Another appropriately evocative and mythic entry!
The implied setting of this adventure sort of makes it seem like the Villagers live in or around an origin story in terms of animist spirits/gods. The lack of a flame and the journey to reclaim it feels like a mixture of metaphor and literal situation - kind of the way that a lot of world myths are. This poses some questions for me about how the Villagers survive and for how long they've been suffering.
Either way it's an interesting premise.
A point of confusion for me is how the animals get involved and whether Villagers (and therefore players) of this community should know and understand these creatures when they start interacting with them. I can just imagine a nightmare scenario where the Coyote approaches and players not otherwise prompted want nothing to do with it or worse, attack it!
There's a mention of Body saves to rest which might be self referential as rest activities in the base game simply happen. I think this means that to rest at that location you must make a Body save?
We both have NPC villagers involved in a climb up a mountain so great minds think alike ! :)