.
“I don’t even know the guy!” You spoke, the rat not knowing a single thing you’re ranting about. “Papa’s only doing this because he probably wants some magical little grandchildren of his running around the place! Something else to make him feel better about himself. narcisista egoísta."
Your hands flail around as if you think using gestures will make the rat understand more. Instead, it just stares up at you. You look back at it and drop your head in surrender.
“Oh, what do you know? you’re a rat for goodness’ sake,” You mumble, letting out an annoyed huff.
SNAP!
Your head jolts up at the sound of a twig snapping. You peer around looking for the source of the noise before noticing the wide-eyed face looking at you through the bushes.
A man with dark curly hair framing his wide brown eyes stands there between the bushes, staring right at you awestruck. At first, he does nothing, the 2 of you staring shocked at one another, both lost in the other one’s gaze.
“I- er um… you… I… Bye!” Before he could even construct a full sentence or you could ask what he was doing, he fled.
What the hell?
“Who the hell was that?” You turned to ask the small rat but found that it too had run away.
Great, now you were alone with your thoughts again.
So instead, you pondered the question yourself, you had never seen that man in the village. How long was he standing there? Was he watching you? Who was he? To be fair, you didn’t get much of a good look at him to be sure.
All you could remember was his dark curly hair.