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Finally, after many days working upon them in secret in the darkened and veiled depths of Ravensblood Forest, his gifts for @Thistle Cloud were complete, and the Viking took a step back to admire his handiwork. It had taken Ragnar some time to gather the necessary elements for his gifts, and further time finding the right sized bone for each, not to small but not too large. Each bone was marked for the Goddess it represented by the worrying of his teeth upon the bone, and the one that remained dissociated with anything but Thistle and himself - a symbolism of their marriage, a celebration of their union; a gift bestowed usually to the brides’ family but considering Ragnar had not ever met any of Thistle’s relatives the circumstances had changed from a plea to ask for permission to marry her (rather he’d taken her without any one’s permission but her own) and instead it became simply, a gift for Thistle.
The first gift, and talisman representing Freyja, the bone was colored a faded red with blood of the animal Ragnar had torn it from, given that red was a color often associated with the Goddess of love and fertility. Combined with the sap that he used to hold the tail feathers of the sparrow he had caught and dissected to either end of the bone, the crimson of the blood had turned a coppery color which was through a mere coincidence alone, also a color associated with Freyja.
The second gift, talisman representing Frigg, he had visited the shore within Horizon Ridge often holding the bone firm beneath his paw as the salt water washed over it, again and again until it was bleached a silvery white; the color and representation of the moon (of whom Frigg was associated with). He had stolen tufted feathers from the falcon he had brought down and glued them with sap to either end of Frigg’s talisman in the same manner he had done upon Freyja’s. Ragnar had thought about sap gluing flowers associated with either Goddesses to the talismans and gifts but upon the consideration that the petals would wilt and look ugly would be a dishonor (to both the Goddesses and Thistle) he decided against it.
For the gift that solely meant to celebrate their vows to one another, Ragnar left it uncolored if only because his knowledge of dyes and the like was extremely limited for the Viking was a Berserker not a herbalist. He knew enough to keep wounds clean, and what would dull the pain but aside from that his knowledge was generally useless. He, too, had marked this bone with the scrape of his teeth against it and around it twined three blood red roses, their stems carefully wrapped around the bone and stable with a small amount of sap so that he could exchange the wilting roses for fresh ones, or Thistle could if she wished to keep after it.
He carried them in a wrap of a large fern, the sound of them clinking together as it swayed with the motion of his steps as he moved towards the birthing den. Ragnar had departed from her side in the middle of the night (firstly to relieve himself) but because he wanted to get them finished and present them to her when she awoke. It was nothing fancy, and maybe romantic on a small measure of a level though Ragnar was not a romantic being, but it was something he had wanted to do for her. As the mother of his children, as his lover, wife, partner, and best friend. It was nothing but a thoughtful gesture and his desire to make her smile, knowing that she seemed to be in more and more pain the closer it came to the birthing of their sons. In that matter, Ragnar was left feeling extremely helpless, stroking the soft and velveteen fur between her ears in a caressing manner if only to try and take her mind off of the pain when it seized her. Likely, it probably did nothing for her, and the fact that they were close to being born made Ragnar less and less willing to leave her, instead sticking to one strict patrol of the borders so more of his time was spent with his wife. In hindsight, he, albeit reluctantly, understood why Pump pushed him back again regarding the Beta rank given how his priorities had shifted, putting Thistle at the top of them with his Warden duties in second.
Sitting his package down at his paws, he peered into the den looking for Thistle’s silhouette wondering if she was in the den or outside of it.