“Before mankind was mankind, when we lived amongst the macaques and the monkeys, there was a beautiful woman called Parar. She survived in the forest, and although she was not a skilled huntress, she was well liked by her friends and was a talented forager. One day, when she was wandering through that woods, she felt a cold breeze down her neck.”

“Ooh, what was it?”

“I’m getting to that -- this was a time before evil, before bad things were possible, so imagine her surprise when a fiery spirit appeared in front of her. This spirit, Ehleri, had the head of a deer, black eyes, and a heart that flickered with flames. Parar felt curious, and aroused, and so gave into her baser instincts and let him inside herself. The spirit planted his seed in her, and let himself flow out across the land, and with that there came this vile, evil cloud upon the world.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well, Parar felt guilt, and shame, and when she returned to her village they blamed her for the cold evil they saw in the world -- even if it wasn’t really hers. So, she ran away, and the villagers chased her. Look up, and you can see them in the sky.”

“Parar and the Villagers?”

“That’s right.”

“They don’t look much like people.”

“Well, that’s because they’re quite far away. Anyway, that’s not important -- what’s important is that for the people left in the world, everything was quite dismal and cold. There was night now, and snow, and everything naughty and wrong. Parar gave birth to her child, half spirit-half human, and let him tumble back to the world. There, he wore clothes and lit a fire to keep warm. He proved that in an evil world, not everything has to be wrong and bad -- there can be joy and light too.

Even he, the son of a spirit, was guilty of evil things too; he kept the fire to himself, thinking that if he spread it he would lose its warmth. The people grew envious of him, and that envy gave way to evil thoughts, and those evil thoughts became evil actions. The people stabbed him and cut him to pieces with their axes, and with a thwack thwack thwack they stole the fire for themselves.”

“That’s horrible. It should’ve ended at the joy and light bit.”

“Well, that wouldn’t be the truth then, would it?" Ama wiped her son's cheek,

"This is the same story we’ve been telling forever, we can’t just change it.”