Oh, it was good to his father rise up in excitement! It was the kind of things the dreams of his childhood had been filled with but that didn't mean it felt any less good the older he got. Though the pair of them often spent many seasons apart, Israfel liked to believe that time didn't mean all that much in the grand scheme of things. After all, it didn't matter how long things stretched on, he'd always adored his mother and father. To him, that'd never change and, if his father's response was anything to go by, it seemed Sleekwing believed the same thing.

He practically twirled on over to his father despite his best efforts to appear cool and squirmed beneath the probing question of his father. "Well, you know, you were hiding away pretty well," he huffed, glancing about in an effort to avoid his father's gaze if only because he didn't want to even imagine seeing disappointment in his eyes. It was true, after all. He had been away from Spirane for far too long but he was glad when his father admitted it - so! He had been somewhere else! Well, sort of. Israfel instantly turned back towards him with raised brows. "Moonfeather's back? Where'd you see Kulcha? If you wait here, I can totally run down and see if I can drag her back up!" He grinned, wide and toothed, but was quick to calm himself. As exciting as the prospect of his sister's return was, he had come to see his father. Ah, he was way too excitable at times.

His father caught him off guard then as he reached out and he responded in kind, shrugging his father's paw off and shying away. Embarassed? Perhaps a little. His bluff had been called out even if he had never intended to hide it. "Well, not...quite. Alcmene kind of scares me, you know. She's accomplished. I mean, I want her to teach me some things but I don't want to get in the way of her alpha. She has a reputation to uphold, you know!" Deflection failed, though he hadn't really been trying. His grin turned sheepish as he turned back towards his father then. "No, there's somebody else there. I met her some time ago but lately I've been seeing her more. I think she's my imprint! Her name is Samia and she's got the most perfect floppy ear I've ever seen in my life!" He sighed, exasperated, as if the very thought of her wonderful existence drained him. But another thought popped into his mind, and his ear flickered as if to catch it. "Actually, I think she has some family here. Arfthael, I think, is a brother of hers. So, it's working out well since she can visit me here too instead of chancing the free lands. Do...you know much about that family? I haven't had the guts to ask her yet." Somehow, it felt just as strange to ask his own father, as if he had been able to pick up on that ever so slight change in his father's energy.