Ragnar, if Thistle would have admitted to him that she had felt his eyes before she had even heard him as he approached, might have scoffed at the notion. Not that she felt his eyes upon her first — in a sixth sense that gave the familiar prickling of gooseflesh along one’s nape, the rise of the fine hairs that made up the undercoat that one became aware of when another was staring at them. That was proof enough that he was well aware eyes boring into your skin could be felt by some basis of instincts. Rather, he would scoff at the notion that he could move with any kind of stealth. The Viking was not built for stealth, but for buffering and dealing attacks of brute force. As it was he had never even trained in the art of ‘stealth’. It wasn’t precisely calling him stealthy, admittedly, but it was natural to quiet one’s steps upon approach, especially when the approach is dinner or meant the difference between life and death. After all, they would never eat if they were not capable of taking their prey off guard.
She spoke to him, again his native tongue, smiling at the correct pronunciation of the words. Thistle …and Julooke both were getting better and seemed to be learning quickly, though Ragnar did not take all of the credit for it, offering some of it to Sköll whom he had heard Thistle, different times, attempt to hold a conversation with. As it turned out, the Tiny Viking only being able to speak a tiny handful of common tongue words actually worked out pretty well in the endeavor of teaching others their native tongue. It seemed from last Ragnar had approached the boy and tired to have a conversation with him in the common tongue to test what he was picking up he hadn’t improved very far …if any at all, as far as Ragnar could tell.
However, Ragnar did not stress about that small fact and didn’t care if Sköll never learned any more than what Ragnar had originally managed to teach him. Soon, there would be more than enough wolves who were adept in speaking and understanding (Hati and the children included, obviously) the Northerner’s tongue that it wouldn’t even really be a problem. In Stavanger Bay the boy would never feel awkward or out of place as Ragnar got the distinct feeling Sköll had felt in the Wheeling Gull Isle — though it was of no wonder. From what the boy had told him Majesty had been unable to effectively communicate with him period which, likely, if Ragnar hadn’t stepped in and stole him away, would have ended up with Sköll being kicked out, and the brilliant healer should never have felt useless because he was far from it.
Ragnar smirked to himself when Thistle brushed past him to squat and add her scent to the borders taking his place until he could produce more urine.