Champo browsed the shelves of the grocery, looking for his favourite cream sauce. It wasn't very healthy, but he had something of an addiction to it as of late, and after a long afternoon he felt entitled to it.

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

He paid the unfamiliar voice no mind. Was the sauce out of stock? No-- he spotted a pale jar behind the row of fish sauce; there it was, in the back. He pushed aside the jars in front to reach back for it.

"Ma'am? Excuse me?" The voice was louder this time, from right behind him.

He turned around to see a human woman, at least he supposed it was a woman, holding the hand of a cute little human child in camphor-scented flowing skirts. "Um... me?" he said.

"Excuse me-- I'm a visiting tourist," said the adult human as if it were not self-evident, "and I just walked in here-- do you work here?"

"I don't, no," said Champo, one paw curled around the precious jar, "but I might be able to help you find something."

"Thanks!" said the adult human. And, to the child, added: "Lisa, honey, put that back; we're just going to ask the nice lady for directions."

Lisa looked up at her. "That's not a lady," she said, not letting go of the string cheese she'd picked up from the iced desserts bin.

"Shh. Yes, it is," insisted the adult quietly. "All calicos are ladies."

Champo cleared his throat, hesitant to undermine the mother's authority but disinclined to stand by while the misinformation spread. "Actually," he said, "your daughter is right."

"Oh, I beg your pardon!" The adult made a gesture with her hand, putting it on the side of her face. "I'm so sorry, sir. I just thought... I thought it was a genetic calico thing. With cats, it is, isn't it? Not that nekobolds are just cats, but I thought you had the same fur colour thing..."

"We do," said Champo patiently. "I have a rare condition I inherited from my parents. I'm a mutant." He twitched his whiskers at Lisa, making her giggle.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said the human. "I mean, I'm not sorry that you are a boy, or anything; I mean you have whatever you have; just, I'm sorry I mistook you... I'm a human and it's kind of hard for me to tell... I mean I'm not used to looking at nekobolds..."

"It's okay. I get that a lot. I could dye my fur black, but I'd have to do it every week and it'd be a pain. And I don't really care if I get mistaken for a girl." Besides, his mother had been orange and white, and she'd had just that same patch of white he had on his paw. It was his best memory of her. He shook his head rapidly, as though by so doing he could shake little droplets of thought from his mind. "Anyway, you wanted something?"

"Ah, yes," she said. "I'm wondering if you could recommend a restaurant that has food that's good for humans."

"Well," he said, thinking, "you might like the crab place a block from here. Go down the road to the left, then turn onto Carpet Street; they're on the right side of the road. They have a sign up front."

"Um, actually," she said, "I hate to be really picky, but a crab house isn't the best option. You see, I'm a vegetarian and I don't eat meat or fish..."

Champo turned both ears outwards, refraining from cleaning his forehead with his paw. "The nearest place like that? Go down near the city gate, cross the bridge, and keep walking until you're out of Nay-Kobold."