Thank you :)

The fire burned. It was the only thing warming our clan.

We found a cave deep and vast enough for us to take refugee from the world totally dominated in ice.

The fire burned ceaselessly. It was a gift from a god.

The cave had a small river flowing, warm by the heat of the earth, and filled with small creatures, creatures we ate for sustenance.

The fire burned bright. It was our beacon.

We were guided by it to find plants and mushrooms around the cave that keep us alive.

The fire burned bright. It flared brightly as we sacrificed our deads to it. It towered as it consumed the body.

And I could feel the soul rushing inside me everytime we do it.

The fire burned the hottest and brightest as I throw the last of us into it.

We were some 500 strong, man, woman, children. But that's it. The children bore no children. So as the last of the children aged hand passed, I was left alone.

"So what's all of this then?"

The fire laughed as I tossed the last of my kin into it.

"You asked for protection from cold and sustenance for your people. You forgot to ask for continuation of your people."

I was shocked, angered by the specification of the wish fulfillment.

Then I smiled as tear trickled down my cheeks.

"But they are now within me."

The fire burned, calmer. As if it was thinking.

"You have been a faithful servant. I can grant you one more wish!"

I stared at it.

"Are you really the master of the world?" "No. I am just a deceiver." "Why do the souls of my people flow into me then?" "I have plan for that."

At least he never lied.

I think and think and think.

"I have my wish now. I want to have children that are blessed and free from all the cold outside of this cave."

The fire burn brighter.

"Then step into me."

I stared at the fire.

"I will grant you your wish."

I had nothing to lose, so I step into the fire.

The fire then went brighter and brighter and hotter and hotter, engulfing me in it, burning me whole. Then it was gone and I was still alive.

"Now step outside. Find them. Make them worship you. Breed with them. Go forth and multiply!"

So I did. I walked in the cold with fire on my skin. I found them and gave them the warmth of the fire. I bred with their females. Then I walked, found others, gifted them fire, bred. So on for time untold.

Until the ice subsided and my children conquered the world, everywhere.

Then I found the real God, waiting for me in my sleep one day.

"when you wake up, around you will be warmth, grasses, water, trees, animals. That's my proof of my Godhood."

Then I woke up and it's true.

For the first time in a millenia, I was shivering. The fire inside me went cold.

Then he appeared in front of me.

"You have worshipped and used by the deceiver. For this you have your sin, and marked your children with this sin. Know the mark of this sin: the males will have wild urges and the females will have less freedom. Now walk south and never stop until I appeared again."

I obeyed and walked south for seven cycle of the moon.

When He appeared again I was on a grassy plain.

"This place will bear your curse, but it will also bear a gift for your children. Never again it will be bountiful with lives above it, but beneath it will bear the power of souls, souls that will be burned because of your sin. Now accept your a fate!"

I then felt a pain like no others, as God ripped the fire from inside of me, spread it wide across the world, ridding it of its life, turning it into a desert.

"This will be your place for the rest of time. No longer you can breed, and no longer you can talk to your children."

So here I am now. An existence in this vast desert. Exist, but no one can see me truly. I cannot talk to the children, but I can whisper things into them.

"Hear me, children, and be kind!"