The creature he received after his call had faded into the wisp of the clouds, carried to the heavens, had not been, admittedly, the one that Dagrún had been expecting. It was not Ragnar to greet him at the borders, the sight of his scarred half brother mysteriously missing though his scent was rank upon the borders of this pack. The female to greet him was small, but heavily pregnant, her sides rounded and bulging allowing Dagrún the assumption that she was very clearly and obviously, with child. Black, leathery nostrils flared as the Viking stared at her, staring at him, recognizing her superiority of the situation with a bow of his head, exposing the strong curve of his spine to her, inhaling her scent that was curiously twined with Ragnar’s. It could have, easily, Dagrún observed, meant nothing and yet knowing Ragnar as he did, it instead meant everything. She was pretty, Dagrún observed her, figuring that was what had drawn his brother to her in the first place. She was exactly Ragnar’s type. Delicate, pretty, lovely and elegant. A stark contrast to his own brutality and harsh angles. Indeed, it would not surprise Dagrún if the children within her womb belonged to Ragnar because it was almost, laughably to him, easy to believe because it was expectant. That was just like Ragnar.
Of course, Dagrún could not say, looking Thistle over again, that he would not have done the same if he would have been Ragnar.
“Ragnar,” Dagrún replied with simple honesty. “Of who you are not.” Brows rose as he shifted his weight, searching the lands behind her for any sign of his half brother. In the meantime, that did not mean he could not inquire as to what his brother had been up too before his arrival. “Are they his?” Perhaps it was an unfair assumption to make, but Ragnar’s scent was all over her and to the dark Viking it was a perfectly logical thing to assume. “I am Dagrún, his half brother. Bastard son of Eitri and a slave girl he captured.” Lips twitched into a mirthless but amused little smile. It was nothing for him to speak it so casually simply because he was quite used to it and it was apart of their culture’s way.