You smile at his question. You pause, unsure if you should tell him
what you think it might be. You almost lie and simply say
"nothing"...but then you realize that you don't care what he will or
won't think of you, but you're tired of hiding your real field of
interest from the rest of the world due to fear of how they'll react
to you.
"It might be evidence of a previously unproven creature, Gabe," you
say, sounding as stiff and stodgy as any professor or scientist you've
ever had. Doing your best to sound a bit warmer, you smile and say,
"I'm a cryptozoologist; moving here was just as much about business as
it was about getting away from the city."
"It kind of just looks like a lump of white goo to me," Gabe says with
a laugh.
"It won't look that way when it's totally set," you tell him. "I'm
casting a footprint that something made in the soft dirt out here.
"Oh, that's cool," Gabe replies, kneeling down to stare at it with a
look of curiosity, "So what do you think made it?"
You hesitate for a second, before saying, "Don't think I'm nuts
here...but I think it might be a werewolf print."