PROLOGUE

The monster stood alone on the side of the mountain. He held out his hands.

‘Fly with courage and speed and the will of the stars. If you just do one thing, help return what is ours.’

He parted his claws so there was enough space for the moth to escape. It crawled over the back of his hand and circled his wrist. It had a silver-grey, fluffy body.

‘Fly with courage and speed and the will of the stars. If you just do one thing, help return what is ours.’

The moth opened and closed its wings to show it was thinking. Then it travelled up the monster’s arm. ‘I’d forgotten how strange you creatures are,’ said the monster, scratching his bald head. ‘All the other moths just flew away.’

The moth’s tiny legs tickled the monster’s collarbone. He closed his eyes and repeated the words for a third time.

‘Fly with courage and speed and the will of the stars. If you just do one thing, help return what is ours.’

The monster opened his eyes. The moth was crawling across his face, past his teeth, which stuck out like tusks, over his squished-in nose and on to the top of his head.

‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘You’ve reached the end of Zuby. There’s no more of me.’

There was a faint flutter and he looked up. The moth was flying away, but it wasn’t travelling across the forests, like the moths he’d released before. It was heading up the face of the mountain.

Zuby soon lost track of its shape in the darkness, even with his sensitive eyes.

‘Where are you going?’ he called. ‘You won’t find it among the stars!’