Swamped

"Well, there was that human being dragged around the camp in ropes. That's the only one I really saw up close before now." Junior pauses. "Is it true humans don't have claws?"

"Pretty much," you say. "I mean, we've got something similar on our fingers, but they don't get nearly as sharp."

"Must be hard to climb trees, then. Not that I've ever seen a tree."

"It's not that bad. We've got bigger limbs than you, so we can reach around the tree. That helps quite a lot."

"Have you climbed a tree before?"

"Plenty of times. I live in a swamp, we've got lots of trees there."

Junior seems intrigued.

"What's a swamp?"

"Well, basically it's a big patch of water with lots of plants growing out of it. Ours is a real big patch of water, only it's so thick it's nearly mud."

"Sounds like it'd be easier to get food there than it is here," Junior says. "We get most of our food from the supplier. Not a lot grows here, and we can't really eat meat."

"Right, your teeth aren't made for it. To be honest, we don't eat much meat out in the swamp either. Not because we can't, but because we have trouble storing it and we couldn't make enough to feed a whole fortress on one day's hunt. Mostly we eat swampleaf because that's plentiful."

"What's that taste like?"

"Like a really flavorless leaf. Keeps us fed, though."

You feel like this isn't really getting anywhere, even if it is educating the kid. You're probably better off letting Junior here go on their way while you get your work done.

But before you can work out how to excuse yourself, they ask a question that, frankly, startles you.