They hadn’t killed the bear because there hadn’t been enough wolves gathered to do it. Ragnar would have gladly gone after it, high on the Berserker mushrooms he had consumed, taken by the blood rage but at what cost? It might have taken his life. Granted, it wasn’t as if death frightened him but he had had children on the way, and his young family to think about. Even now he asked himself what Thistle would do if something were to happen to him, even though Odinn had promised him a long and fulfilled life. “About everything,” Ragnar spoke gravelly. “Maybe if she had her Fate would have been different.” He had believed that everything was Fated, but was it so wrong to want to believe that they made their own Fate?
Ragnar was patient and attentive when she spoke in regards to the sacrifice of a wolf was required to complete the ritual of Uppsalla. “I doubt it. The Priestess has lived with us but she believes in her God still,” Was all he said on Nerian before he focused on the second half, of her and the children’s attendance. “While it is something they should be present for they may be too young to keep it a secret. It is supposed to happen once a year. You do not have to attend that part, either. I might take Sköll and Hati with me though.” Considering they were adults and knew what the ritual entailed and would be able to keep it under lock and key when he bid them too. Ragnar offered her a sharp snort and a teasing grin when she asked if it could be a wolf from the intrusion that planted itself at the Ridge’s doorstep. “Only if I find one,” Typically, they sacrificed slaves and sometimes valued members of the Cove that had volunteered.
“I wouldn’t get your heart set on it, my love, when they are old enough to fall in love they are old enough to make the choice for themselves,” He would not tell his children who they had to marry. If they wanted to marry for love then so be it and if they didn’t want to marry at all then that was fine, too. He wanted his line to carry on, of course, but they weren’t technically of his bloodline so their reproduction would do nothing for him on the genetic scale.
