Aldru changed into her human form and stood confidently. She was shocked to see the genuine look of awe on the man's face. Yet he wasn't surprised; it was more or less as if he'd seen a ghost. He then finally introduced himself after a hesitation, "I'm Viggo."

"I've heard lots about you," Aldru responded, eyes squinted in suspicion.

Viggo sighed, "I want you to know that I didn't kill your sister. My men mistook her for a young death song and, well, you know."

"Then how did you know to call her my sister?" Aldru asked inquisitively.

"Because I know your species, maybe even better than you do," Viggo explained, going on to peove his point, "I know that song wings are only ever female, I know how you age and why it is different. I know that before you were endangered, song wings did, in fact, stay together."

Aldru let out a deep breath. These things she'd never known, how did he? "It's must be so much easier to believe that I'm a merciless, evil man," Viggo went on, "but I would never hurt a creature as beautiful as yourself."

Shocked silent by the words, Aldru only stared at him. She stared into his eyes and soul to find the lies, but there were none. Then, to even more of a surprise, Viggo pulled out his keys and released the caged dragons. He gave Aldru a stern look and warned, "I will only ever do this once. If you're ever caught by my men again, I'll not be so easy on you."

Lastly, he opened the exit. Aldru hesitated for a moment, staring at Viggo in disbelief; surely this wasn't the bloodthirsty dragon hunter she'd heard so many awful stories about? After a minute of frozen shock, she changed form and all of the dragons flew free. She turned back as she flew off to find Viggo staring after her, then he turned away and the ships began to leave.

"What was that?" Ryker demanded of his brother.

"Relax, brother," Viggo ensured, "song wings are smart, you have to be willing to give a little in order to gain one's trust."

"You just set free our whole days work," Ryker yelled.

Viggo sneered and gave his brother a death glared. "Those dragons can be replaced," he snarled, "that song wing can't."

• • •

"Ready everyone?" Hiccup asked.

The other riders nodded. But before they could take off, something knocked Snotlout right off of Hookfang's back. "What the--" he exclaimed.

"Aldru!" Astrid yelled with a smile.

"Barf, Belch!" Ruffnut shouted, arms wrapped around the dragon's necks.

Hiccup looked at the horizon and saw many more dragons flying their way. "Aldru," he began as she got off of Snotlout and changed back to a human, "how did you..?"

Aldru sighed, "you're not gonna believe it."

"Oh, let me guess," Tuffnut insisted with enthusiasm, "you discovered some secret, hidden, awesome powers and defeated Viggo in one blow!"

"Actually," Aldru began, "Viggo let us go."

"He what?" Fishlegs almost choked.

"Not buying it," Tuff shook his head and crossed his arms, "all in favor of secret, hidden, awesome powers say 'I'!"

"Not now, Tuff," Astrid scolded. Now all eyes were on Hiccup, but he remained silent. "What are you thinking?" Astrid asked him.

"There has to be some reason for this," Hiccup explained, eyebrows drawn down in thought, "Aldru, what did he say to you?"

Aldru looked out toward where the ships once floated. "He said that he didn't kill my sister, and that he'd never dream of hurting my kind," she told them.

"Well simple, he's lying," Snotlout confirmed.

But Aldru wasn't sure. She turned back to the riders and dissagreed, "I don't think he was; song wings are very delicate about who knows about us. But Viggo..he knew more than even I did."

"What are you saying?" Hiccup asked hesitantly.

Aldru took a deep breath and spoke carefully. "I'm guessing...at some point in his life, a song wing trusted him enough to tell him everything," Aldru hypothesized.

Astrid frowned and walked over to Aldru. "Even if you're right, Viggo's a tricky guy," she reminded, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, "he could easily have tricked one into telling him everything, too."

Nothing made sense, and nothing added up. But she couldn't get it off her mind as they all flew back to Dragon's Edge.

• • •

It was Aldru's turn for night watch, and she was more than happy about it. She needed time to think through everything, and she always did that best under the stars. After flying the perimeter, she changed back to human form and stood on one of the higher platforms. But it wasn't long before Hiccup showed up.

And she knew he would.

"Still thinking about what Viggo said?" Hiccup asked as he made his way over to the girl.

Aldru nodded in response. "..He knew I wouldn't leave without the other dragons."

Hiccup shrugged, "well, like you said, he knows a lot about song wings."

"It's more than that, though," Aldru went on. She paced a few steps then furrowed her eyebrows as she spoke, "he wanted me gone; he wanted me to leave."

"Aldru, he's just trying to get inside your head," Hiccup insisted.

But Aldru wasn't about to pass it off that easily. "No, he's not," she argued back, "if this was about wanting to catch me, sell me, or enslave me, he would've done it then and there. Instead, he released almost twenty dragons, because he wanted me to leave. He wanted me out of whatever he has going on."

There was a moment of silence as Hiccup considered her theory. He sighed, "I understand, Aldru; just don't let it eat away at you."

Aldru smiled up at Hiccup and assured him, "I won't." She then frowned and averted her eyes momentarily. "There is something else, though."

Hiccup cocked his head and questioned, "what is it?"

Taking a deep breath, Aldru spoke, "I want to go back to my island of birth. There's a chance I could find out more about myself.."

A cold touch on her cheek made Aldru lose her train of thought. Hiccup's hand had brushed her hair back behind her shoulder. For a moment, she couldn't look away from his eyes. They were deep, warm, and honest. "If you can lead the way," he began with a kind grin, "we'll come with you."