[ wp ] Myths tell us where things come from ( ex . echoes are from Echo , a person cursed to repeat what others said ) . Write a mythological origin story for a common modern object .

Once there were four brothers. Gods. 
 
 This was when the Earth was very young, before there were rivers, or clouds, or mountains or volcanoes. The four brothers were spirits: Djinnis. And they were bored. The Earth was round and boring and nothing ever happened. So the four brothers challenged each other to a contest. The winner was whoever could make this boring, boring world more interesting. 
 
 The first brother cut off his own hand and a tsunami of water broke forth from his wrist, cutting deep into the earth. And the first river was born. 
 
 The second, not wanting to be outdone by his elder brother, roared loudly and slammed down his foot and the earth shook and broke apart and from the bowels of the flat lands the first mountain was born. 
 
 The third, looking to the boring, grey mountain that had been made turned his shoulder and faced the other direction. He placed four of his fingers into his mouth, and bit them off one by one and chewed them until they were soft and mashed. He flew high up into the air, and looked down upon the land and he spat his masticated fingers as far as they would fly and wherever they touched they embedded themselves deep into the earth, and in moments a colossal tree had taken root and grown from the earth, until a great plain had been covered. The first forest had been born. 
 
 The youngest brother looked to his elders, to what they had made. The rivers and the lakes. The forest and the bushes and the greenery. And the mountains, the great, static mountains. He bit off his tongue and chewed the red muscle and he flew high into the air, high, higher until he looked down at the very centre at the mountain. He pulled his chewed tongue from his mouth and rolled it into a ball between his fingers, like mince-meat. With one mighty swing he threw the ball down the very centre of the mountain, severing off the top and falling to it's centre and down into the very core of the earth. 
 
 The land shook, and the mountain shivered, and from the severed crater at it's top spewed lava and black smoke. Rising away from the arid planet as the lava rained down below. 
 
 It scorched the mountain, leaving trails in it's flank. It reached the river thereafter, scorching away the beautiful blue liquids, turning them into a black muck. Then it reached the forest, and so intense was the lava of that first eruption that as soon as the bark felt the scorch of it's arrival, it exploded in a wave of heat. The forest became a ball of red flame, the black-orange lava rolling through it till it was dead, and disappeared. The black muck lying over where the lush forest had once stood. 
 
 The brothers turned on their youngest sibling. `` You have destroyed what our own hands have made.'' They shouted. `` We have put our blood and flesh into our creations, and with your recklessness you have destroyed them.'' They chased away their youngest brother, and in the deep night plotted against him. 
 
 The eldest djinni, of the river, investigated what had been made by the conception of the red lava and his water and found something none of them had expected: glass. 
 
 The second eldest went to the peak of the mountain and saw there the boiling lava pit in the crater, waiting for a sign from it's master to erupt. 
 
 The second youngest, and to whom the youngest himself was closest, was given the task of tricking the youngest into believing he had been forgiven. And that is why to this day wildfires ( for fire was first born of the lava the brother had made ) so hate the trees they burn. 
 
 The youngest brother brought him back under false pretenses. And his second eldest appeared from behind a rock, beat him up till he was black and bloody, tied him with a rope and flew him high, high above the mountain and dropped him into the pit. The youngest djinni melted into the lava, and his anger was so great that once more the young volcano erupted; but this was the what the first brother had been waiting for. He severed his own hand ( for what was hand against revenge? ) and created another river, this time he sang to the lava and to the water and they obeyed him and they created together a desirable form. The second eldest brother, of the mountain, collected the youngest from the bottom of the pit, where the lava had emptied entirely, so great was his anger, so that all remained now was an empty crater and an angry, melted djinni: the youngest was now a thing of lava himself. An entity in the shape of a man made of viscous rock and angry fire. The brother burnt himself just touching him ( but from those burnt fingers came some of most hardy trees we have today. Any tree that can survive in a desert was made from the fingers that were burnt on the lava form of the younger brother ). Together they flew down the mountain to the oldest brother waiting for him. And together the three eldest brothers sealed their youngest in a case of glass and whenever it was dark they brought him out lighten the way. A lamp they called it, made of lava. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Hey guys thanks for reading, I actually had a great time writing this. If you did like this and want to read more check out r/JakeWrites for some of my prompts. I'm always open to critique and feedback.
