The Red Rose

Chapter VI

Juan Pablo, or "Juanpi" as he's colloquially called, was one of my first online friends and a sort of mentor when it came to video games. We met when I was fourteen, playing online MOBAs, although he was never interested in playing competitively. He was very much like my father in many ways, but he loved both books and video games.

Juanpi lived in Austria with his wife, who comes from that country, and two children. They moved to Taltal, his hometown, for a while to relax from stress and spend the last days of his grandfather in the north. Juanpi had done hiking, motivated by his wife, in Styria years ago and had recommended the place to me. So, a significant part of the decision I made and everything that happened to me there might be partially his fault, although he had no idea.

While Juanpi worked in the computer field, he was passionate about cryptozoology, myths, and legends. He had studied history at the university in Valparaiso, although he couldn't finish it when he decided to move to Austria.

Whenever we chatted, he told me about strange matters and urban explorations he did with his cousin Sebastian, although Juanpi wasn't the most athletic person.

Due to our closeness, I told him everything about my powers, and he seemed to believe me, as he had been following the case of the Peuchen and now the Trauco. So, we agreed to create our Bestiary or what he calls "Fantastic Beasts," being a total geek for Harry Potter.

Juanpi talked more in-depth about the Alicanto mythical bird. In his history studies, he had chosen topics on legends and myths for the seminars given by his professors, and he had his own version of the Bestiary.

He told me that to find it, you had to climb the hills where there were metal deposits. Apparently, the bird "feeds" on these metals and offers rewards to those who seek them for noble reasons. However, it does not reward the greedy or the covetous. The Alicanto will immediately detect if you are a bad person, and you will be trapped in a desert loop until you die or until you repent and abandon the quest.

I traveled through the Elqui Valley, passed by the vineyards, jumped across other valleys, and helped myself to some grapes here and there. The farther north I went, the less vegetation there was; it was as if I were practically in another country.

I had finally arrived in the town of Taltal, a very humble place that had emerged in recent years thanks to copper and tourism. Fishing was also prominent, but not as much as in the old days.

I was a little nervous; it was strange to meet in person someone you had only talked to online for six years, but I knew I would recognize him immediately.

I knocked on the door, and I heard him walking.

"I'm coming!" he said.

"Love, don't forget to buy the zucchini and noodles for dinner!" his wife shouted.

"I know, I know, I got it!" he shouted back.

The door seemed to be stuck, and Juanpi was moving it with all his strength, managing to open it, not without making an unpleasant sound.

"Hello, Miguel! Finally, we meet!" he said, shaking my hand warmly.

"Good buddy!" I exclaimed, quite excited.

Juanpi was much older than me; he was thirty-four, but we got along very well. He was very short, shorter than my father, standing around 1.60 meters, and he had straight, moderately long, uncombed hair. He had fair skin and wore thick-framed glasses that covered his brown eyes a bit. His beard was in a goatee shape, but he didn't seem to pay much attention to his appearance. I noticed that he was quite thin and had the typical belly that grows on all men when they get married, although it wasn't very big. He used to joke that he had the body of a spider.