"Not much call for fancy shirts around here, Mr. Clarke, but I reckon if you wander on down to McCarty’s Drugstore you might could ask him. That's the main source for cloth and such things in town," he said.

"Master or no master, all we got to go on is the killer himself." Gabby says to Sky Dog. "I reckon if we catch one, we'll have a better lead to t'other." He shudders at the though of any flying sort o' monster. "Yeah, I'll say."

He nods at Earp. "I'll check that out, thanks. Got any idea where the Simpkins might be at?"

"I don't quite know where they hang their hats, but you'll probably find the Wilderness Riders hangin' about the Lone Star Saloon. It's popular with Confederate guerrilla types and Texas cowboys," he said.

Sky Dog dipped his head slightly to Gabby's comment, though not without misgiving.

"I will go, but remain some way from you and then outside, I think. Now I am a Yankee, they will spot me very easily!" the shaman laughed, his tin animals glinting as though in echo of his amusement.

"Wyitterp, do you remember a place with the trees together, do you think?"

He frowned at Sky Dog, and then sighed. "Sky Dog, there are a lotta trees in Kansas. You're gonna have to narrow it down a lot more than that. I don't know much about wide leaves and all that, or whatever you're talkin' about."

"I don't know the word...if I can draw the place, and the little leaves, maybe you will know it...is there a thing here, to draw with?" Sky Dog looked about for something that might serve.

With forced patience, he pushed forward a piece of paper and a small pencil.

"Make it quick, Sky Dog. I've got other deputies and a few rounds to do. I can't sit here talking about trees all day," he said, standing up.

The shaman took the pencil a little uncertainly and tested it on the surface, crouching up beside the desk to keep the paper close enough to see well without leaning and unbalancing his sister.

Starting with an oak leaf at the top of the page, he quickly sketched out a skyline and a line of foreground, indicating a small hollow, then blocked in the shadowed leaves of a clump of trees, drawing awkwardly in outline around the lighter side of the copse before adding the trunks. The bulk of a tree that twisted to the right might be recognisable, and a couple of others got such detail, though the rest was filled in symbolically with lines to show several more trunks in existence.

"This kind of tree," Sky Dog said, adding an acorn beside the leaf. Korpi, curious, decided to try and steal the pencil. "This place. Quanterill is near it, maybe."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Thu 28 Mar 2013.

He looked at the paper and frowned up at the Siberian, sharing a dry look between Gabby and Daniel. "Either of you wanna tell Sky Dog where we can find an oak tree in Kansas?"

Gabby shrugs. "Ain't got a clue."

"The answer is...pretty much everywhere. If you've got some secret Siberian hocus pocus tellin' you that you can exhume the corpse of Bill Quantrill or whatever the hell near an oak tree, you're gonna have to search over the whole damn state," he said, exasperation clear in his voice.

Sky Dog gave Earp a frown of good-natured rebuke as he rose, amused. "It is not well to mock a shamán, Wyitterp, you know this, I think. My blood-cousin gave me to know this sight of the gang of trees alone, when I asked him where the demon Quanterill will go, who was doing murder with the quick dead ones in Hays. Dalix will tell you, yes, my cousin flies high enough to see many things. It is more than your talking wires know, I think!"

"Dalix," Korpi put in, standing on one leg to snap the point off the pencil with her heavy beak as easily as brittle bone. She tasted the slug of graphite, scattering tiny wood chips on the floor, then spat it out and considered the rest of the pencil. Sky Dog scolded gently and reclaimed the object after only a little mock-growling and tug-o'-war with the bird, gesturing with it as a smirk spread over his broad mouth.

"Maybe I should take your breakfast to prove the worst places, yes?" He indicated the dead rat on the desk. "...but if you do not know the land at once, it is not so near, this place. If you give me the slice of paper, maybe I will show it to Morgan and Dog Eye at another time." He glanced to Gabby in indication to the elder that he was ready to leave.

He shrugged, watching the strange bird biting the pencil. "I don't know anybody by that name, or which of your cousins, brothers, sisters, or other relatives fly where, but I'd be more than grateful if you would remove that dead rat from here. You can take the drawing, and maybe the Marshal will be able to tell you where to find your oak trees." He didn't sound like he believed it.

Daniel nodded in response to Sky Dog's assertion that his cousin flies high enough to see from above. "Yah, what his coz says is prolly th'best lead we got so far. As fer oaks, there's more of 'em in the eastern part o'Kansas than 'round here. Lotsa oaks keepin' brown leaves 'til the spring. Course, if yer lookin' fer one oak, that don't help a bit. Single oak could be bout anywheres. Jus' like Marshal Earp says."

Sky Dog indicated Daniel with the minorly marmalised pencil-end. "Dalix is Daniel's clan-name; he is elder by nur-nur eight, nine months and has not given me to use his forename," he reminded Earp, moving the pencil decidedly out of Korpi's reach and replacing it on the desk.

"It has sense," the shaman commented to Daniel and offered him the drawing as proof he wasn't quite crazy enough to try and find a single tree in the entirety of Kansas. "Also we have knowing that the white madman who hates buffalo may be near..." he made a brief, frustrated noise in his throat and took up the rat. "I will seek those with land-knowing. Do we go?"

"Oak trees and buffalo hunters?" Gabby muses. "hmm. Anyway, yeah, let's get this shindig started." He regarded the scrap of cloth. "Let's check out the drugstore first, then mosey on over to the Lone Star."

He headed out the door.

The law man wanted to keep them focused on the tasks at hand, so he didn't give any further comments on what he perceived was a wild goose chase after oak trees and buffalo hunters, two things Kansas had in plenty. "Good luck out there today," he said.

The Lone Star Saloon was a short walk from the City Jail, right across the railroad tracks where both Black River and Union Blue lines made their way into Dodge City, sandwiched in between Zimmerman's Hardware and the Alhambra Saloon. Walking in those swinging doors, the first thing that stood out about the place was how incredibly plain it was. To say the least, it wasn't the fanciest saloon. It made the Dog Eye look like a place where fancy folk might like to have a drink. Still, it wasn't run down by any means. The walls were decorated with two gigantic flags, one the Lone Star flag and another one with a single golden star on a field of azure.

The place was full of people, mostly grizzled looking men that look like they'd seen a fight or ten. At least one game of cards was going on, but mostly people just sitting around drinking and talking.

Gabby grinned as he stepped through the swinging doors of the saloon. He felt at home here. The place reminded him of the Red Eye, back in Blackthorn. Not the nicest place around, but full of the good ol' boys. This was the heart o' the west, here. He looked over at Danny and Sky Dog.

"Well, I reckon we oughta get to work. I was thinkin' o' tryin' my luck around the poker table there, see if any o' them know anythin'. Danny, do you think you might be able to get anythin' out o' the barkeep? And Sky Dog..." He faltered. He wasn't actually sure if the Siberian would get much out of the boys here. Not without getting ill-will directed his way. "Sky Dog, why don't you let me an' Danial worry about finding the Simpkins boys and the Wilderness Riders? I reckon you might want to stick to seein' if anyone here caught any rumors about the killer."

Sky Dog leant on the swing doors and grinned, staying outside. "We will be close. If you have need or the Simpkins remain wicked, it is well you should call me, yes?"

The shaman went settled cross-legged on the saloon porch in any shade that was to be had like any other native begging liquor outside a bar that kept to the law, hood pulled forward. He gave the rat back to Korpi and discussed suggestions as to its use with the raven, seemingly at ease but well alert.

Clementine wrinkles her nose at the smell of the place and whimpered. She did not like the smell.

Gabby patted her. "What's wrong, girl?"

Clementine whined again. She didn't want to go in there.

Gabby rubbed his beard. "You wanna stay out here with Sky Dog, girl?" He asked.

She barked.

"Alrighty then. Stay here with Sky Dog." Gabby said, turning back to the saloon, suddenly worried. Clementine didn't like the place. He tended to trust her instincts.

The bartender was standing just outta earshot, but close enough to make them out. He beckoned them over with a wave "You boys wanna drink?" he asked.

The raven looked up and barked at Clemya. Sky Dog echoed her, grinning.
"Woof wouf!" "Wouf!"

The shaman patted his far thigh in invitation for the dog to come sit with them, ruffling her gold fur when she was near enough and seemingly paying little attention to goings-on. If Clementine was not too demanding, no-one let slip any interesting information under the assumption that he was too drunk and foreign to matter and a certain drunkard did not appear, he would set to his chant to the honour of his cousin, he decided. He pushed away thoughts of the other god for now. Later, perhaps.

Gabby saunters over to the card table, ignoring the barkeep. Danial could ask around there.

Gabby moved over to the game and watched. "Say, fellas, is there an opening here for an old-timer?"

The man next to where Gabby was standing was handed the deck of cards, as it appeared his turn to deal. He turned up and looked at Gabby, and spoke in a deep, gravelly voice.

"What do you think, boys, can we deal one more hand into this game?" At the general approval that met his request, he nodded, gesturing to an empty chair across the table from him.

"I reckon you can take that seat right there," he said, neither friendly nor impolite.