Parto 1: La Vizitanto. 14: La Metalpolpo

Even after the footsteps had died away, the feeling of being watched lingered. I glanced around through the narrow gap between the wall and the pipes, but saw nothing. Somehow, that calm was even more unnerving.

Someone had been there. Who? What did they see? Gabino shivered, tucking the diary away.

“We can’t come here again,” they murmured. “Wait for a signal tomorrow.”

We left without another word. I drifted through the rest of the night in a haze. Medusa tried to break through, their voice gentle with concern, but their words felt distant, muffled. I gave short, distracted answers, desperate to be left alone with my thoughts.

The next day, I found three pencils forming an arrow on the floor of La Kerno, just outside Ĉelo Kvar. They pointed to a large potted plant.

A few minutes later, Gabino came from outside. They glanced towards the garden, signaling me to follow them.

“What took you so long?” they whispered.

The previous day’s theatrics were gone, replaced by a quiet seriousness. They started walking, and I hurried to catch up.

“And why are your hands dirty?” They asked me.

“I was searching the pot for the clue!” I replied, whispering too.

“Clue? What clue?”

“The one inside the pot! The arrow pointed to the pot!”

“No, it didn’t! It pointed outside! I’ve been waiting for hours!” they continued.

We entered the small forest that ran against the walls of La Nesto

“Look, it pointed to the pot,” I said. “Unless… wait. Which vertex of the triangle should I follow, then?”

“The point where yellow and blue join, of course, because that makes it green!” Gabino said, as if explaining the simplest of concepts.

Had we switched roles in our comedy routine?

“Can we stop using triangles?” I asked. “Next time just leave a pointy rock or something, please.”

We reached a fallen tree, its hollow trunk our new blind spot. Gabino looked eager to open Arakil’s sketchbook, but I stopped them.

“Before we start,” I said. “Two things. First, whoever was watching us yesterday…”

Gabino smirked, full of themselves.

“That’s why I chose this place. Nobody can outrun me here. Not even Daidek.”

I couldn’t argue. They were the current champion of the obstacle course.

Before they started ranting about Daidek, I took out the message that Medusa had deciphered.

“And this says ‘don’t tell anyone’,” my finger ran above the words. “I guess that includes everyone in La Nesto, but there must be an exception. Someone that was supposed to find this. But who?”

“I don’t know, but maybe there’s a way to find out. In the diary!” Gabino said, a mix of impatience and sarcasm in their voice. They gave me the sketchbook.

I went through it, looking for something important. It contained a lot of sketches, some of them just doodles, other things I wasn’t sure. Some pages had a series of letters or symbols, ready to be deciphered.

And, on almost every page, I noticed the presence of three circles. They varied in scale, some small and unobtrusive, others so large they dominated the entire page. I stopped for a moment on the page with the message to look at them. Mulling over the potential significance of these omnipresent circles, I continued to skim through the remaining pages.

Then I found a folded page near the end. I unfolded it.

My hands trembled, and the sketchbook slipped to the ground.

It laid open, revealing a sketch. Three red circles inside a metal dome. On its side a limb, a tentacle, finishing in a hand with three fingers.

“What is it?” asked Gabino. “Are you alright?”

I nodded, my eyes fixed on the drawing.

“This is the thing I saw when Arakil left. La Metalpolpo. It was real…”

Gabino picked up the diary, their expression shifting from curiosity to alarm.

“Are you sure? It doesn’t even look like an octopus! It has just one hand, and why would it have three eyes?… And we agreed it was just a dream!”

“Maybe Arakil couldn’t finish the drawing or they just saw one of its tentacles.” I looked at Gabino, pleading. “I know what I saw, Gabino.”

“Okay, okay… let’s say this thing is real. Then what is it?”

I thought for a moment. We had seen nothing like that in our books.

“I don’t know. Something from La Granda Ekstero…”

“But what’s it doing here?” Gabino pressed the issue. “And you said the thing was holding Arakil, but Arakil was already gone. So?”

They were right, of course, but I had a certainty I couldn’t explain with words.

“Maybe that part was a fever dream? I don’t know…” I tried to find something that made sense. “But then, how would you explain Arakil seeing the same thing?”

“It can’t be,” Gabino whispered, more to themselves than to me. “If that thing is real…” They stopped, their brow furrowed. “Listen.”

I couldn’t hear anything, but Gabino sprinted out of the hole. I followed the sounds of a struggle a short distance away. There, I found Gabino pinning someone to the ground.

“Kanako! Help!” a familiar voice came from under Gabino.

“Lost something, Osiris?” asked Gabino.

“Can’t… breathe,” Osiris gasped.

Gabino shifted to their side, maintaining their hold. I sighed, relieved. It was just Osiris. They must have seen us hiding and gotten curious. Still, I felt like I should confirm it.

Gabino dragged them to the hollow log, and we started the questioning.

“Why are you following us?” I demanded.

“A message…” They took a moment to catch their breath. “From Arakil.”

Gabino released them, their eyes wide. I stood frozen.

“Arakil said…” Osiris looked at me. “If you found something of theirs, I should help you with it. I assume it’s the diary.”

“Help me?… Decipher it?”

“Yes.”

“What else did Arakil say?” asked Gabino.

Osiris glanced at Gabino, then back at me.

“I was supposed to talk only to you, Kanako.”

“We found a drawing of La Metalpolpo, do you know anything about it?” I asked them.

“No, sorry.”

“And why have you been following us in secret?” pressed Gabino, their voice rising. “Couldn’t you just tell us?”

Osiris hesitated.

“Gabino knows already,” I said. “They’re part of this.”

Osiris stared at me for a moment, then looked at Gabino. They nodded, as if acknowledging their presence for the first time.

“I didn’t follow you before now.”

“What about the other times? Behind the heating unit?” insisted Gabino.

“That wasn’t me…” Osiris looked around, then lowered their voice. “Arakil warned me about something they called ‘La Vizitanto.’ They said it operates in the shadows.”

Gabino looked at me, as if asking me what to do. I nodded. It was Arakil’s diary, so it made sense to follow their will.

We showed the sketch of La Metalpolpo to Osiris. They stared at it for a while.

“Yes. La Vizitanto. I’ve seen signs of it. It’s small and fast. Almost impossible to catch.”

“I saw it too,” I said. “But it wasn’t small at all, it was taller than an instruisto.”

“Then you must have seen one of the larger ones,” Osiris rushed to reply. “I don’t think even Arakil saw one of those.”

Gabino sighed. Perhaps they had come to accept La Metalpolpo as real.

“It’s been too long. We need to go,” they said, standing up.

“We can’t stay hidden long,” said Osiris. “I will tell you more tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. Tomorrow we would start to unravel the mysteries Arakil had left behind. Tomorrow we would have their help, even if they were in La Granda Ekstero. The thought brought a smile to my face.

And so, we came out of the forest having gained a new ally and a ton of new questions.