She took a step towards Alec. Tears rolled down her cheeks but her expression stayed filled with the same disbelief.

"Yasmin?"

She very slowly nodded and Alec slowly started to step away.

"No...you're dead! Dad saw a dragon fly away with you! Yasmin is dead, so who are you, really, because that's not funny!"

The woman took another step towards Alec.

"No, it's me Alec! I can prove it! I cut you with that axe, you're allergic to nettle stings! You have a mole on your skin in exactly the same place as me, on the back of your ear."

Alec grabbed his ear and played with it nervously. She rested her hand on Alec's shoulder.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but it's me, I promise and I never break my promises."

Alec gasped and wasn't able to hold back the tears.

"I...I don't really know what to say...what do you want me to say?"

The lady shrugged, smiled and held out her little finger.

"You don't need to say anything if you remember what this means?"

Alec stared at her hand and slowly wrapped his pinky finger around hers and they launched into a complicated handshake. After they finished, they fell about laughing. She suddenly stopped and stared into Alec's face.

"Your eyes haven't changed. Your just a little but taller but...still the same."

Alec slowly smiled and wiped a tear off her cheek.

"I missed you. Why didn't you come home, why didn't the dragons kill you?"

Yasmin's face fell and she turned away.

"I couldn't. Only a Whistler dragon knows how to find the island and how to get off again. I tried and tried and tried to come home but every time I got lost and the dragons would follow to sounds of my cries and retrieve me."

I frowned and stroked the head of a near by dragon.

"But...why don't you just ride one out, they're so easy to train?"

She sat down near a baby Whistler and stroked its tummy.

"I was just a little girl, to this day, I don't know how to train a Whistler. But...you're here. You know how to train a dragon and I know almost everything there is to know about Whistler dragons! We can do it Alec, all four of us together can do what no one has done before,

step into the unknown and train a Whistler dragon."