“It feels like fur. I like it.”

“Yeah, well you’ll have something even better to wear when you meet Ran-sama. I dunno how she has time to sew clothes on top of all her other chores, but she does a damn good job.”

Now Shiro was confused again. She was already busy working through this whole ‘nekomata’ thing, and now she was being told names she’d never heard of.

“Who is...Ran-sama?”

“Oh, she’s my master. I’m gonna take you to meet her - she helped me when I was going through the whole nekomata thing, and I figure she can help you as well.”

Shiro’s ears twitched again. Her eyes scanned the room around her, a small hint of concern rising to her face.

“Ran-sama...she lives in a house?”

Chen was puzzled by the question, needing a moment to think out a response.

“Uh...yeah. We have a nice place in the mountains, and we can get you all the fresh fish you’ll ever wa-”

“The house. Does it have a room like this one?”

Shiro’s face grew stern all of a sudden. This was clearly an extremely important question to her, though Chen honestly had no idea why.

“W-Well...there probably is. And if there isn’t, Yukari-sama can make a room for you that looks just like this one. Okay?”

She was relieved to hear that, and the sternness on Shiro’s face gave way to relaxation. She took Chen’s hand, waiting to be led along with a small smile on her face.

“Okay, Chen-sama. Let’s go.”

Chen just couldn’t get enough of hearing someone call her that. She tightened her grip on Shiro slightly, leading her back out into the village.

She didn’t bother asking why Shiro needed to have a room like this. Even if she’d wanted to know, she had figured the young cat wouldn’t have been able to find the right words at the time.

Shiro was just relieved that she would have somewhere to sleep now. She didn’t dream if the room was wrong, and she needed those dreams now more than ever.