After many centuries of fighting and destroying four of their own creations, the jaguar god of the night and west, Tezcatlipoca, had finally agreed to work with his brother, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god of wind and east to make a new world together.

Their careless fighting however, had killed all of the people of the last four earths, so there was no one left to inhabit their new world,.

To bring new people to the world, the gods needed the bones of the dead, which they would have to take from the underworld. Tezcatlipoca and the other gods were afraid to journey to the land of the dead because they would have to face Mictlanteduhtli, the Lord of the dead.

Quetzalcoatl was the only god who volunteered to fetch the bones, but he had never to the underworld before. He met with his spirit-twin, a dog named Xolotl who knew how to get there

Xolotl led Quetzalcoatl to the place where the sun set and followed it below the horizon to the underworld.

Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl found Mictlanteduhtli sitting on a throne next to piles upon piles of bones

Quetzalcoatl spoke to Mictlanteduhtli firmly, "give me your bones, I need them to populate the world."

Mictlanteduhtli replied, "No. these bones are precious to me. In what way could I possibly benefit for you taking my property?" Quetzalcoatl stopped and though for a second.

He then stated, "We are only borrowing your bones, when the humans in our world die, they go back to you. Since your bones will fill the world, you will become famous among gods and living people."

Mictlanteduhtli liked the idea of fame, but this wasn't enough to satisfy him. He told Quetzalcoatl "you may only take my bones if you play my conch trumpet for me and fly around my kingdom four times in honor of me.