The Strongest Element

A flickering Flame
Dances peacefully
Carving her delicate path
Through the walls of trees.
Scorching the grass
'Til it's black as night.
Destroying all that the Earth lays out before her.
For the mission of Fire
Is but to destroy Earth.
Her dance starts out
A peacefully slow waltz.
Structured, measured, predictable.
The Wind, the orchestra
For her ballet
The gentle voices
Singing and guiding
The rhythmic steps
She dances so expertly.
A crescendo and the tempo increases
The Wind swirling around her now.

Her steps quickening
A moderate tango now.
Underbrush laid bare
Charred, broken, smoldering.
The Earth's children begin
To sense the danger.
More real now with the tango
Than before
Another gust of Wind
The horns fire up
The percussion section
Kicks it into a higher gear
Fire begins to steps faster

Twirling, spinning
A quick, heart-pounding salsa now.
Trees fall before she even
Reaches them
Their great limbs kneeling
Before the power they
All know she possesses
Crackling, roaring, through the lands
She dances
Methodically destroying the Earth
Her nemesis
And then
The orchestra of her brother, the Wind
STOPS

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

She pauses to see why
A mighty waterfall
Cascades gracefully
Into a shining, shimmering pool
Hundreds of feet below
Fire's steps slow
To a slow, weaving pattern
A more primal, tribal sway
She dances along the shores
Gazing upon the beauty
Of the ne'er-before-seen wonder
The spray from the gracefully falling water
Begins to gently caress
The Fire's reaching, grasping fingertips.

Fire's heart is cooled, calmed, soothed.
Her sway becomes even slower
As the calm overtakes her.
The orchestra begins again softly,
A gentle piano melody,
Accompanied by a soft harmony
Of violin and harp.
The new song is soft
A gentle lullaby
As Fire forgets her mission,
Enticed and lured to complete
Submission at the Water's edge.
She dances calmly for her Mistress,
Leaving for a moment
Her nemesis
Earth.

The cascading falls
Wind their way through the pool
And continue along their path,
Carving out greater chucks of Earth
Than Fire ever dared imagine
Was possible.