NOTE: This is a photomanip. I did not draw Kereska! Though Brennenacht is entirely my invention.

edit: Argh, I forgot to explain the picture! Ok. The female is a real person, she's =Kereska, and I used a photo of her from her stock account. The male is entirely drawn in by me without reference, so he has no basis in reality. The background is a collage of two photos from my holiday photos archive.

Female Model:
Background photos: mine
Male: copyright me

This is an entry for =Kereska's "Make Me a Myth" contest. The myth is completely made up by me, so no, it's not a real myth! (There's a contradiction in terms...)

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.:. The Myth of how Fire Came to Be .:.

Listen closely to the tale of how fire came to our lands.

When the world was made, the sun was the only burning thing that existed. Brant, the father of the gods, and the god of the sun, was the only one who held the secret of fire. Now as you all know, in those days gods and men did not mix often. The gods were jealous of their secrets and contemptuous of men. So for eons, fire was denied to men.

Then Brant lay with the Nashienn, goddess of the stars, and they had a son, Brennenacht. Nashienn was closer to men than was Brant, and she often took Brennenacht with her when she went to visit the human tribes.

Brennenacht thus grew up with a fascination for the lives of the humans. When he was older, he often took on the guise of a human male to walk among humans and experience how they live.

Then one day, he met a woman named Keres. She was human and beautiful like the night. Even more, she was witty and intelligent, yet in some ways frail and innocent. He saw in her the embodiment of the human race. He fell in love with her and he began to spend more time among humans to be with her. She saw in him only a handsome young man with strange flame-like markings on his body, but her tribe often made markings on their bodies and she thought nothing more of it. She made him feel welcome among humans and slowly, she began to fall in love with him as well.

Brant came to hear of their relationship, and oh, how great was his anger! The sky turned blood-red with the fire of the sun as Brant sent wild animals to kill Keres and bring Brennenacht back.

There was panic and terror in the lands as Brant's minions sought Brennenacht and Keres. The humans had made Brennenacht welcome among them and that made them targets of Brant's wrath too. As Brant's anger grew, he ordered his animals to leave none alive until the pair was found.

The humans, too, became angry. It was because of Brennenacht that they were being made to suffer! Furious, they went to the forest where Brennenacht and Keres were hiding and shouted for him to come out and show himself.

Brennenacht finally emerged from the forest with Keres at his side. The red markings on his body writhed and danced in the light of the fiery sky. He looked at the dead and the dying, and the wild animals that roamed the lands, and he looked last of all at the humans he had loved and who were now howling for his blood. And he, too, became angry, because men and gods had grown too far apart, and gods could not love humans.

And because he loved Keres, he dissolved his body into pure flames, which burned the wild animals and drove them back, but it did not burn her.

For the first time, fire burned in the lands.

When Brant saw the extent of his son's love for a human, he relented and withdrew his animals. And when Keres gre old, he turned her into ashes so that the lovers could be together for all eternity.

And that is the story of how fire came to our lands.