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A flame flickers in the dark, but does this mark the birth of light?
The world was old, well, relatively. Yeast ages a lot faster, yet it’s a lot simpler to take of.
There were points in the past where Earthbread was new, where the only powers that governed nature were Millennial Tree Cookie and Sugar Swan Cookie (And Time Keeper Cookie watching all of this from a TV screen probably). Separate from whatever Beast or Calamity would soon plague the world.
No cookie quite knows when the elemental powers appear, but most cookies draw it back to the birth of the Moon Guardian, who twinkles up in the night sky. Not that she was an elemental power, but that was the only way that sailors were able to tell about the sea goddess who rose up from the bubbly sea foam to sing to the stars and moon, wishing for an audience from the moon itself.
Who knew that the presence of such power was a direct response from such love? Tragic and endless as it was, more and more cookies heard sightings of the trail of lighting that flashed across the sky, the eye of a blizzard, the core of a tornado, or the embers of a restless blaze.
Older than legends that tell of the Monarchs of the Abyss, were the elementals who quietly gave life to their purpose. No one could pin point when one or the other breathed life or became the deity, but they existed, beginning with the legend of the sea who loved the moon.
It wouldn’t be till much, much later where the next love tale would be told. For elements that didn’t mingle well, the lesson of balance and hope, for it was what the cookies believed to be tolerance, teamwork, and the undeniable connection that all living things had with each other. A testament to their very existence and will to be.
A world where cookies fought for a world without Apathy, Destruction, Deceit, Sloth, or Silence. Rather a world of Resolution, Abundance, Truth, Passion, and Freedom.
This tale would take a long time to fill, but they weren’t going anywhere.
This was the beginning of the tale of the fire who burned for the wind.
—
Fire Spirit couldn’t remember who he was originally, all that was in the past that was buried deep when he made a deal with Pitaya Dragon.
Alright with him. To be fair, he could be bet things were getting boring anyways, with the lack of flight or the ability to pulverize your enemies.
Neither could he pin the time since this time. He couldn’t tell if it had been months or it had been years upon years.
An Elemental Guardian. Hm. One of them anyways.
There were others of him. Like him, but unlike him. Cookies who didn’t burn. Boooorrrringgggggg.
He couldn’t imagine life without his powers, nor could he unfortunately imagine life without the Red Dragon Bead. Which was annoying.
He had only met 2 of the elements that he was supposed to compliment.
He did not talk to Sea Fairy, he had simply seen her, and laughed at her under his breath as he saw her upon a tower of seafoam singing to the stars. The situation sounded… familiar.
It was the beauty of the situation that made him unable to look away. Here an elemental stood, almost frozen in time, and yet she spent the entire time… wooing another.
And there Moonlight peered over the moon to look down at the singing siren fawning over the conviction.
The two spent their immortal lives yearning for an invisible light that may not shine. A temptation to abandon the purpose they stood for.
But that’s not what Fire Spirit thought, he thought about how Sea Fairy was simply wasting away her gift of immortality for someone else.
What rubbed him the wrong way was that the two agreed, and yet they would never truly meet. They would never touch. It didn’t make sense.
It didn’t make any sense! At least, not yet.
The second elemental he saw was the Sky God, Stormbringer Cookie. This time, he had the absolute pleasure of meeting.
Stormbringer was someone who thought alike to him. Someone as fast as him in a race around Earthbread. Someone as arrogant, cocky, and egotistical as him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t say the same about street smarts. She was irrationally logical, and he was rationally illogical.
He could not tell, in a sense, if she was older or younger than him. However, the way they talked about owning the skies and lands was a conversation between two bickering siblings. She knew all the elementals. She talked of a bitter cold, an aloof sea, a wise (but boring) tree, and a stoic (and also boring) wind.
From what he heard from her, it would be wise not to interfere with Frost Queen’s activities. Or cross the activities of the forest, but who was he to listen to that?
Where’s the fun in that?
Which brings us to now, a bored Fire Spirit, face to face with the tall forest in a field full of dry, arid brush. Man, when was the last rain fall? This place had it coming any day now!
“Let’s see here! What do we have? Roughly as far as the eye can see a nice field of perfectly flammable grass leading to a forest of… perfectly flammable trees! Perfect!”
Now you may be asking, why burn down a forest? And Fire Spirit would counter back, well, why not burn down a forest? All this talk of being an elemental, doesn’t prevent certain events from happening! Such as a wild fire! It wasn’t like he was an arsonist or something, he simply was the fire that was kicked up in a dry field. No avoiding that, not with the lack of rain.
It had to happen.
Letting his staff fall in his grasp and lightly touch the grass below him, sparked the flames of a wild fire in the dark summer heat.
He watched as the grass around him burned and turned black and crisp, then crumbed onto the hot ground of the earth.
From behind him, the fire died as the endless supply of dry grass ran out, running into the dewey grass in the distance.
However the fire in front and around him inch closer and closer to the beginning of the trees. Almost enclosing the entirety of the forest, as far as Fire Spirit could see.
Seeing destruction rooted in simple nature laws, oh, that did excite him. Then he moved closer to the trees and found his hand touching the bark of the first tree as it burst into flames. How things could never wait with him.
Nothing was ever simple with him, this was him just enjoying the little right he had in a world where fire was smothered and was made to burn the wicked.
Surely his flames were a big enough warning for the animals of the forest, however, he could not control the casualties, it wasn’t his business. He was simply following the flow of energy as life perishes and grows.
New grass will grow, new trees will sprout. And in a few years all of this will look better than it does now!
Never a boring moment as Fire Spirit smiling at the consuming flames has found himself in the middle of it all. You could hear the crackling of ash, the burning of trees as they fall to the floor, and the sound of the forest crying.
All sounds Fire Spirit heard, and took pleasure in hearing.
All too loud.
He couldn’t hear the sheer chirp of an arrow flawlessly streaming through the smoky air.
Shocked with all the adrenaline in his body, the sharp pain he felt in his shoulder as he yelped.
“OW! WHAT THE HELL?!”
This time he heard the sound again.
But this time it wasn’t a chirp. It was a scream.
Turning around to face the sound, it was met with a painful arrow lodge not only in his shoulder but now his pec. Whoever shot them, they were aiming to kill.
But something didn’t make sense. Normal arrows didn’t phase him.
Suddenly, the arrows dissipated into nothing. Green mist, spores almost as the fire consumed them. The flames roared, fueled with the wind now conjuring them up.
“Drop your weapon, and face the purification of the light, Fallen Spirit!”
Now the voice came from a different side. And right about now, Fire Spirit was pissed, confused, and determined to castrate whoever ruined his fun.
Slowly turning to where he suspected the perpetrator to be, his staff charged up on the defense.
“You shoot me, twice, and expect to get away with it?”
The voice rings again, now from a new location. This guy was playing a dangerous game now for how fast he moved.
“You threaten to burn down my forest, and expect to get with it?” He copies Fire Spirit’s threat.
This time Fire Spirit hears the scream and meets the arrow with a blast of fire which burns the arrow to a crisp, not even becoming ash as it vaporizes.
“SHOW YOURSELF!”
The fire blazes around him, hiding the perpetrator’s identity and location, while putting Fire Spirit on the spot.
Another one, he meets the arrow again with an unbearable heat.
“Is that all you got?”
Two in rapid succession, no match for the heat.
Soon it’s a shower that Fire Spirit must protect himself from, as arrow after arrow from above and all sides assault him in the blazing heat. Doesn’t bother him, the smoke and ash that’s slowly opening the space up.
It’s not until it’s two arrows in two completely different directions that tricks him, burning one while not having enough time to counter the one that nails him in the thigh.
Turning the yell into an angry one, his flames lash out as Fire Spirit targets a direction, hoping that it hits. It doesn’t seem to.
The voice rings again.
“Strange. You aren’t purifying.”
Another two arrows, same style, same ending. The second arrow implants itself in his neck before dissolving. What is this magic? It hurts for a second, before feeling only a little sore. There’s no mark left.
However, he felt like he was being played with, annoyed with the almost blank arrows.
“Alright. No more playing around! Your fate is sealed! Give me your best shot!”
Two arrows again with the same style, and yet this time Fire Spirit dodges them, while seeing a blur of green beyond the flames.
“ETERNAL FLAMES!!” He predicts the other’s location with a blast of flames. The fire wavers, a hit, finally!
A moment of peace before the voice speaks again, trusting Fire Spirit to listen instead of compromising his position.
“You are no Fallen Spirit.”
“Never said I was! Now, care to surrender, now that I’ve figured out your tricks?”
“…Do you ever shut up?”
That irks Fire Spirit the wrong way. He has a great voice! Who is this asshole?
“What?! How- dare you! Fine, enough chitchat! Rain it on, archer!”
Silence. The crackling of the fire moves, as it covers the other’s footsteps.
And then…
“PURIFY!”
Arrows upon arrows rain down (are we sure this is just one guy doing all this?), requiring Fire Spirit to fully blast all around him as the weird attack from all sides.
They are from a certain direction, and Fire Spirit could predict his position-
A sneaky arrow impales his side. This time, it hurts differently. But it reveals his location. Perfect.
Fire Spirit finally dares to lunge out of the flames that trap him, predicting right as he hits the cookie, tackling him. The two of them roll in the fire and ash until they separate.
Still disguised by ash, yet the bright hue of green finally identifies the cookie, sort of. Fire Spirit identifies him as a pain in the ass.
Really at this point, there is no stand off as the two fight, burning and purifying, as the smoke and wind get in each other's eyes.
As they fight, the fire goes on. Until their arena is nothing but an arena of ash.
Fire Spirit couldn’t count how many arrows had struck his skin, and he couldn’t count how many burns the other cookie had at this point.
In the end, it wasn’t the arrows that had him laying on the ground, but the swift approach and strong takedown that had the Fire Spirit’s neck in a bruising grasp with the other cookie’s hand, quickly kicking away the staff and then replacing the hand with a strong stomp of his foot.
The arrow aimed directly at his head.
All he was focused on was the arrow head, how it was green much like the growing light the cookie displayed as the wind dusted off the ash and soot from their fight.
His focus drifted to the bow, how after all this fighting the bow was still lively and green, with clover and green growing on it.
It finally clicked to him, remembering how Stormbringer described the “stoic wind”. A bow that has its own property value, its own front yard and back yard for how much it looked like one of those houses with the lawn on the roof.
“You-“
“I am finished listening to you.” The arrow draws back even more, now aiming straight into his neck. “I’ll cut your throat, that will shut you up.”
A drop of rain sizzles on Fire Spirit’s forehead. And another. It begins to rain. The fire would go out, in the end, with or without this cookie’s interference.
What was his name…
The rain further washes away the ash on the elemental’s skin, making way for an even greener hue. The rain water that gets into Fire Spirit clears the soot out of his eyes, as he finally lays his eyes on the cookie who had beat his ass, sending him on a wild goose chase and throwing him to the ground like it was WWE. The protector of the forest, the incarnation of wind, Wind Archer Cookie, he finally remembered.
The sun peaking through the clouds nor the rain shaping his skin does not do him justice, as Fire Spirit could feel his rage wash away in the rain as he looks to the tired, slightly burnt, green cookie whose hair caught the raindrops in a beautiful spider web, whose eyes through all this ash has stayed glowing green, eyelashes fluttering in the wind as he stares down Fire Spirit. Steady and lithe arms that draw a bow like a Christmas present, and the stature of a sturdy tree, while also presenting the curves of a power, seductive flame Fire Spirit could only dream of.
His heart beat louder surprisingly looking onto Wind Archer, and he could feel his body relax, his gaze soften, and a pained smile dimmed his face.
“You’re… beautiful.” He said almost dreamily, and breathless as he was still on the verge of unconsciousness.
The arrow that was etching his tombstone now was slack, and the foot pinning Fire Spirit down took a few steps back. He couldn’t tell if Wind Archer was appalled or taken aback with his confession. His face became blurry again, and Fire Spirit’s breathing slowed.
But considering how he wasn’t dead or at least didn’t have an arrow lodged in his throat, he took it as a win.
However, he meant what he said. And he was too delirious to think straight as he closed his eyes in the growing rain.
Maybe he would die… he doesn’t do well in the rain… at least… he had one hell of a fight to close it out… and to have to look at the face of divinity? What a way to go out…
—
His eyes weakly darted open. He was still alive. Looking around, rolling his head in the wet grass- grass?
He was not where he was left, seeing the charred grass next to him, the edge of the wildfire that had been doused and killed.
What happened? How was he still alive? For how it was raining now he should be dead-
“You’re awake.”
Oh. As much as this was embarrassing it also unsuspectingly kicked up Fire Spirit’s heart beat.
Lolling his head around to the elusive voice, he sees Wind Archer keeping a keen eye on him as he regains consciousness.
“You saved me.” It wasn’t a question, it was the truth. A shit eating smirk entered his face, even on the rainy floor and sore ground.
“So?”
“Well I’m wondering why, you could’ve killed me, so why didn’t you?”
Wind Archer seemed to be uninterested in the question, no interest in answering. This did not satisfy Fire Spirit, however.
“Careful, Archer, I’m starting to think you like me more than you’d like.”
This playful, almost harmless assumption regained Wind Archer’s interest, but he seemed annoyed.
“You are Fire Spirit Cookie. You are the elemental guardian of fire, and from what I’ve heard from everyone else, you are a lazy, incompetent, and arrogant excuse for a guardian. Now I can tell everyone that on top of that you are a hasty yet clumsy fighter and a two-faced charmer.”
“And you are Wind Archer Cookie, and unfortunately, I can’t say anything bad about you because I’ve never actually heard anything bad about you. Other than you have a stick so far up your ass that many have seen the other side from your mouth.”
“You spend your time neglecting your duties and responsibilities, spending time racing… and burning down whatever fills your needs. And I thought Stormbringer Cookie was destructive.”
“So you saved a good for nothing guardian, just out of the goodness of your heart?”
“I purify the darkness. I protect the forest. Even those who destroy it.”
“I’m not a Fallen Spirit- or whatever those freaky arrows do! What is up with those anyways?”
“They purify.”
“Of course they do. Let me guess. They purify the darkness.”
“Exactly. The dark becomes the light, Fallen Spirits transform into doves upon impact.”
“If I did turn into a pigeon I’d haunt you until you met your demise.”
“A dove. However, for whatever darkness claimed your soul, you’d most definitely turn into a pigeon.”
Wind Archer walks over and crouches down, looking down at Fire Spirit, reaching his hand out to feel his forehead.
“Warmer… when you were unconscious you were getting cooler.”
But all Fire Spirit could focus on was the back of his hand on his head and the pretty face lost in focus. His words seemed to blur out. Fire Spirit remembered what he admitted before he passed out, along with the weird stammering of his heart.
It only took one slow blink from Wind Archer to realize he was seeing this in slow motion, and all he could do was release a rather breathy sigh.
Suddenly, he noticed that Wind Archer was making eye contact with him.
Shit.
This was unfortunate.
Fire Spirit picked up his hand and moved it towards where Wind Archer’s hand laid on his head.
Lightly and quickly lacing his hand with his, Fire Spirit savours the moment before it’s gone.
When was the last time he held someone’s hand?
Well, he certainly couldn’t remember the last time when he held someone’s hand that the other then pinned his hand down to the ground beside him.
It only catches Fire Spirit a little off guard at the harsh reaction to it and how Wind Archer tried to feign intimidation.
“I could’ve killed you. But I didn’t. Do not forget that. Do not make me regret not leaving you to die.”
And unfortunately this does not have the intended effect on Fire Spirit.
In fact, he could just feel how his heart falls deeper and deeper into a vat of sugary syrup.
He lets go of his hand and stands, ready to depart.
Fire Spirit looks back at him, blinking hoping he’d turn back and say something.
“I won’t burn down any of your trees any more.” Just like a moth to the flame, this does make Wind Archer turn back. “However I still need things to burn. You know that, don’t you?”
“To fuel what?”
“There’s no sweeter rain than rain after a hungry fire.”
“…”
Wind Archer seems to consider something, and ends up on a proposition.
“If you need something to burn, I’d rather it be something I need gone. Just ask if you crave it. However, I cannot always guarantee that I will have something for you to burn. And if that happens, you will burn nothing.”
Fire Spirit smirks as something pangs through him. Whether it was one of Wind Archer’s arrows that pierced his heart or a sharp pain, he let out a strong, “Deal.”
Wind Archer looks back for the last time before disappearing into the darkness that is the deep forest.
Happy with himself, he lolls his head back to the destroyed forest.
The rain ceased, and the sun shone.
Fire Spirit didn’t notice the small white flowers that had already started to poke through the charcoal, but he knew nature didn’t work that fast.
He wondered if a certain Archer had something to do with it.
See? It was already better.
Fire Spirit lost track for how long he stayed at the forest edge. He saw animals watch over him, laying against his heat and passing by him.
He could feel the green eyes on the back of his neck as he watched the ashes disappear and rise into new greenery. Flowers and grass grew.
Sometimes he could just feel Wind Archer standing over him, watching him carefully as he laid to watch it all grow again.
He couldn’t tell if Wind Archer actually sat beside him to watch it grow, or laid beside him. Whenever he was there, he couldn’t focus on the growth anymore. He could only focus on the long breaths and soft humming of the other.
Not knowing if the winds that surrounded him healed him, or if Wind Archer really cared, he could still feel him care.
Fire Spirit thought back to Sea Fairy and how she stayed idle looking up to Moonlight.
Is this… the same?
It couldn’t be… as Fire Spirit finally rolled around to see Wind Archer standing next to him.
He didn’t know how long he had been there. Standing up for the first time in a while, meeting the elemental at equal height (but floating to be a little taller) with an eager smile on his face.
“Alright, what do you need burned?”
Wind Archer blinked emotionless, considering the request.
“This way.”
Fire Spirit followed Wind Archer into his forest. And would continue to follow, weather or not it made him a hypocrite for how he thought of Sea Fairy’s love for Moonlight, he continued.
Soon he would catch Wind Archer plucking small white flowers out of his grassy hair.
Soon his touches wouldn’t burn.
Soon… he understood Sea Fairy.
Love like this made it worth it. Even if they’d never touch.
It took awhile for cookies to witness the weird phenomenon that was the small white flowers which grew almost directly after a wildfire.
Cookies told tales of the first white flowers to sprout from the first wildfire they had seen.
Where they had seen the element of wind triumph over the element of fire.
Where they had seen the fire reach up and touch the sensitive skin of the wind. How at first it was an act of power or fear.
Stories soon altered to see the wind placing his hand on the fire’s face, calming it down after a big fire, as the white flowers grew abundantly.
Soon it was at the point, where it was said that after a wildfire, there would be the chance to see the elements of wind and fire, frolicking in the field of ashes where life had once been.
Cookies said they saw them fight. Others say they were interlaced, both platonically or romantically. Some even say they needed privacy for what they did.
But the legend that starts prominent was how the wind watched over the fire as it burned, looking up right back at the wind.
How Fire Spirit’s head was placed in Wind Archer’s lap as they watched the flowers grow and the vitality return.
It took a while, however, they got there. As Wind Archer’s hand cared through Fire Spirit’s flames.
No cookie truly knows what happened to evolve their relationship, especially as it started out so hostile, but, they’d still tell the story.
For everyone knew of the sea who loved the moon, the tale had turned into a staple love story for little cookies to have hope in.
Very few knew of the fire that burned for the wind, for only those who had seen the unforgiving yet fortunate nature of a wildfire knew of their story. They saw them.
At the edge of vitality, at the edge of hope and a lush backdrop that promised white flowers after the devastation.
The fires made believers of the more than natural, but the fires also made way for the way the wind flowed.
Shaping the grass and the flowers that grew, the fire and wind stayed together for the ever changing world.
Enveloped in each other, some say they gave the sea and moon hope. Some even say they invented love.
And some say they made another believer out of an unfortunate disaster.
Disaster?
No… not a disaster.
Not in their book.
Not anymore.