Her words held some merit of truth, but it was only a small sliver to the Viking who had been born and raised to worship the Gods. To him, they were everything, from the thunder and lightening, to life and death. They were in everything, every aspect of nature, every twist of Fate. It so deeply ingrained in their daily lives that while those words made sense to Pump - whom Ragnar did not take for being religious at all - and were easy for her to speak as if it were the most obvious thing in the world; they would never be effortless for Ragnar to swallow completely. Things were done to appease the Gods, to prove that you were worthy of the Hall they lorded over in death. A God’s approval and accordingly, disproval was defining.
There was more than Ragnar could tell her in the time they had before them, as Thistle would, he had no doubt, give witness too. It had been weeks since Ragnar had taken her as his mate and there were many things he had yet to teach her though he deigned to teach her something daily. His head cocked to to the side, a bird like gesture at the question that followed her invitation. “You actually exhibited one of them, at the meeting to decide the fate of Thistle and I’s children. Fairness. We are a brutal people, called heathens and devils by many wolves, but we are fair to our own. We often hold trials to decide the fight of the accused, where the whole pack listens to both sides of the story and makes an anonymous vote on if the accused is guilty or innocent. It is how we inducted the children and outsiders into our culture. They showed they wished to be apart of us as a willing participant in the trail they were granted it.”
But he was hardly done. “I have heard that the wolves around here like to form alliances. Very rarely did we make alliances unless it was beneficial to us to do so. No matter how friendly you are, your allies will put the safety of their ranks before aiding you. They are worthless unless something is gained.” It was more of an opinion than anything else since he was fairly certain that as it stood Horizon Ridge did not have any outstanding allies.
“Friendships are hard to form when you raid from your neighbors, too,” At that Ragnar smirked to himself, a soft snort escaping his leathery, black nostrils. “Only a few of us went on raids so as to not lose most of the strong in one attack if retaliated against, or caught.” Ragnar shrugged. “We took what we needed and then what we wanted, including wolves at times. It was an assurance.” It was survival of the fittest as it had always been since the dawning of the time. There was no guarantee that Pump would consider either of the two real suggestions he offered as beneficial but they were what he wanted to see, since she was taking the time to ask him.
