I'm Afraid of What I'm Risking if I Follow You

Part 6

"You've been awfully quiet after I mentioned the dam," Hans pointed out, stripping out of his tunic.

"Do you always have to sleep shirtless?" she sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"It's more comfortable with the injury," he explained, turning to fold his tunic neatly.

Elsa slit her eyes; she never realized she hardly even looked at his back. Above his bandage wrappings, a long gash and some... tattoo seemed to peek out. "What's that?" She leaned forward, almost daring to crawl over by his side.

"Hm?" Hans looked behind to realize Elsa had been staring. "Oh, that's a pretty long story. You sure you want to hear it now?"

She nodded. "Anything you tell me could be a clue to this mystery." Maybe it had something to do with what he knew about the dam, about Arendelle. Far fetched as that might seem. "Maybe it's not just the time for me searching through all these memories blindly. We should... talk."

He shrugged. "You asked for it." Hans let his hair down from the ponytail. "I honestly didn't spend a lot of time in the Southern Isles when I returned—maybe about a year in the world's biggest prison before I stowed away. The other two and a half years I spent traveling, taking odd jobs. Become invisible, like I always had been."

All right. Fine. Elsa scooted closer, so she could get a better look at his back. "I know you kind of mentioned how awful the Southern Isles were, but I'd... like a better picture. When you were a child."

"You saw how I hardly had anyone to talk to, outside a stuffed dog, my horse, and the cook, when she wasn't busy." Hans rolled his neck. "I'd go down to the docks to think, because no one would follow me—or need me—but I'd watch those ships leave and just think, 'God, I can't wait until the day I get off these damn islands.'"

"Surely someone must have known you were missing, especially as a child." Father always made sure he knew where Anna and Elsa were, even before the gates had been closed to the castle.

"Please," he scoffed. "I was lucky if I was remembered at the dinner table. And when I was, my brothers would pinch me just to get a rise, or tease me."

"What about your parents?"

"Please," he repeated. "My mother might show a bit of sympathy every once in a while, but never in front of my father. They hardly seemed to care, after twelve other sons."

"Twelve pregnancies?"

"Oh, I couldn't imagine—no." He chuckled. "But she had quite a few. Once I figured I was being ignored, it was all the more easier to just... slip out of the palace and try to get as far away as I could."

"And then, when you heard about my coronation?"

"Anything to get off the Isles. I asked about galas that needed dignitaries, christenings, weddings, even—but Arendelle had been the only break because at that point, all my other brothers had been married off, my eldest brother running the kingdom. I was finally of age, I suppose."

"Arendelle was your only shot, and the dignitaries practically gave it to you after I..." Elsa couldn't believe how stupid she'd been, but with all the pressure... She waved a dismissive hand. "So you got off. And you've been wandering the globe for two and a half years?"

"The punishment had been staying under my brothers' watchful eyes—the ones still on the Isles, anyway. But yes, more or less. You know I just stowed away on a ship leaving port and never looked back."

Elsa wished she could see the environment more, the sharp rocks, the cold sea. The huge, looming castle that housed so many, yet felt more isolated than her years locked away in her room. "That still doesn't explain the gash. Or the tattoo. What did you do, join a pirate crew?"