Sorry for the wait guys! Have a few other stories I'm working on and to be honest I hadn't planned what to do with them upon arriving on the island. But I spent a good hour last night researching and plotting the rest of it out until the end! Enjoy! I'm excited for you guys to read what is to come hehe~
Elsa lied in the prickly beach grass, too tired to care that dozens of bugs were most likely crawling on her, and too hungry to bring herself to move. She swallowed, mouth dry and stomach hollow, and tried not to dwell on the fact they had no idea where they were.
And Hans had all together disappeared.
He'd scaled rocky coast and disappeared into the wild forest, evidently expecting the two of them to follow. Elsa hadn't granted him the satisfaction. Her stomach growled and she felt a new wave of dizziness wash over her. She couldn't have followed if she'd wanted to. The night had been long and treacherous, robbing her of rest, and nearly killing the two men had kept her up all night to monitor their recovery. She was worn out, sleep deprived, and hungry. She wasn't going anywhere.
But she couldn't help but wonder where Hans had gone to. He'd been gone for a long time, and she was beginning to fear he wasn't coming back. She bit her lip, both embarrassed and disgusted by her concern. She had more pressing things to worry about than the fate of that bullheaded prince.
Despite her loathing, it was still hard to suppress the urge to ask the young sailor how long it had been since Hans abandoned them.
Agust sat nearby, fiddling with some branches, trying to make himself a more durable splint and pair of crutches, and incessantly mumbling reassurances to the exhausted queen.
"Don't worry, your majesty," he promised for the hundredth, "when night falls I'll figure out where we are judging by the stars."
"Agust." She said through clenched teeth, squeezing her eyes shut and trying her best not to snap at the loyal boy. "You don't have your sextant, we have no idea where we are, and from the looks of things we are on an island. We aren't going anywhere."
"I—know, your majesty," he mumbled, putting the sticks down and looking at his calloused hands. "But I'm not going to give up. It's fallen to me to ensure you're safely escorted back to Arendelle. I'd die before giving up on my duty."
"No one doubts that, believe me."
Elsa's eyes flew open at the familiar voice. Scrambling to her knees, she peered over the tall, scraggy grass just in time to see the man's auburn head emerge from the dark trees. He was still shirtless, pale skin sporting a sporadic array of red lines, with his shirt slung over his shoulder like a sack.
"The prodigal returns." Agust growled, brashly throwing the pieces of yet another snapped stick into the blowing grass.
Hans hopped down from the rocks above, landing with a weighty thud in the grainy sand. He let the shirt drop to the ground. With a soft thump, it unfolded, revealing a very dead hare within its dirty folds.
The two Arendelles recoiled at first, startled by the mass of the fur and beady face, but then looked up at Hans, who wore a smug, triumphant smile on his face.
"You caught this?" Elsa asked, edging closer to the dead hare, slightly disturbed by her sudden interest. She and Agust looked at the small rodent, grotesquely realizing their mouths were watering.
"No, I found it." He scoffed, pushing the lump of fur off the shirt with his foot. "Of course I caught it. What do you think I was doing out there, sight seeing? Staking a claim to the land?" He pulled on his shirt, which at this point Elsa believed couldn't get any dirtier, and ran a hand through his salt crusted, messy hair. "Actually, that last part might not be a bad idea." He spread his arms, gesturing at the island. "I'll call it Hansland. And you two can be my subjects."
"Shut up." Elsa said, prodding the dead hare, unsure what to do with it. "Agust, can you cook this?" Though she was starving, she still felt squeamish about gutting a dead animal, and considering she didn't even know how, it would be best to push the task to the young man. Afterall, he was always so eager to help.
"Yes, your majesty!" Agust said, utter happiness in his voice. He gingerly picked the hare up and limped about ten feet away, pulling a small pocket knife from his boot and got to work.
Elsa smiled at him with anticipation. If someone had plopped a dead hare in her lap a few days ago she would have been appalled, but now seeing the poor creature made her beyond relieved. It was bizarre how quickly circumstances changed people.
"Thank you." She said looking back up at the still smug man. The last thing she wanted to do was stroke his already puffed out ego, but she couldn't hold back the truth. She was truly grateful.
"No need," Hans said, waving it off with a tired sigh. "I was hungry anyways."
"How did you catch it?" she asked in near awe, unable to pull her mind from their impending dinner.
"Well," he started, sitting beside her with a graceless flop, "It wasn't exactly easy, since I didn't have any gear, but I went hunting a lot with my brothers when I was younger—well, the ones close in age, that is—and I got pretty good at it. It's all about manipulation when you don't have crossbows. You want to trick it into thinking it's safe then spring when you have it cornered. It was good sport, and we would try to outdo each other by making up new rules. My brother, Rudi's, favorite was hunting with no weapons. He was always so violent." Hans gave a hesitant, rueful laugh, and then all together stopped talking. Seeming to regret something he said, his lips pressed into a thin line and he looked away.
She blinked and cocked her head, wondering why he was suddenly so uncomfortable. "I'd say." She prompted, after a few long moments of silence. "You didn't like Rudi's game then?"
He looked bitterly at his hands and swallowed. "No." He then pushed himself up and walked down the coast, putting a healthy distance between him and the curious queen. Elsa sighed dramatically and dizzily pushed herself up, suddenly eager to smooth the drama over.
"I'm sorry you had to kill it like that." She said, stepping lightly beside him as they stared at the rocky coast. A group of young seals splashed in the tide, snuffling the foaming sand and basking in the warm, grey light.
He was quiet, staring at the blissful seals with his arms crossed. "Don't be." He finally said. "I didn't mean to go into detail. That was crude."
She thought about that for a moment, trying to decide if he meant the detail of his kill or the details of his past. She imagined young Hans terrified over what he had done, blood on his small hands from a botched kill, running home crying while his cruel brother laughed. She felt she should say something, she wanted to say something. But the correct words wouldn't form in her mind.
She was met with a new expression, a carefree half smile and cocked brow, that did not match his previously somber words. "I think I smell the furry brute cooking now. Shall we?"
XXX
Agust handed Elsa and Hans chunks of meat from the skewered hare. Hans greedily watched as the doting subject gave Elsa the largest piece but said nothing, turning his eyes instead to his own potion of the stringy meat.
He didn't care about killing the small creature—survival of the fittest and all that—but the stalking, chasing, and snapping had brought up memories of his childhood he'd rather suppress. He spat out some bone, disgusted with the fact he nearly shared a moment of his past, with Elsa of all people. The last thing he wanted was for her to see him as a whimpering child afraid of getting his hands dirty. He swallowed the remainder of the dry, gamey meat, reflecting that that version of him was probably the last thing she saw. After all, he did try to slice her head off with a sword not too long ago. That hadn't been his best moment.
"So," he said, breaking their ravenous silence, wiping his hands on his filthy shirt front, "While I was off being the hero and you too were collapsed on the shore, I got a little surveillance in of Hansland."
"Please stop calling it that." Elsa said pressing her temples.
"You have no right or authority to claim this island!" Agust seethed, throwing the bones to the ground. "You have been disowned from your royal line. The moment Elsa set foot here it came into property of Arendelle!"
Hans simpering look only caused the boy's face to turn even redder than his hair. Hans made eye contact with Elsa, attempting to ask her if Agust was serious, but was only rewarded with an annoyed glare.
"Well, I guess you don't want to know what I saw." He said haughtily, vindictively withholding the information.
"Hans," Elsa said evenly, clenching her fists in her lap. "Please continue."
"Well, I didn't go too far out," he recounted, the smug expression dissolving into earnest excitement, "But I did make my way out of this forest, or rather, woods. The islands here are a bunch of steep bluffs. After the trees end, it's just grass, rocky hills, and cliffs. The other side of the island is a large plateau, so if we wanted to get there we'd have to scale the rocky wall."
"That sounds difficult, considering my situation." Agust said quietly, looking at his splinted leg. "But I think that it's worth a try. We need to see what else is on this island."
"Maybe there are other people here." Elsa said hopefully, a small smile on her face. Her face hardened upon meeting their unsure looks. "Or at least on one of the others. There's got to be some sort of life, whether it's a fishing village or an abandoned lighthouse. The North Sea's islands are usually populated if they are big enough."
"And what makes you think that?" Hans challenged, leaning back onto the rocky shore.
"I did a lot of reading when I was younger." She replied, firm in her belief.
"Well," Hans sighed, reluctant to admit the prospect of finding other people sparked a small flame of hope, "if you say so. Just what kind of reading did you do?"
"I read everything I could get my hands on." She admitted with an embarrassed smile. "I mean, I practically lived in my room my, so I wanted to know about everything I was missing. Novels, histories, almanacs…" she listed, looking at the sky. "I lived in those books."
Hans looked away from the sad, nostalgic sight. It bothered him that she thought of the books fondly. She should be bitter about the way she was forced to live back then. He knew he was. He cupped some water from the snow basin Elsa had made and took a small drink, wishing for the thousandth time since departing Arendelle that it was alcohol that met his lips instead.