Ragnar knew that he only knew his side of the story — which was that one day Julooke was gone and gone, and gone. Which was exactly why he was willing to, at least, hear her out. He didn't give the benefit of the doubt because it wasn't fair if he gave her the benefit of the doubt just because they'd been (were?) friends, whilst he gave no one else the benefit of the doubt. She was happy to see him at first, if the wagging of her tail gave any indication, but her demeanor changed when she saw his stoic expression. Too many times had Ragnar been betrayed to so willingly give that benefit of the doubt, and with the sting of Nerian's betrayal and abandonment still present like the linger of poison in his blood stream he was less likely to trust easily. He watched as she lowered her body into submission as the realization of his mood sunk into and when she spoke the Jarl remained silent. “Would I think it? No. Do I know absolutely? I don't know,” Ragnar broke his silence, speaking in his naturally soft voice, words accented as they'd always been. “You've been gone for a while, Julooke. A lot of things have happened,” The idea of telling her about Verrine and Kevlyn slightly made Ragnar uncomfortable but he knew he'd have to do it. He was cursed with being the bearer of bad news always. He'd had to tell his mother that Bjorn had slaughtered Eitri, he'd had to tell the pack that Pump had been massacred by the bear.
But before he broke that news to her, he had to figure out, first, what to do with her. He did not respond verbally, when she spoke what had happened, truly wanting desperately to believe her; while remembering the harsh words he had told to Thistle Cloud in the wake of all the incidents crashing down on him, stuck as he'd been in his own self pain. Silently he ghosted forward to her, and without asking her permission began to sniff at her, investigating the wounds for a little bit, circling her slowly as he attempted to determine if he had it within him to give a second chance. “Why didn't you call for help?” Ragnar truly didn't want to have to deal with another bear, though if it stuck around, this time, he would not flee from it. It could kill him, if it wanted. It wasn't as if Ragnar feared death. Even so, it seemed that Julooke was telling the truth and in reality, Ragnar had no reason not to believe her. In truth, calling for help didn't matter at this point in time, it was over and done with and now he had a decision to make, but he wanted more time to process things. “Kevlyn is missing, his trail vanishes into the sea,” Missing was a nice way of saying what Ragnar truly thought which was that he was dead given that Ragnar truly wasn't sure if he could swim or not. “And Verrine's trail also vanishes into the sea. I'm left to assume the worst with them because there are no bodies, but no scent trail going anywhere else, either.” Ragnar spoke gently, this time, pain for her loss breaking through his careful facade. It was possible that he drowned himself and that the sea took him elsewhere, or a predator of the Sea ate his body. The evidence that both were dead was a hard thing to dispute. It was better, Ragnar figured, that she know now, and hate him for breaking it to her, as opposed to finding it out on her own and hating him for not telling her.
