A/N: This chapter was going to be longer, but the end seemed like an 'okay' place to leave readers for now. You'll shake your head at me for saying that when you get to the end of this, I know.

The old woman had ashy grey hair. Her round face had tiny but prominent cheekbones that stuck out even as she frowned at Anna holding Hans upright. She quickly beckoned Anna into the cabin. As soon as Anna stepped over the threshold, the woman draped a green quilt over her bare shoulders.

"Let's go to the fire and you can tell me what you were both doing in the forest near nightfall, hmm?" She spoke with an accent and more deliberately than was natural. Anna supposed she wasn't speaking her native language.

"O-okay," Anna replied through chattering teeth. The woman went around to the other side of Hans. She assisted in getting them both past a single table and chair, then to a stone hearth in the wall. There were iron pots and pans around the hearth floor as well as spare logs. Tools hung from the mantel plank on top. Anna glanced at the jars and plates sitting above. She sat on the floor after the old woman apologized for not having more furniture.

"I sold a lot when my husband passed away," the woman explained, manhandling Hans into the lone wooden chair. "Times were tough until I took up quilting again. That one never sold." She indicated the green quilt around Anna.

Anna looked down at the green quilt, puzzled. It was doing a fine job of warming her up along with the crackling fire. She observed the yellow and blue lines that made rectangles around and around the quilt. There were navy squares; diamonds, too. Little red crosses had been stitched in one great rectangle too. Maybe it wasn't beautiful by her standards, but it was comfortable.

"I could never make this," Anna said with a smile. "Thank you for letting us in… I think we would've frozen out there if not for you."

"I'm Judet," the old woman said. She had Hans's face squished still with one hand while her other held one of his eyes open. Hans groaned at the indignity.

"Anna," Anna replied. "That's Hans… be careful. He's dangerous."

Judet turned toward Anna with a little grin. "Oh, he's not so dangerous right now."

Anna couldn't help smiling. Then her brow furrowed as she remembered Hans's blood. "We… we were chased by a giant, and then I tried to take Hans back to Arendelle," she said. "He hit his head."

"I'll take care of it," Judet said, completely unfazed by Anna's mention of the giant. "There's a bed in the other room. Why don't you rest for a minute?"

Anna nodded, glad to put some distance between herself and the flames. The heat was starting to hurt. She gave one last look at Hans before finding her way to a separate room at the back of the cabin. There she found one small window and a box-bed built into the neighboring wall. A single candle lit the room. The world beyond the window was dark now. Anna climbed into the bed. It was wide enough for two people, so she stretched out to ease her stiff neck and shoulders.

Suddenly she tensed. Should she have left Judet alone with Hans? What if this was all a trick of his?

Stop it, she thought. If not for hitting his head, he could have dragged her around until she agreed to free him. Luckily, things worked out in her favor. She just hoped he'd be recovered enough by morning for her to take him back to Arendelle.

She tugged the quilt more tightly around herself and thought of home. Were Kristoff and Elsa looking for her yet? Surely everyone would have noticed she was missing by now.

She thought back to being ignored at the dinner table. It had not escaped her notice how easily Elsa and Kristoff spoke with each other even though they had only just met. As talkative as Anna herself was, neither Elsa nor Kristoff talked to her with such ease. She tried to think of Elsa talking in Sven's voice and then of Kristoff shooting ice out of his palms; no, it wasn't that they had similar personalities. If anything, Kristoff was more like herself. She thought of him standing at her door in the castle, pulling the melted truffles out of his pocket. The memory made her giggle. He was really so…innocent. He was nothing at all like the idiot in the other room.

Anna scoffed at the thought of Hans. He'd put on such a show about getting out of the forest before dark. Now it occurred to her that he may have been trying to drag her someplace where he could hold her for ransom.

"Anna."

Anna started at Judet's voice from the doorway.

"Come, help me bring Hans. He should rest sitting up. Lying might be bad for his head," she said, disappearing back to the main part of the cabin.

Lying indeed, Anna thought. Rather reluctantly, she got out of the box-bed and followed Judet back to the room with the hearth. Judet was already pulling Hans up to his feet. He mumbled a couple of unconvincing threats about being woken as Anna took her place at his other side. Together, she and Judet guided him to the bedroom. It was much easier with two people. They were careful not to let his head hit the intricate wood carvings atop of the box-bed as they stuffed him into a sitting position inside.

Judet stepped back, examining the man sitting in her bed like some sort of project near completion. She ducked her head into the box-bed to stuff one tiny, flat pillow behind Hans's neck.

"That should do it," she said. Then she looked to Anna. "I suppose you won't want to sleep in there with him."

"Ah-?! Absolutely not!" Anna yelled, her face melting from anger to embarrassment before she even finished speaking. "Sorry. I mean, yes. Yes, I won't want, don't want. Absolutely not."

"As I thought," Judet said. She didn't seem offended by Anna's outburst. "Come, he'll be fine after he rests. I'll make a place for you to sleep too."

"What about you?" Anna asked, following Judet out of the bedroom. Judet paused near a couple of baskets on the floor just out of the room. She pulled out more brightly colored quilts.

"Me? I don't sleep much. Haven't since my husband…" Judet trailed off. Anna wished she hadn't said anything. She didn't like the grief in Judet's voice. Someone generous like Judet did not deserve to be sad. "Come."

Anna followed her back out to the hearth. Here Judet set the quilts upon the table so she could free her hands to make more space on the floor. Anna moved to help her, but Judet just waved her off.

"There's something," Judet said, placing as much as she could on the mantelpiece. "You should know." The rest she set on the table.

"Huh?"

"You said this…Hans, that he's dangerous," Judet started.

"That's right. He-"

"He is in danger."

Anna's mouth shut. What? Hans was in danger? Hans was the danger!

"I thought you said he'd be fine," Anna said.

Judet shook her head. "His head will be fine."

"Now I'm confused."

"It's his soul," Judet explained. Then she practically whispered, "I saw it in his eye. The battle for his soul has just begun."

Anna did not reply at first. She didn't know what to think. There were no crosses in Judet's cabin to suggest she was religious. Anna herself was raised a Christian, but she did not take the battle between good and evil too literally. It was true that Hans had done some awful things. But he hadn't actually succeeded in killing her or Elsa. So wasn't there still technically a chance for his atonement? But how would Judet know all this? All Anna had said was that Hans was dangerous.

Judet looked at Anna's bewilderment with pity. "I'm sorry. We don't have to discuss this. Just… please think about it," she said, giving Anna's hand a squeeze. She let go and picked the quilts up off the table. When she shook them out, Anna saw that they were not quilts. They were blue gaktis with beautiful patterns in red, yellow, green and white. Judet began layering them on the floor. "I was just at the market, so I don't have many quilts left. I'll see what else I can find, but these will do for now."

Anna stared down at the beautiful dresses. "I couldn't. Are... are you Lappish?"

Judet cringed at the question. "I was from Sapmi, yes. But I married a man from Arendelle." She went to a far corner of the room and pulled out a couple of pillows. "I stopped wearing those dresses when we moved there. But it didn't help win his family's approval. That's why we moved out here." She thrust the pillows into Anna's arms and gestured for Anna to sit on the makeshift bed she'd created.

Anna sat but wanted to kick herself for bringing up a subject that was clearly painful to the old woman.

"I have no regrets, though. We had many happy years together," Judet said, staring into the fire with a smile.

Anna thought back to her own brief engagement. Even though it had obviously been infatuation rather than love, it had been painful when Elsa rejected something that was supposed to make Anna happy. Now of course she understood how crazy it had all been. She had learned her lesson. She would not get engaged in such haste ever again.

"You look troubled," Judet observed. "Shall I tell you a story?"

A king had just been married one year when he sailed out to settle some disputes with distant subjects. But a nasty storm set upon the sea and cast his ship to a cluster of rocks. The king was about to perish when a mermaid came to him and swore to rescue him. But she would only help if he promised his firstborn son in return. At first, the king hesitated. But when the storm worsened, he agreed.

When he came home to his queen, he learned his firstborn had been born. He had a son! But then he remembered the terrible deal he had made with the mermaid. He had to tell his wife. Remorseful though he was, the queen told her love not to worry. She had an idea.

For sixteen years, they raised their precious son. But on his sixteenth birthday, they made him leave home so that the mermaid could not find him when she came to collect him. And so the prince went out into the world.

On his first night away from home, the prince met a starved lion. The prince shared his food with the beast. The lion repaid him by giving him the tip of his ear. He told the prince that with this, the prince could transform into a lion. The following day, the prince tried his gift and transformed into a lion. He traveled all day until he grew tired of it and changed back into a man.

On his second night away from home, the prince met a hungry bear. Again he shared his food with the hungry animal and in return, the bear gave a tip of his ear that would transform the prince into a bear.

The next day, the prince shared his food with a bumblebee. In return, he was given a hair from its wing that could transform the prince into a bumblebee.

The prince traveled on. He eventually came to a city where it was said lived a princess who hated all men and refused their company. That night, the prince transformed himself into a bumblebee and flew into the princess's room. He transformed back into a man and frightened the princess. When she screamed, her guards ran in to protect her but the prince had transformed back into a bumblebee, so they left. Once again, the prince transformed back into a man and the princess screamed a second time. But again the guards came, found nothing and left. By now, they decided their princess was crazy and would not come running if she screamed again. So when the prince became a man again, the guards did not come to her aid.

Now that they were alone, the prince wooed the princess and she fell in love with him. She told him that in three days, her father would go to war and leave his sword behind. Whoever brought the king his sword would gain her hand in matrimony. The prince agreed to do this, but if he were not to return, she should play a violin on the seashore loudly enough to reach the bottom of the sea.

The prince left with the king for war. When the king discovered he had left his sword behind, he promised his men that he who brought his sword to him could wed the princess and inherit the throne.

The prince and the king's men all took off to retrieve the sword. The prince frightened the others by transforming into a lion, and so he got ahead of them. When the prince reached the palace, the princess gave him her father's sword and broke her ring into two. She gave him one and kept the other to signify their betrothal. As the prince was leaving the palace, he encountered a Red Knight who tried to take the sword from him. But the Red Knight failed.

On his way back to the king, the prince stopped to drink from a stream. But there the mermaid saw him and, realizing he was the prince she was promised, she kidnapped him and took him to the bottom of the sea. Shortly afterward, the Red Knight found the sword and brought it to the king.

The war ended and the king returned to his palace and told the princess that she must marry the Red Knight. During the wedding feast, the princess, remembering what her beloved had said, ran to the sea to play her violin. The mermaid heard her song but the prince claimed not to hear it and asked the mermaid to raise him higher and higher so he could hear. When they reached the surface, the prince transformed himself into a bee and flew to his princess.

The princess brought the prince to the feast and challenged the Red Knight to transform himself into a lion, a bear and a bee. Of course he could do none of the three. She then asked her prince to do so. He did all three. The princess told her father that it was the prince who retrieved his sword, not the Red Knight. Then she showed her father their matching rings. The king had the Red Knight exiled, and the prince and princess were wed and lived happily ever after.

Olaf had spent all day playing tag, catch, hide-and-seek and other games with children in the town. He raced up and down the streets with them. He sniffed as many flowers in as many flower gardens as he could. He pointed out shapes in the clouds. But no matter what he did, he couldn't shake away his guilt.

He'd felt guilty to begin with. But what made it worse was when, on his trip back to the castle that afternoon, he overheard two guards talking about the queen's 'meltdown'. At first, Olaf wasn't sure what that meant. But when they described how the castle had gone cold—that ice had formed along the walls, that even Kai and Gerda couldn't calm her down—Olaf had a pretty good idea of what a meltdown was.

At the same time, he'd promised Anna to keep her secret. Anna was as much his friend as Elsa. But Elsa was the queen. Elsa had made him. But Anna was a very dear friend. He'd certainly spent more time with her.

"Ohhhh, I don't like this…oh, the confusion! I should have never told those guards that I saw Hans!" he wailed to a pigeon on the street. The pigeon cocked its head and then hobbled away from the disturbed little snowman.

"I can't take this anymore… Anna must be far enough by now. I won't feel better until Elsa feels better," Olaf said. He wasn't quite sure what was happening when a sack was thrown over him. He was suddenly swept off the ground and carried off before he realized it.

A/N: The story Judet tells Anna is a Sami fairytale called "The Mermaid and the Boy" translated into English by Andrew Lang in 1904. The Red Knight is actually supposed to be hanged at the end, but I think with Anna trying to sleep, Judet wouldn't tell her that version…

Thank you for reading! Yes, lots of questions… Hans may have some answers.