A/N: I was requested to do this by a guest under the name of… Screaming fire. Dang, you have one vivid vision. I had a lot of fun writing this!
I OWN NOTHING!
There's a story out there. A very, very old story, so old that even the stars were told it by their parents as a legend, and this is how it goes.
In the wind was a girl In the water was a boy In the fire was a boy In the earth there was a boy
Her voice was heard
The spirit of wind
Crying for those who she once loved
Do you remember me?
Do you think of me to?
Do you know me as well as you used to?
Wind blew through her friends' home
Whistling "I'm here,
Can you see me?"
His voice called
The spirit of water
Calling to those he believed in
Don't you know I'm here?
Don't you feel my laughter?
Don't you mourn me.
Water trickled down his friends windows
Saying "I'm near
Can't you hear me?"
His voice was screaming
The spirit of fire
Screaming for those he trusted
Can't you feel me?
Can't you hear my cries?
Can't you remember my voice?
Fire always burned in his friends' homes
Saying "See me
Can't you feel me?"
His voice was whispering
The spirit of earth
Whispering to those he knew
You have forgotten.
You do not know I am here.
You don't feel me
Earth would do nothing.
Wind, water, earth, and fire, the general four elements of the world. And this is the story of their personifications.
All four of the elements are related, both in literal and figurative language.
Back when they were mortal, they were a group of four, named Sicily Jones, her brother, Henry, and her cousins, James and Thomas Lewis. They were best friends and did practically everything together; didn't matter what it was. They all enjoyed playing and helped anyone who needed it as well as they could. All was well for a very long time, until they went on a trip in their boat.
The water was clear where it was not covered it algae, and all four of the teenagers were having a brilliant time, for the weather was perfect- sunny, but not too much, very little wind, not too hot and not too cold, and the water was calm.
That's how they heard the muffled shouts.
"H-Hel… Help!" It was a young voice; the owner couldn't be older than five. Both Henry and Sicily jumped out of the boat, both rushing to save the boy. They worked together, and Sicily was elected to get the boy back. Sicily got him safely back to the boat, where he was wrapped up in towels and sat in the sun. The whole process took about ten minutes, and Henry still had not returned.
The three dropped the boy off at the shore, warned him not to go back into the water, and searched for their cousin/brother. He was found face down in the water, leg ensnared in some underwater vegetation. His hair had seaweed-like quality to it. Eventually, when the three were able to move, they drove the boat to get the closest adult so they could give Henry a proper burial.
But when they went back to the spot, Henry's body was gone. It was assumed that his body had floated down the current. The three went back home in low spirits.
It rained that night, and the three swore they heard Henry.
"Don't you know I'm here?" in a voice made of pitter-patters, an echo of a splash.
"Don't you hear my laughter?" A laugh of a river.
"Don't mourn me."
"Can you hear me?"
And they didn't mourn him, as was his command. They attended his funeral with smiles, giving him their best blessings, and saying they'll always listen for his voice in the rain.
Henry, up in the rainclouds, smiled.
Then Sicily began to cough. It wasn't horrid, at first, but then she began to cough up green gunk and red liquid. She couldn't get out of bed after awhile; she was too tired and weak. A fever broke out, and the doctor diagnosed her with pneumonia, believing it came from the bacteria of the algae in the lake. She was constantly covered in a blanket, suffering from cold. Two weeks later, she died. The disease had weakened her heart, already hurting from Henry's death, and gave out. They buried her in two days.
There was a windstorm that night, mixed with a little bit of rain. The two boys believed they heard their cousin's voice in the wind.
"Do you remember me?" A gust of questioning.
"Do you think of me, too?" A breeze of hope.
"Do you know me as well as you used to?" A gale of pleads.
"Can you see me?"
They couldn't, but they went to her funeral, attempting to smile, and promising to look for her whenever the wind blew.
Over head, Sicily grinned, then looked for Henry, who she saw the night she died.
A few months passed, James and Thomas somehow making it without their counterpart cousins. But, eventually, James went out on his own. Thomas was off with a friend. He went into a ravine to collect some herbs for his mother. He wasn't sure what they did, but his mother asked for them, and they only grew in the ravine. But there was a reason she couldn't buy them: the ravine's sides had become unstable, threatening to crush the workers who collected the herbs in rock. But James didn't hear about this, and went to collect the herbs. The echoes of his footsteps set the rocks into motion, crushing him to death before he could even think.
That night, Thomas listened, but there were no natural phenomenon. James, down in the earth, did nothing, thinking Thomas had forgotten about him.
Thomas began to get pitiful looks from neighbors, friends, strangers, family. His brother and two cousins, his best friends, all dead and buried.
Thomas did not mourn. He survived a full year after the death of Henry and Sicily, six months after the death of his brother, before he too, died from a force of nature.
He had gone to sleep, tired of thinking of his lost friends/family, and his parents had gone out. However, neither of them remembered the lit candle, unknowingly placed by an open window. The curtains caught fire when the light breeze blew, catching the wooden cottage (which had gone through many a rain and windstorm, yet never seemed to be harmed) on fire. Thomas died, last of all of them, because the fire reached him before he woke up.
Nothing remained when his parents returned. In the sunlight, though, Thomas mourned with them, apologizing for not saying good-bye, telling them his last farewells, although the words fell upon deaf ears.
Later that night, Thomas's friend though he heard Thomas's voice coming from the fire in the fireplace. It was screaming in desperation.
"Can't you feel me?"
"Can't you hear my cries?"
"Can't you remember my voice?"
The family never suffered from lack of warmth.
The four family members had been reunited after one long year.
Henry, Spirit of the Waters, Lord of the Seven Seas, and Ruler of Lakes and Rivers. He protects or kills those who wander in his realms, depending on their agenda. He has had many names- Poseidon, Neptune, Lir, and many others, and is known for being unpredictable.
Sicily, Spirit of the Winds, High Priestess of Gusts and Bellows, and StormDancer. She uses her winds to blow whatever gets in her way. She's also known by many names, such as Zephyr, and she is known for being flighty.
James, Spirit of the Earth, is often considered as Mother Nature, something he finds a bit amusing. Is a guy not allowed to like flowers? He is known for being steady, the opposite of his cousin.
And finally, Thomas, the Spirit of Fire, King of All Flames. He is known for bringing nothing but death, but people who use both their eyes and brains see that only stupidity brings death by fire, and that fire brings life.
They are the Four Elements, and this is the story of how they found hope.
The four had gone through many eons, being worshipped as gods before being forgotten, remembered, worshipped under a different name, and being split into several entities. They developed favorites- resulting in some of the legends you hear today, and sometimes they helped humanity, and other times destroyed its creations, people or otherwise. They, currently, have been largely forgotten and they are unseen and walked through whenever they decide to grace upon the land. Not even very many spirits realize they exist: only two know.
The Sandman, being as old as he is, is fully aware of their existence, and sends them good dreams whenever they decide to sleep (which isn't very often). The other is technically another Elemental: Jack Frost.
Jack Frost is aware of their existence because of how he flies. He's friends with the Wind, and he's always thought there was more to the wind than "uneven heating of the Earth's surface" or whatever the explanation for wind is in the science classes, and one day, he saw Sicily and chatted with her for a bit. Happy to have a new person to talk to, she responded. She told him about the other elementals, too, and then all of them always had a believer in the immortal child. (No hard feelings were held between the spirits of Winter and Water, in case you were wondering, after Jack discovered his memories.)
After Jack had joined the Guardians, the other three had noticed Jack's habit of talking to the Wind, his Lake, sometimes the Ground, and even the Fire, when he thought no one was around. They began to become worried, did his years of solitude drive him to talk to inanimate objects?
Sandy wasn't concerned, and would occasionally join in on the conversations. They were usually about trivial things- a good dream that was sent, a snow day brought, a storm that still raged but never harmed, a good day of wrestling, a family roasting chestnuts (to which Jack said "Don't you dare start singing"), and other unimportant things. Jack told them about his Guardianship, to which the Wind blew through his hair, the water's waves increased, the fire roared just a bit louder, and the earth moved a little more noticeably, but Jack promised to never forget them. And he didn't. And when his sister came back into his life as the Spirit of Laughter, he taught her about them, and now they had three.
Eventually, Bunny asked him about it, Tooth and North being busy with teeth and Christmas coming up, respectively.
"Mate, why are ya talkin' to air?"
"I'm talking with the Wind," Jack replied, a little irritated, without missing a beat, "Now shush, Kangaroo, this is really interesting."
It was, actually. Sicily and Henry had succeeded in making a water cyclone that could move like a tornado. They'd been working on it for awhile, but people kept getting in the way, preventing them from practicing.
North opened his mouth to speak, but a sharp gesture from Jack and his staff had the three remaining quiet while Jack listened to Sicily's excited whispers. When she finished, he simply said "Congrats!" and the Wind blew through his hair in thanks before moving on.
"Now what," Jack demanded, turning to the Pooka, "was so important that you interrupted Sicily?"
"You gave a name to the wind."
"No, that's her name."
"You also gave it a gender."
Jack rolled his eyes. "You don't know about the Elementals, do you?"
"The wha?"
Jack looked like he was about to facepalm. "The Elementals: the Spirits of Water, Earth, Fire, and Wind. Henry, James, Thomas, and Sicily."
"I only know that their story is older than the stars."
"And so are they, but they're real. Not many people know about them, currently, but back when I was first reborn, there were still some Native American Tribes who worshipped them under different names until the settlers kicked them out."
Bunny never asked him again, and didn't interrupt anymore conversations. He told North and Tooth about this, and eventually, they all took his word for it. (After all, wouldn't Jack be an Elemental? In answer to that, no, he's not, he's a Seasonal, and while they deal with the Elementals, they aren't one themselves.)
Eventually, the cycle repeated, and the Elementals gained more believers. They met the other Guardians through chance, and they always had each other to rely on when times were hard.
But they never forgot their permanent believer: the Immortal Frost Child, Jack Frost.
A/N: I hope I did your idea justice, Screaming Fire!