When Gaena was a new world, Diman, the god of the sun, conceived a desire for M'amit, the goddess of rain, but she was afraid of him, and ran whenever he approached her. In anger, he blew his hot breath along the ground and scorched it. When M'amit saw what he had done, she wept, casting rain on the ground. But the rain did no good, boiling away instantly. Diman came upon her there, and she fled. Every time she attempted to approach the scorched land, Diman would come, and she would run.
But with each approach, Diman came closer and closer. Over time (for what have the gods, if not time?) he came close enough to touch her. Once again she fled, but his hands snatched the hem of her dress, tearing away two pieces. He laid them on the earth, where they sank into the ground.
When M'amit returned to weep once more over the scorched land, her tears did not evaporate instantly over these places, but sank into the ground and formed mighty oases. Flowering plants sprang up, and M'amit was so happy that her tears ceased to fall. The first oasis she named Alanis, and the second was Mazhalan. So pleased was she with these gifts that when Diman approached her there, she did not flee but consented to lie with him among the flowers.
When they finished, they rose and walked their separate ways. As they walked, their mingled juices fell from their thighs and became creatures of the earth and sand. When next M'amit and Diman met to continue their affair, the creatures came to them and cried, "Please, give us life!" And M'amit wept over the creatures, and they were no more beings of earth and sand, but creatures of flesh, the People of the Desert. Immediately, their flesh began to burn in the heat of the desert, and Diman wiped the sweat from his brow and touched the People with it, and they were able to bear the heat.
Then Diman claimed half the people for his own, and took them into the scorched land, while M'amit took the other half into the oases to be her people.
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