Parables of Fire

Three Men and their Bounty

Long ago there were three men who had returned from a hunt, each bearing his own bounty, and each with a different idea of what to do with it. The first man decided that he would keep it for himself, eating of the raw flesh and burying the carcass in the ground. The second man decided that he would deliver his bounty to the fire as a sacrifice, eating nothing of it. The third man chose to give his meat to the fire, but also take from it the warm and cooked meat.

The first man was soon after to perish of disease, for he had not purified the meat under fire, and burying it had caused all manner of tiny creatures and disease to inhabit his spoils. The second man, acting out of faith, refused to accept from the fire the gift of life, and so in his humility was too weak to hunt for it was a difficult season and he had not the strength to endure it alone. The third man honored the flame, and was returned with life in kind.

These are the lessons of the Lord of Flame, that should you keep yourself away from the fires of renewal, you will surely wither with rot and disease. Should you also do service only for others, your flame die out, for you did not accept the return blessing of the fire. Yet should you give what is due to the flames, you shall also reap the reward, turn for turn and kind for kind.

Do not forget these lessons, oh ye people, for those who are too selfish and those who are yet too humble are as ashes to be tread upon by those whom know the simple elegance of the Lord of Flames.

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The Beasts and the Flame

A wolf was walking alone in the woods when a bolt of lightning struck a tree, the tree was ignited and splintered by the impact of the heaven's wrath. Excited at what he had just seen, the brave beast picked up a flaming stick and brought it to his pack. The pack was mystified by the terriblely beautiful gift, but when their investigations drew too close, their wild and oily fur took flame.

Terrified, they ran into the bushes and brush, as was their habit to escape an unknown foe, but the fire only grew more greater and spread quicker. The wolves were soon surrounded by the choking heat and their howls of agony and warning were declared to all the beasts of the wilds.

So it was that creatures of the wilderness began to fear and respect fire, for even they knew that the smallest spark could bring about great destruction.

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The Fire Keepers

In a cold land there once was a woman whom lived upon a hill in a warm cottage with her daughter, just as her mother had before, and her own mother before her. For many generations these women had hosted for all manner of traveler and guest, and such was their reputation that it was said that the fire had never once gone quiet.

Until one day a man came to the cottage and began tonask questions of the fire keeper, "Oh master of fire, why do you toil night and day to gather wood for this fire, could you not build a fire so great that it could maintain itself?"

The woman smiled and said, "Such is not the way of fire, nor of its Servants."

The man nodded and departed soon after, but the woman's daughter had overheard the conversation. Young and still new to the ways of fire and understanding, she sought to stoke the fire and add more fuel to it. By the time the Fire Keeper took notice of her daughter's actions, the fire had already spread beyond it's hearth and began to consume the house.

The fire keeper took her daughter by the arm and led her outside, gathering blankets and an axe as the pair watched the cottage burn down. The fire was magnificent, and the cottage on the hill gave off such a great heat as it ever had before.

The daughter clapped and pointed at the Flames, "Look, it will burn forever, just like the man said. It is so big that we don't have to work anymore!"

"Not so, little one, for now we must work ten times as hard to maintain this new flame, for as a fire grows so too does its dependance on servants."

When the daughter looked and saw that there was no longer any shelter, and took notice of the great requirements of this new fire, she understood that they were not masters of the fire but servants of it instead.