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You finished your morning routine with a newfound certainty directing your thoughts. Today there would be no chaos-- no, today would be a day of discussions and research. Something calm for once...
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Your trek to the sheriff's office was thankfully uneventful. Your sheep brought you company, once more refusing to leave your side, as you gave a brief knock upon the shoddy door.
After some commotion, the short man built like a brick whose face you'd come to memorize greeted you with a half-aware expression. Whatever greeting he gave was slightly slurred, and he refused to talk to you before disappearing into a room and returning with a wet face and wide eyes.
"So, Mr Buchanan, you here for sumthin'?" the man barked, his old vigor returning to him, leaning back in a spinning chair and giving you a stern look.
"Just your audience, sir," you pulled up a chair across from him.
The sheriff seemed intrigued. "Go on."
"I was wonderin' about trade, sir, and farming 'round these parts." He raised a brow. "I heard this was a mining town with little interference in the wildlife-- it's part of why I was sent here, sir, to study. I wasn't told as much about the flora, but I've not seen many fields here. Am I right to assume that you mostly import foodstuffs?"
The sheriff spent some time pondering. You could tell it had been a while since he'd answered questions like these. "...well, you wouldn'ta been right some time ago, when we were makin' efforts to curb that. But... with our fields destroyed an' our town less-than-organized, ah wouldn't say we've got much t' eat besahdes the berries in th' woods and whatev'r we can get from the Redding trains."
A frown crept onto your face. Would trains still be running during circumstances as dire as these?
Your train of thought was halted by another reply. "Why ask?"
"Well, sir, I'm not from 'round here. You know that much. I just wanted to know the situation of basic necessities and how it'd affect my research."
The sheriff's brow began to furrow. "You keep talkin' about all this research, boy, and I'm still here in the dark. All ah know about you is that you showed up a week or two ago, you stayed at our hotels and drank at our bars, then saved our town from a bunch o' demons whom you're now insistin' aren't actual threats. I'd like it if you explained what you're doin' here before discussin' this research o' yours."
