Deep in the desert there once lived a pack of wild dogs, the descendants of a goddess. Legend says that she bore three children and loved them so dearly that she kept them with her in the Gods' Haven. The children played pranks upon each other, but thought it was not challenging enough. So they decided to play a prank on her. But what could they do to prank a goddess?
A snake overheard them. The snake was a god of mischief in disguise, but the pups did not know this. He suggested that they sneak off to the mortal realm for their prank. The children agreed that this would be the best prank of all, and hurried off. Having known no other place but the snow of the Haven, they went to the desert. But they did not know that, because they were mortal, they could never return to the Haven.
When the goddess realized what had happened to her children, she cried. Her tears fell as rain into the mortal sky, upon the desert where her children now lived. Flowers of all types sprung up in the wake of the rains. The children loved the flowers that were the only expression of their mother's love they could touch in life.
As adults, they founded a pack and ruled it together. To ensure that their own pups weren't tricked as they had been, they would kill any snakes they saw. They would also prank their own children in order to teach them something of how the world worked. Then, to show them the futility of getting to the Gods' Haven, they would have to climb a tree, something no wild dog was suited to.
When the children of the goddess died, she allowed them to be reborn as birds, who could fly higher than any other mortal, though never close enough to reach the Gods' Haven. Still, it was the best she could offer to her beloved children and their descendants.
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