Heron Lake Plateau spare dad

Owen moved in at a more conservative pace, skirting the edges of the dying snowbanks that he still thought might rise up and return, noting with cocked head the presence of Vasa as he entered at a different tangent and a more cautious half-trot. That had sounded like Eljay, but it had been long enough that Owen felt he had cause to doubt his own ears— Oh, it is you...! he said, a bit startled to find his hopefulness had actually been borne out.

He remained a bit reserved however, with not quite the old enthusiasm in his voice as he said, Hi Eljay. Wow. Um. You're back, as he wondered to himself, for good? He doubted it, but at the same time...it didn't seem quite impossible. Maybe something had happened over at their sister pack and Eljay had changed his mind. Uh. ...Not a lot going on at the Plateau I guess...same old same old?

The young boy couldn't seem to quite settle, his paws restlessly curvetting about first this way and then that whilst keeping a careful radius between him and his old puppysitter. All sorts of strange smells Eljay brought back with him; in Owen's mind it was almost like the guy had vanished overseas and returned a full-blown foreigner. Though he still looked pretty much the same as always. Owen halted and stared at Eljay for a moment, one forepaw moving in a solid step closer and then halting again. Some part of him wanted to go running up to Eljay in a flying takle-hug just as he would have in old times—but the rest of him, he wasn't quite so sure. He glanced over at his much more confidently strutting and welcomingly-nosed-at sister for a bit of a clue, though his own comfort zone at the moment obviously remained a lot more constricted. Uh... h-h-how's Firebirds? If Vasa was the swaggering cool kid in the sunglasses, Owen was obviously the awkward nerd in the corner who was still figuring out how this whole "social" business worked. Suave, he was not.