Flicker nods too, making a soft sound.

"So yeah. We want to help."

She smiles a little.

"Thanks."

"Where do you usually get your food? That might be a good place to start..."

"A couple different places," she says. "I can show you them... They're mostly nearish."

"Cool. Let's get started."

And off! They mostly shop in town, though the flareon tells Ellie they also grow some of their own food - mostly just spices nowadays, though, dad's back isn't what it used to be and he's not very good with plants anyways. Mal's favored shops appear to mostly run towards 'farmers' market' type stuff. No one's seen anything weird, and there haven't been any outbreaks of food-borne illness, and Mal never orders ahead or anything anyways - he just shows up, grabs stuff from the general piles, and pays and leaves. Doesn't even set stuff down and wander off from it.

"If it was just us - might be something closer to the house? The spice garden, or - I guess a powder on something dad would've touched? Or maybe the well?"

"The well'd probably be easiest to tamper with unobserved..."

"...Yeah. I dunno how to detect poison in water, though."

"Chem's not my focus, but I can run some tests to start with."

She nods, thinking and frowning. "And the hiking store sells kits to purify water. They might sell stuff to test it, or know who does - probably just for normal water contamination problems, though..."

"We could see if the hospital's gotten any test results on your dad done yet. Might narrow down what we're looking for."

She nods. "That's smart. Let's."

Back to the hospital. Since Flareon's next-of-kin, she should be able to get the information if she asks.

She does! 

They have enough to narrow down what Ellie needs to test for, at least. 

She'll need to pick up some supplies, and find a place she can set things out. The house, maybe, or they can bring the samples back to the city.

The house might work. And be faster, too...

Probably, yeah.

Shall they head out, then?

Sharp nod.

Ellie collects some disposable gloves, glass containers, and a selection of reagents. Then it's back to Flareon's house.

The tests take a little while to run - but they do turn up positive. The water seems to be poisoned. 

That is... not good.

No not at all! 

Flicker's sniffing unhappily around the grounds. 

"Got something?"