Hans looked over at the tears in Merry's eyes. Gerda's eyes were watering as well. He noticed that Kai was clearly distraught. He placed his sword back in his sheath. "Master Gibbons!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Get a rowboat ready. I'm sorry to say that Liz cannot remain on this ship. To think that I once considered her a friend." "It's hard to make friends with one of my enslavers!" scoffed Liz. "You weren't even the nicest one." "I REPENTED!" roared Hans. "Like you, I was also under the authority of the king." "Did you really repent, Hans?" Liz skeptically said. "Or did you change sides just because you were commanded to do the one thing you deemed to be unthinkable?" Liz's words sent chills down Hans' spine.

Once Gibbons got the rowboat ready, Hans bid Liz farewell. "If anyone wants to join Liz on the rowboat, they may do so," shouted Hans. "We've not too close to inhabited land, but neither are we too far away. I'm sure you can make it if you just row. William Bligh did." Merry, James, and Finn all joined Liz on the rowboat. Hans provided them with provisions and a flare, before bidding them farewell.

Meanwhile, when King Jacob returned, Caleb explained everything to him on board THE SUMMER GULL. Jacob didn't take the news well at all. "I placed my faith in you, and this is the thanks I get!" Jacob grumbled loudly. Jacob's entire crew took a step back when they noticed that Jacob was filled with rage. "You let Hans get away with the sketchbook!" roared Jacob, striking his son on the face. "Let's see if you like fire." Caleb fell on his knees. Tears streamed down his face. "Calm down, father!" begged Caleb. "They may have gotten away with the map, but I managed to decode it and memorize vast portions of it. I even know where they're going. They're going to the island of trolls." Jacob grinned widely. "Very good, son!" he exclaimed. "I'm almost impressed." Caleb grinned with relief.

"Almost…"

Jacob knocked Caleb to the ground. He took a burning torch and pressed it against Caleb's face. "Ahhhh!" screamed Caleb in agony. "You've earned yourself some mercy, my son," he said, frowning. "I was thinking of pressing this against your face for 5 minutes, but now I'll settle for two. Believe me when I say that this hurts me almost as much as it hurts you." The crewmembers took another step back when they saw Jacob torment his son.

Meanwhile, hours later, Liz and her companions were rowing in the rowboat. In an hour the sun would come up and they were not far from land. Liz and Merry began to shiver due to the cold. "Be strong, my child," Liz urged Merry. "I think we'll make it to land within 2 hours." James dropped his oar and picked up the flare. He took out a match and lit the flare. "There's a candle in the boat, for you who are cold," he said to Liz and Merry. "You fool!" Liz and Merry shouted simultaneously.

"That's a flare, you fool!" shouted Liz. Before James could put out the fuse, the flare burst into the sky. It could be seen from miles away. It could even be seen by Jacob, and Jacob did see the flare. "Sail towards that light," Jacob ordered upon seeing the flare. Within moments, they spotted the rowboat Liz and her companions were on. At first, Liz and her companions had no idea of the danger they were in. They thought the people on the ship were friendly. "There's a ship sailing after us," Finn told Liz. "What should we do?" Liz took out her telescope to take a closer look at the ship. There was something not quite right about the figures on the ship. She observed the sails on that ship to find that they were torn, yet the ship still moved relatively quickly. She thought she'd seen that ship before, many years ago. Was the ship THE SUMMER GULL? It had to be. Liz quickly grabbed two of the oars with her hands and rowed as fast as she could. "Row quickly!" she yelled. "It's an enemy. It's them. I'd really hoped they'd stay dead." "Are they the undead?" asked James. Liz nodded without saying anything. Slowly but surely they were making it towards the shore. If they reached land, they would be free of the undead. "We're going to make it!" Merry yelled. But that was merely wishful thinking. THE SUMMER GULL was quickly gaining on them. A moment later, THE SUMMER GULL was less than a dozen meters away from the rowboat. It was going to strike them!

"Jump, and swim for it!" Liz shouted. "Port side. Now!"

They all jumped into the water. They all narrowly managed to avoid being struck by the ship. But now they were all stranded in deep water. If they didn't find a way to keep warm, they would all freeze to death. A few ropes were thrown down to them from THE SUMMER GULL. Liz looked up and felt a chill in her spine. For standing on the deck of the ship was the dreaded King Jacob of the Southern Isles, dead but not quite dead. "Hop aboard," he said grimly to them. "I won't bite, for I have use for you." It took quite some time for them to decide to come aboard the ship, but eventually they came aboard the ship.

Meanwhile, Kai and Gerda were watching the sun rise from the crow's nest, while Hans stood next to the helm. "Wow!" Gerda cried so loudly that Hans could hear her. "Quiet down please, Gerda," Kai said. "You don't have to ensure that the whole crew hears you."

"Sorry, Kai, it's just that I wasn't expecting to see a whale out there in the ocean at this time of day. What kind of a whale was it?"

"It was a sperm whale, I think."

"And it was covered in barnacles too."

After this, the two of them climbed down the crow's nest. "Kai, I've been thinking," Gerda said, placing a hand on Kai's shoulder. "But how do you plan to live your life in Arendelle if you get to settle there? Spend it with me?" Kai stretched his head. "Of course," Kai replied, before nervously correcting himself. "Well, actually, it might be good to just find a few more books to read," he nervously said. "Books are a luxury item for a former slave." Gerda's eyes widened with shock. "Did I unsettle you?" Kai wondered out loud. "Not in a way that makes me scared of you," Gerda said. "But I'm guessing some people in your life had a habit of shutting you out."

"Not as many people as you might expect. I'm sure my father did his best to make time for me. My uncle Hans didn't seem to think too highly of me at first, but he got better. But I don't think I'll ever want to shut you out."

"That's crazy! I was just thinking the same thing."

Hans could hear what Kai and Gerda were saying, and something about what they were saying seemed familiar to him. "Anna…" Hans mumbled to himself. He turned to look at them. Kai's lips appeared to be moving closer to Gerda's mouth. Without thinking, Hans shouted, "Kai, can you please take the helm for me for just a moment? I'm a little tired." Kai rolled his eyes as though he was frustrated at what Hans asked him to do. Gerda smiled in an understanding manner at Kai. "I'll be right back," Kai softly said before moving over to the helm. Hans stood next to Kai, while Kai took control of the helm. "Uncle, can I ask you something about Gerda?" Kai asked him. "You like her, don't you?" Hans replied with a question. "Well, yes, uncle," said Kai. "I just want to know if I love her." "That's easy to determine," Hans slyly remarked. "If you're protecting her sister from the sword, then you probably love her. If you're swinging the sword at her sister and leaving her to die, then you definitely don't love her." "That's really helpful," Kai sarcastically said.

Hans walked over to Gerda, who was scrubbing the deck. He picked up a brush and began to scrub the deck as well. "Has Elsa sent a snowball flying over to the Southern Isles on Anna's 19th birthday?" he asked her. "What?!" gasped Gerda, barely able to avoid laughing. "I'm just asking a question," Hans clarified. Gerda paused for a moment, and then said, "I've been studying my Aunt's life for years. I can say with certainty that she never threw a snowball at anyone on that day." This wasn't exactly a lie. Hans looked at Gerda suspiciously. "Ok, I'm going to trust you," he said. "It's just that a snowball came out of nowhere and struck me on your mother's 19th birthday. At first I suspected that Elsa sent that snowball at me, but now I see that my fears were completely unfounded. That snowball must have been part of an elaborate hoax. Some of my brothers must have been responsible for that hoax." "Of course…" Gerda slowly said.

Hans still had more questions he wanted to ask her.

"Has your mother ever spoken of me?" he asked.

"Umm… no."

"Really? Not once? Not even in her sleep?"

"Well, not that I know of. However, Elsa did speak of you 20 years ago during the night of the Arendelle Autumn Harvest festival. I wasn't there, but I did my research about the events of that night. You see, I really want to write a book about Elsa."

"Don't lose track of the topic!"

"You see, she was playing a game of charades with her sister. My mother was miming the word VILLAIN. Everybody including Elsa thought she was referring to you. Elsa called you an Unredeemable Monster."

"Not an Unredeemable Monster! Anything but that. Why couldn't she have called me a ruffian, or a scoundrel, or even a pirate?"

After Gerda had finished scrubbing the deck, she went over to Gibbons, for she had more questions she wanted to ask, and she wanted to hear answers from other people so she could form an unbiased opinion. "It's Nathanael Gibbons, isn't it?" she asked him. "Master Nathanael Gibbons at your service!" he mumbled. "Could I ask you some questions?" she said. "Since arriving on this ship, I've realized that there's a lot I don't know." "Speak!" Gibbons gruffly replied. "How did King Jacob of the Southern Isles turn into this undead creature?" she asked, taking out her sketchbook to jot down what Gibbons was going to say. "It's quite a tale," he said. "So I'm going to have to ask you to be patient."

"Hans' relationship with his brother Lars soured since Hans returned from Arendelle to the Southern Isles. Lars was so ashamed of what Hans did that he wouldn't even speak to him. Every time Hans tried to say something, Lars would turn away. Both Hans and Lars lost the privileges their titles could afford them. Hans lost his title after his failed attempt to take the throne of Arendelle. Lars lost his title after attempting to free his bastard son Kai from a life of slavery. Kai's mother was a slave. She disappeared one day after the ship she was on vanished. Lars was distraught by this, and it was after Kai's mother Sakina vanished that Lars decided to take matters into his own hands and free Kai. He failed, of course."

"Later, Hans and Lars ended up working on the same ship, which was called THE DARK ONE. The two of them were now servants, barely higher in status to slaves. Still Lars wouldn't speak much to Hans even though they worked on the same ship. One day, pirates stole money from the royal treasury of the Southern Isles and attempted to flee on their pirate ship."