"One month… it's only been a month?"
Kyle leaned forward on the back of his Echo, Aeravor—the massive griffon whose wings stretched wider than the tallest trees he'd ever seen. Wind raced past his cheeks, cool and thin at this height. Clouds drifted lazily below them, glowing faintly in the silver moonlight. Up here, it felt like time had slowed, like the world was whispering instead of shouting.
He looked at the scar on his palm, a reminder from a fight he barely survived in the forest below. In just thirty days, he'd gone from a clueless six-year-old to a fighter with two Echos… and now a third. A sky-dweller.
Aeravor shrieked softly, then adjusted its wings and turned slightly—almost like it had sensed something.
Kyle raised his eyes to the horizon.
Then he saw it.
Floating through the air like a living spirit, its body wreathed in glimmering stars and quiet light, was a creature that defied logic. Its body shimmered like glass reflecting the cosmos, every step it took leaving behind faint glows of constellations. Its eyes—huge, patient, and ancient—were like galaxies themselves, spinning slowly with wisdom and weight.
Kyle's heart skipped.
"That's… it."
He didn't know how he knew the name, but he felt it in his bones.
Astralyon.
The legendary Echo said to be born from the heavens during the Month of Stars—a creature that descended only when the sky was clear enough to reflect the souls of those watching.
Aeravor hovered still beside it, silent and reverent. Even the clouds around them stopped moving, as if time paused in the presence of something greater.
Astralyon turned its head just slightly. It saw Kyle. It looked at him.
Then… it vanished.
No burst. No sound. Just—gone.
Kyle stared into the empty space where it had been, breathing hard.
He didn't know whether to feel blessed… or cursed.
Then he heard something—pop! Crack!
He looked down. Through the thinner clouds below, flashes of colored light sparked and bloomed—fireworks. Celebration.
He wasn't alone anymore. A city was nearby.
"I made it."
His lips curled into a tiny smile. The forest was behind him. The journey forward was calling.
And somewhere, in the far corners of the world… Astralyon was waiting.
---