Váli, Ragnar decided as Thistle asked about his youngest brother, was an interesting case. Their mother had favored him, coddled him and generally treated him as the baby. Of course, this had always given Váli a clear disadvantage when it came to keeping up with Ragnar and even Björn because they always saw him as the baby. Ragnar had always been their …ring leader as children despite that he was not the oldest because he was the most cunning and charismatic. Something about him drew his brothers in and allowed him to take lead over them. “He is my Second in Command,” Ragnar confirmed for her with a slow nod of his head. “I trust him in a way I could never trust Björn,” Ragnar admitted in a softer tone, glimpsing down at his paws, remembering the way they had felt heavy, the fur soaked crimson with Björn’s warm, thick lifeblood. There had always been a rivalry between the older brothers that, unfortunately, Váli tended to get caught in the middle of at times. Of course, Ragnar was not aware that even his youngest brother had betrayed him by claiming the title of Jarl though it did not belong to him, and further Ragnar’s gift, Sif though she, also, did not belong to him.
“I continue to think of myself as Jarl of Odinn’s Cove but I should not. Odinn asked me away to start a new life here. I did not realize that it would come with a beautiful wife and children but I am hardly going to complain,” He reached down to drop a kiss to the crown of her head. He was silent when she stated that she was glad to hear that he executed himself instead of asking another to do it for him. He believed that if he passed a sentence of death he should be able to carry it out not just order it about as if it were a light order because, despite that they celebrated death it was not light. “Either I will or Odinn will, likely Odinn will beat me too your Rite of Passage idea if only because he is the Allfather and I expect no less.”
