Please note, I understand that Ferdinand the Bull wasn't published until 1936, and the current year in this fanfiction is around 1863, I still wanted to make it part of this fanfiction.

I hope you all enjoy this. It's going to go faster than I intended, but I think the next chapter will be something you all really enjoy. This one is pretty enjoyable as well, I think. You know. Because I had fun writing it.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Frozen-Disney

Anything else: Mine and if you steal it I WILL call Elsa up and have her go Frozone on your arse.


The group arrived at the island on time. Hans's brother, August, greeted them warmly and explained that they would be staying on the expansive land until they could reclaim their own. He had palace servants step forward and help the villagers settle into pre-made houses that would easily accommodate the average family, and each had space for farming. The smell of lemons was strong, but the overall intensity was far less than anything on Hans's private island, with very few complaints from the villagers or the royals. Anna and Kristoff engaged in helping the villagers settle. Rowen and Dai went with one servant to look through the larger house made to house the previous castle occupants. Hans stayed behind and looked at his brother.

August was not a tall man, but he was definitely authoritative in looks. He and Hans had matching flaming hair and green eyes. August was more chiseled than Hans though, and also possessed a few grey streaks in his hair, yet his beard remained solid red. August looked up at Hans slightly and paused.

"Never thought I'd see you again, Hans." He said, his tone rather detached, as it had always been.

"Same here." Hans said awkwardly. His brother was staring at him like he was a stranger even more than usual. He couldn't exactly blame him, though. The last time August had seen his brother he'd still been in royal garb. Now Hans wore commoner clothes of basic cotton and worn boots that had been a hand-me-down from a stable hand at the palace. The colors were dull and he had an overall drab look too him, especially compared to his brother.

"Most the others have kind of gotten over what happened." August said and then, quietly, he added, "they still don't really want to see you. Especially not Father. He still feels you're an utterly disgraceful coward of a human being."

"Love you too, Dad." Hans joked quietly. This actually earned a nip of a smile from August.

"Nevertheless, he told me to give you this." August pulled a small wooden box from his pocket, decorated with the Southern Isles emblem. "Mother left it to you. Said it'd help you...figure something out." He handed it over to Hans, who stared at the cover. "She said that she couldn't keep it from you anymore. Father didn't even know what it was; he seems to be loosing his mind a bit, in a rather literal sense..."

Hans nodded, not surprised the old man was loosing some of the light upstairs. He unlatched the box and flipped it open. Inside was a single note, rolled and neatly tied with his mother's signature golden ribbon. He didn't really want to open it; it was something un-touched by anyone but his mother. The only memento he had of her, at the time, besides a couple of letters they exchanged before her passing. Nevertheless, he felt he had too. Like what she had left him was extremely important, either for the present or the future. Or maybe for his aching heart that had lost so much in so little time that it might give up if there wasn't some sort of relief.

So he undid the ribbon, careful to keep it in the box, and opened the slightly yellowed parchment, looking over the message that was written in handwriting of a far younger woman than Hans could much remember his mother to be;

Hans,

Your father thinks I'm writing a letter to your aunt. He can't find out that I'm trying to tell you this, but the guilt is eating me alive. Go to the place where we read Ferdinand the Bull on Sundays and follow the dancing light.

With the greatest love,

Mama.

Hans stared at the paper for a long time, re reading it again and again and again. He stood there for so long, staring at the paper, that August became worried and tried to get a look at it. Hans registered the attempt and got it out of his brother's eyesight in the most casual way possible, folding it up and putting it in the box.

"What...did it say?" His brother asked curiously.

"It was just...an apology." Hans said. A warm feeling was just below his chest, almost in his gut but somewhere else as couldn't tell what it meant. It did't quite feel like anticipation, but it wasn't any odd sense of fear. It burned slightly, like when you got sick to your stomach, but it didn't hurt. It was almost happy, or relieving. Something was going to fall into place, though he didn't know what. One detail of the note confused Hans, and he looked to his brother. "Do you remember Mother ever reading to me?"

August blinked. "Uh, plenty, when you were younger. She read to all of us when we were little."

"Did she ever read Ferdinand the Bull to me? I...I can't quite remember."

August nodded just a bit. Hans could feel a murky memory that consisted of blurred and smeared colors in the back of his mind begin to surface. "Did she read it to me anywhere specific?"

August raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Why?"

"I just...the letter mentioned it." Hans nodded to the box. "She was sorry she stopped reading."

August slowly nodded. "She was always sorry about that; she read to you the least out of all of us. I think you were a little more than three, maybe four." He shrugged. "But I don't know exactly where she read to you. I remember she'd always pick up the book and take you outside after church, and I don't think you ever went far from the house. It was always by the South wing, though. I remember that much."

Hans nodded a bit and pocketed the box with its letter. "Will there be a ferry coming here?"

August nodded. "Once a week so that the people can get things on the main island if they need too. If your asking because of that letter, I can just take you back with me right now." August nodded to his small ship that he'd sailed over in. Hans shook his head politely, nodding towards the village. "I'll just catch the ferry when it comes. I have to help out here."

August paused before nodding and then the brothers parted awkwardly, August to his ship and Hans to the people and servants who were assisting them. It took time, but everyone was in a house and relatively settled before dusk. In the new home of the main crew, Hans was given an actual room, equivalent to all the rest there. It had a comfortable bed and a wash basin with a mirror, a small wardrobe and a nightstand with a full oil lamp. Hans had to give his brother credit, he could make a very nice town in a very small amount of time. With no work to be done on the pristine island, Hans went to his room and sat with the box and the letter, reading it over and over again. There was a knock at the door.

"I swear, Fredrick, if you're going to try and make me do some sort of work, I'll shove your fat little butt under the sink." Hans said loudly.

"...I don't think Fredrick would fit under the sink."

Hans blinked at Anna's voice and got up, throwing on a light button-up after remembering the unintended embarrassment that arose from his last interaction with a female while shirtless. He opened the door and looked down at the young woman, who still looked tired but again decidedly less so. She had on her night gown and her arms were crossed.

"You're probably right, I would lock him in the pantry, though." Hans said.

"That would probably work better...can I come in?"

Hans mentally compared this Anna with the one on the ship, and then the near murderous one from a number of months ago before nodding and stepping to the side. Anna entered, looking around, and stood in the middle of the room as Hans closed the door.

"Um...what do you-"

"What's in the box?" Anna asked, twirling around until her eyes landed on the box, which sat open on Hans's bedside table. She started to move for it, but stopped herself and turned to him. "I saw you talking to your brother and he handed it to you, and you froze like..." Anna stopped, seemingly flashing back to Elsa, before shaking her head. "Like a frozen person."

Hans refrained from snorting and walked over. "Well, uh, it's from my mother."

Anna nodded a bit. "I heard you mumbling about it and Ferdinand the Bull earlier. What was that about?"

"Why are you so nosy?" Hans raised an eyebrow.

"Because I'm a little sister." She smirked just slightly. "You're the youngest of thirteen boys, you gotta relate somehow."

Hans blinked before nodding slightly, remembering several occasions that he had snooped in his older brothers' things, or pestered them relentlessly. "Well, yeah, but is that the only reason?"

"Sort of. You just seemed a bit off today." Anna shrugged. "And I'm curious. And nosy."

Hans was quiet for a second before making a quick descion and taking the box. He offered Anna the letter, which she took gently and read over. She furrowed her brow and looked up at him.

"What does she mean by this?"

"I don't know. I get the feeling it might have to do with a...passageway or something? I just know i need to find where she read Ferdinand the Bull too me. I was really little so I can't remember much but I...I think there was a tree or, or something..."

Anna blinked and then handed him back the letter, which he put in the box and then closed, setting it on the bedside table. "What do you think she hid from ya?"

"Hell if I know." Hans shrugged. "She hid it. Apparently Dad didn't approve...so..." Hans sighed. "I was going to go look around the palace when the ferry comes in a few days."

Anna nodded. Things were a bit awkward for a few moments. Neither person spoke, Hans because he didn't know what to say, and Anna because she was thinking over what she was going to say, though Hans didn't know that. Eventually, Anna put her hands behind her back and looked up at Hans.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"What?" Hans asked.

"Can I help you look for the spot? I mean, I don't know what I could do, but I don't want to leave you to do it yourself."

Hans paused. It would be nice to have some company, even if that company had spent most of her time thinking homicide thoughts of him before a short time ago. "Alright. I guess it wouldn't hurt..."

"Great!" Anna said, suddenly chipper. "I'll meet you at the ferry when it shows up."

"Alright." Hans smiled a bit and nodded. After that Anna went to the door and opened it to leave, turning around and smiling a bit. "Goodnight, Hans."

"Goodnight." Hans responded, waving a bit as she shut the door. Hans breathed the deeply and sat down on his bed. He removed his shirt and laid down, watching the light of his oil lamp wave and flicker in the warm breeze coming from the partly opened window to his right. Slowly, Hans closed his eyes, hands behind his head, and he dreamed. He dreamed of hope. Of finding the spot where his mother had read to him, of helping Arendelle get along in their new surroundings. He dreamed of people growing to like and trust him again. He dreamed of having that sort of security. He dreamed of his mother, and he dreamed of his father, and how much he wished he knew what he'd made his mother keep hidden. Finally, as the remnants of pictures and dreams slowly faded to the blackness of deep slumber, Hans dreamed of Elsa, of her smile and her laugh. Her affectation for overly-strong coffee, and her ability to make the heavy steps he took each day just a little bit lighter. The moving picture of her in his mind, her soft face and warm smile so opposite to the cold, hard ice she conjured, slowly began to fade, curling like it was sucked into a vortex until there was nothing but blackness, and the warm feeling of hope.