Only then did Sunny notice the tentacles lying in the cassava garden beside the water. There were three of them, thicker than fire hoses and frozen solid, white mist rising from them.

“It pulled me into the wilderness! It was trying to kill you guys at the same time? Was there more than one?”

“The lake beast has three brains,” the farmer said. “I studied it, its cousin the river beast, and several of their other kin extensively when I was a youth. Fascinating beasts. But they have a habit of aligning themselves with negative or evil people or forces.” He sucked his teeth, looking at the lake. “I knew that lake beast was up to something. Kai! I can’t wait to tell my wife. She was sure that it was just passing through.”

The old man took them to his small hut of a home and introduced them to his wife, who gave them each cups of hot tea, since they’d already eaten. She also took Sunny’s clothes and dried them using a combination of the sun and a hot iron. “No use in using juju when nature has a better method,” she said. She gave Sunny a long colorful caftan to wear in the meantime. The farmer and his wife were Leopard People who’d decided when they were young that after years as Obi Library students, they wanted to live like their forefathers and foremothers. “There is more knowledge to be gained from reading Earth’s books than any book in the library,” his wife said. She was a rail-thin old woman with strong arms and crinkly gray hair.

Chichi sniffed and shook her head. Sasha kicked her to shut up.

“We’re on our way to Osisi,” Orlu said. “Do you know of it?”

“Osisi?” he turned to his wife. “You see, Nwadike? Look at how they dress. They must be from Lagos. All the way out here hours from the border? Where else would they be going?”

His wife sucked her teeth. “Kids today are always trying to make their lives so complicated,” she muttered, getting up and collecting their empty cups. “Cell phones, gadgets, silly juju, and always running to Osisi.”

The farmer turned back to them. “Why?” he asked. “Why do you want to go to that dreadful place?”

“We have to find something there,” Orlu said. “It’s not for enjoyment or anything like that.”

“We’ve never been,” Sunny added. “We just . . .”

“You shouldn’t go,” the farmer said. “It’s not a place for human beings; I don’t care if it’s full. Why can’t you four just live a simple wholesome life? Study your books, then find husbands and wives, have children. Stay out of trouble. Be positive forces to the world.”

“Oga,” Sunny said. “This journey is important. Did you see our flying grasscutter? We even went to Udide to . . .”

“Grasscutter?” the farmer said, jumping up. “You brought a grasscutter here?!” He ran out of the hut, looking around, his skinny knees knocking together. “Where is it?! My farmland, my farmland! It’ll be the end of me. I know what those things do. Some stupid kids flew one here ten years ago trying to get to Osisi the fast way. They couldn’t control it and it ate everything!”