The relief Ragnar felt at the boy’s ‘no’ had begun to diminish quickly when the youth, in what Ragnar realized was only a fair question, asked him if infant rabbits were any good. For a moment the Viking’s steps paused, the muscles pulling taunt beneath his coat, expression composed to be stoic. “No,” It came out harsher than Ragnar had originally intended which led to the shifting of the scarred Northman’s weight. “I do not eat infant anything.” He also didn’t eat goat because it was a sacred animal to Thor. He would sacrifice them, ironically enough (though usually only for the Festival of Uppsalla) but he refused to consume one for the fear of bringing the might of Thor’s anger and anvil down on himself. Children were children regardless of what species they were and though he had never given much thought to the intelligence of his prey but he figured they were someone’s babies and that was all that mattered.
Surprisingly, despite the shore along Horizon Ridge it had been many months since Ragnar had actually eaten fish or crab or anything sort of water based prey. The Cove had many accomplished fishers having had to make use of all their resources in order to store up for the harsh and glacial winters they endured. “Then we will fish,” He definitely like that idea more. Or rather Atreyu would fish since Ragnar guessed the boy didn’t particularly need his help and the Viking himself wasn’t very hungry. Still, he would linger to make sure he ate because though the boy had no connection to him, but perhaps triggered the parental tendencies in the callous man he did not want to part from the boy knowing he was hungry …just in case; worse case scenario he could always offer something from one of the Bay’s caches.
