There had been a time not so long ago when Ragnar had been rather hell bent upon claiming the Forest for his own, having had the intentions of splitting off of Pump and the wolves of Horizon Ridge. That had been before. Before the bear they had chased off and presumed to think would not come back and ended their previous leaders’ life without obvious mercy. It hadn’t even finished the job because when Ragnar had came across her body as his wife had been delirious in her horror and sorrow of finding Pump, their hybrid leader had still been alive. In a way the gory mess of blood and her severed spine had almost reminded him of a Blood Eagle. An ancient and extremely torturous manner of execution for treachery and treason in his culture. It involved opening their back, breaking their ribs and spreading their lungs on their shoulders to give the shape of an eagle’s wings spread in flight. It was not a pretty sight. Ragnar had only performed it once in his life, to the Jarl of a neighboring pack for betraying the Cove. The first time in nine years as far as the Seer could tell him it had been done. Ragnar had seen worse than Pump’s broken body, had done worse, admittedly, because the victims of a Blood Eagle were still alive during the process, their lungs still attached to their body to suffer the death of bleeding out.
Having nearly missed what the boy had said the Viking broke himself out of such morbid thoughts with a discreet shake of his head, ears slicking back to stand half mast atop his skull for a few seconds before they perked back the next, attempting to make it look like he had been shooing away a fly that had buzzed by his ear instead of resurfacing from the catacombs of his mind. Ragnar followed after the spirited youth, determined not to let his mind wander so far again. At the boy’s almost sounding question of finding a burrow Ragnar’s brow furrowed slightly, wondering if the boy knew what he was doing while also contemplating something a bit more disturbing to him (ironic that something did actually make him queasy given his bloody background personal and culture wise).