[GrayGriffin]

Now there were reports of the mysterious creature showing up in a town? Gerard was domesticated enough he might find that more comforting, but surely Franciscus would have run into him at some point! Lucky coming along was more of a courtesy than anything-Franciscus had actually picked up the rumor himself, but Lucky had been helpful enough he felt that he should invite the other Lucain along to hopefully see the end of the hunt.

[GrayGriffin]

The fact that they were checking out a town meant that it was much easier to get a map, at least-the informant had actually grabbed a generic one already and marked the locations they'd heard the rumor. Franciscus was planning to check out the places with higher-up perches first, leaving the narrower alleyways for later.

He was dressed once more in his finest suit, relaxing a bit now that they were in a setting where it'd be much harder to get it stained.

[GrayGriffin]

"You know some of these alleys are going to be muddy, right?" asked Lucky. His fur was already not completely pristine, both because of random detritus getting into it and the fact that he didn't regularly groom himself as much. It was a lot of work, and sometimes he still got into that mindset where he wanted to lie down and simply stare at the wall. He almost missed the drugs, sometimes-they'd made it much easier to attain that mindset.

Not that he'd tell Franciscus that, of course.

[GrayGriffin]

Of course, Franciscus was good enough at reading people to notice something, at least. He'd definitely noticed that the fur was the result of several days of not grooming, not just getting dirtied while on this walk. He couldn't deduce the whole of Lucky's past just from that, but the facts he'd shared at that meeting were definitely painting a picture.

Still, at this point they were more acquaintances than friends. So he wasn't about to actually bring it up.

[GrayGriffin]

With these thoughts on their minds, they went to check the first location. No feathers or rocky scales, but they did find a few more of those gold-and-black scales instead. Franciscus tucked some of them into a pocket, while Lucky picked up some as well. He mentioned that he'd try to track them by scent, but they'd been trampled enough that he wasn't very confident in his abilities.

Franciscus nodded, marking off the spot on the map.

[GrayGriffin]

The next spot didn't have any signs of Gerard either, but it also had none of those scales. A search for any kind of marks that might have been left by whatever was seen there turned up almost nothing-until Franciscus spotted a bit of what looked like golden thread caught between some cobblestones. Lucky was actually able to help tease it out a bit with his teeth, before letting Franciscus tug it out, holding it delicately in his palms.

[GrayGriffin]

"This doesn't look like any kind of clothing thread I've seen," he noted, glancing at Lucky. "Have you seen anything like it before?"

Lucky shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he replied. "Try comparing it to those scales?" Franciscus nodded, taking out one of the sample scales they'd picked up. There was a shimmer to the thread that the scales didn't seem to have at first, but as he looked through all the samples he noticed a certain shimmer to some of the scales that were more golden than black.

[GrayGriffin]

"Well, there's definitely some degree of similarity," he noted. "They're not quite the same shade, but that's hard to estimate from their relative size. And these scales do shine in a similar way to the thread." He held both out to demonstrate, rubbing the thread between his fingers. It felt...ethereal, somehow, a texture that actually made him falter for a moment. But it didn't seem to be grabbing on to him or anything, so he did his best to hold back that momentary shock while Lucky was watching.

[GrayGriffin]

"You think they could be from the same creature? So someone made the thread for it?" Lucky tilted his head to the side, and Franciscus almost laughed. Why couldn't the thread be part of the creature to begin with? He supposed he shouldn't blame people for lacking imagination.

"Or it produced the thread itself."

"I guess that's not impossible...spiders and stuff do that, right? So it could be some kind of reptilian spider?"

"I suppose we'll have to keep our eyes out."

[GrayGriffin]

They continued walking around town, checking out spots and marking maps as they went. Franciscus actually did find, to his surprise, several feathers in the right color, though all gathered at spots more on the outskirts of town. Had Gerard been searching and unable to find them? He noted those down with extra fervency, before looking at the whole map.

"Thank you for your help," he told Lucky. "I suppose we should probably turn this map in. It's probably the most useful information we've collected so far, after all."

Lucky's tail flicked. "Sure," he said. "You can do it yourself, though."

Franciscus nodded. "If that's what you wish."