Dragoncrest Cliffs soldier, take your time

Étoille keeps an eye on the pups enough to note Ephraim's adjustment, and it pleases him. Maybe that's part of the difference between his new ward and his old -- Furi had been older, and though heda had a similarly aged batch of children they'd not been the same rowdy, full crowd as these. Either way he is glad. 

He spots the boy and makes his way over silently, unbothered when it takes him a second to be noticed. Ephraim's greeting does make him start -- a flicker of surprise and -- pleasure, maybe, in the mistake (?). Étoille did not ever imagine himself to be a father, and even now he does not think of it in those terms so much (Furi was not his daughter, Ephraim is not his son, but --). 

Unsure how to address it, he choses instead to let it go, offering the boy a brief smile and a "bonjour, Ephraim. How are you?"