Prologue:
Ethan looked up at the dark navy ocean laid out before him. Stars swam in its vastness shining dimly like fireflies in the distance. The moon shone brightly, its sliver beams caressing the Earth’s surface with soft warm glow of light.

Ethan sat at the edge of the playground watching the other Hood children play, their screams and laughter echoing behind him, now distant whispers of a world unknown. He held within him the uncontrollable urge to howl at the sacred sphere. He wanted to sing in the long forgotten tongue of the moon tribe. A tribe that was forbidden to be spoken of and allowed to live. His voice rang out, and the other children stared at him with eyes full of confusion and fear. They looked at him, watching him like a freak in a circus. Someone that obviously did not belong, that did not deserve the title of Hood. He wasn’t one of them; he knew that and so did they. He could see it in their eyes and deep within himself.

He looked back to the moon with its ghastly glow. Am I different? he thought. Did I not belong in this place? Was I even human…?

…Or something else?

Another howl escaped his lips in prayer. Seconds later, in return, distant in Black Forest, another deeper, more masculine howl answered his.