The Great Battle Between Fire and Water

Water laces through the air, lancing and darting down and around the grove that stands at the edge of the sea.  Although the sky is bare elsewhere, the rain falls in torrents here.  Its journey speeds downward and then slowly relaxes until the droplets hang suspended, gathered in the form of a woman that in turns laughs and cries as she sits upon a mossy stump. 

‘I am glad you could make it, Sul’ says a deep voice located near the sea.  

The goddess of rain, for it is she, looks towards Elma the Great Sea Goddess who hovers at the edge of the grove.  Her eyes are tumultuous with storms one moment, lightning flashing across her chest, and calm, eternally calm the next as the sound of seagulls’ cries can be heard in the distance.   

‘And what have you called me here for,’ Sul sighs.  ‘I have so many places to be and things to do.  Crops to water, unsuspecting travelers to drench...’  

Kolh, god of lakes, rolled his eyes expressively, ‘We all have things to do, dearest Rain.  But give Elma the benefit of the doubt that she has called us here for a purpose worth interrupting our lives for.’  He sat lazily in the branches of a tree, his body a clear unmoving blue that reflected distant clouds above.  

‘Easy for you to say! If I was able to sit and stretch my legs all day, why, I would not mind an interruption either,’ said the Arvin, the River God, indignantly.  He was ever-moving as he spoke, flowing through the trees around the grove one moment, darting across the grass the next.    

‘Peace,’ said Elma, her eyes now the cool azul of an ocean before a storm.  ‘This meeting is indeed worth your time - worth all of our times.  For Fire has begun to stir in the West.’ 

The goddesses and gods looked at one another uneasily. 

‘I do not question your knowledge’ Pip, goddess of puddles, began hesitantly at her corner of the grove, ‘However, Fire has been under control for centuries, nay millenia even.’  

The River God agreed, ‘I have travelled the world and seen it with my own eyes; the humans have captured her time and time again, and use her for their own purposes.’ 

‘Which she does not like,’ murmured Kolh.  

Elma turned slowly towards the god of lakes, ‘No, she has indeed not liked to see her power quenched by those whose lifespan is shorter than the flaming of a torch.’

‘I have heard whisperings from the humans who sail upon my waters of a Fire that has begun to consume lands in the West.  It has devoured village after village, and soon, very soon, she will seek to take over the world itself.’  

At this the deities grew completely still.  The water droplets of Sul hung suspended in the air over his mossy chair, as Pip, already a small puddle on the floor of the grove, seemed to shrink even further.  

‘How is it that we have not heard of this,’ demanded Sul.  ‘I travel over all the world, and I have not seen even the slightest glimpse of her stirring!’ 

‘I do not doubt what you have seen, but as you know, there are some places where none of us go,’ said Elma calmly.  ‘It is there in the deserts of the West that she has been gathering her strength and expanding her power further and further across the land, until the moment when she could break free of her prisons.’  

‘What would you have us do then,’ said Sul at last.   

‘The humans are doing what they can, but it will not be enough.  Sul, you must travel to the edges of the great Desert of the West and there see how far her power has spread.  The rest of you must work together to gather your forces and be ready to unleash them upon her when she makes her move.  Can you do this?’ 

They looked at each other and then nodded.  ‘Yes,’ said Sul as spokeswoman, ‘We can do this.’  

Arvin spoke up however, ‘Elma, you are the most powerful of us all, will you not join us?’ 

She sighed, a breeze stirring the waves across her brow.  ‘The sea has weight, and power, and force and I will aid you as I am able to, but I am constricted to my domain.  I can come upon this shore and to the grove, but I can never go to the deepest parts of the continents, where Fire resides.  I would come with if I could; I would bring Fire to me if I was able to.  But I cannot.’ 

Arvin nodded and bowed his head slightly, ‘Forgive me, I spoke without thought.’  

Elma smiled sadly, ‘I will do what I can, I promise you that.  But I know you all are strong enough to defeat her.  Do not despair.’ she said fiercely as thunderclouds gathered through her arms, flashing lightning across the raging storm in her breast.  

The goddesses and gods bowed in return, and swiftly left to do what needed to be done.  

The grove stood silently, willow branches swaying in the wind, as Elma turned towards the remaining goddess.  

‘You have a part to play too,’ said Elma gently. 

‘I?’ said Pip softly.  ‘I have no power, no movement.  I am only what Rain can give me.’  

‘Ahh, but you are closer to the humans than all of us combined, is it not so?’

‘You must go to them, talk to them, show them the fate that will await them if they do not act.  Can you do this for me, Pip? Can you do this for us, for them?’ 

Pip stood motionless for a while, translucent against the green grasses of the grove, and then became opaque with resolution.  ‘Yes.  Yes, I can do this thing.’ and with that, she disappeared.  

------ 

Several weeks had passed before Elma saw any of them again.  At last, Sul returned to the grove.  ‘It is as you said, Lady Elma.  Fire has consumed much of the Western Desert and has set her eyes upon the cities at the edge.  But we are strong too,’ she said fiercely, ‘and will not let her do as she wishes.’ 

Elma nodded, ‘I wish my news had not been true, but I know you are all more than capable of containing her.  And the humans, have they begun to act?’

Sul looked surprised, ‘Indeed, they have begun to gather as well.  Some have even started to fight back against her fires.’ 

‘That is good news,’ Elma smiled, ‘You must aid them as much as you can.’ 

‘Aid the humans!’ Sul protested. 

‘Yes,’ said Elma firmly.  ‘They may be small, but they have contained Fire for many ages.  Together, you can turn the tide of this war.’  

‘Very well,’ Sul said stiffly. ‘I shall do as you ask.’  Her form shimmered in the air and then was gone.  

------ 

The months passed, with various goddesses and gods bringing news of the battles that raged to their General at ocean’s edge.  

Fire and Water, aided by the mortals, in turn claimed victory and defeat, with losses felt by all.   

In the end however, Fire was defeated once more in the final battle at the edges of the Western Desert.  

She was confined back to the desert lands, and the homes of the humans.  In order to prevent her gathering strength once more, humans took up residence in the midst of the desert, with promises by River and Rain to replenish these areas.    

After all the affairs had been settled, the deities slowly and wearily trudged back to the grove.

Kohl was much diminished with singed sand burnt at the edges of his hands.  Sul’s droplets no longer fell with force, but misted in the air as during a tepid summer’s eve.  Arvin of the River no longer flowed and pranced, but instead wound wearily around a tree at the edge of the grove, while Pip could barely be seen, so small was she upon the verdant floor.  

‘You have done well.  I am sorry to have asked so much of you but know that what you have done has saved us all.  

‘I wish I could have done more,’ Elma said regretfully, ‘But for all the help I could not give then, I give back to you now.’

With those words, Elma began to dissolve.  The deities looked up as they heard the roar of the ocean beginning to flow up and over across the beach, through the forest and into the grove where they stood.  

The goddesses and gods could feel their strength returning as the sea flooded into their heavenly bodies, replenishing their very life force.  Slowly, the ocean faded back into itself but Elma did not return.  The deities waited, but still she did not return.  Eventually they bowed deeply towards the sea, and returned back to their own domain, until only Pip remained. 

She looked out over the ocean as it stood unnaturally still.  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, and in the distance a wave slowly rose and fell.  She smiled and then disappeared, back to the land where ocean could not come.