In the beginning there was the Void. Nothing more, nothing less, only the void. And it came to pass that the void realized it was alone and became lonely. However, there could be no end to loneliness while the void remained.
So the void divided itself into two equal halves: Light and Darkness. Together light and darkness filled the void. Although they could never exist in the same space, for to do so would be to return to the void, light and darkness each took comfort in the presence of the other. They were no longer alone.
Light intermingled with darkness and darkness intermingled with light and from this three children were born: Fire, Earth, and Water.
Fire, the eldest, was the most similar to his parents, with strength to cast both rays of light and shadows. However, where light and darkness were calm and quiet, fire was loud and fierce, crackling with power.
Earth, the second born, was stoic and unyielding. Able to divide light from darkness, he quarreled with fire in most things.
Water, the youngest, was creative and free. She could play with both light and darkness, creating rainbows. She could calm fire and soften earth.
Although fire and earth would fight and bicker with each other, both came to love water and she loved them both. In time fire approached water and together they created Air, who fire adored. Earth also approached water and the two created Life, who proceeded to cover earth and fill water with all manner of living things. Both water and earth delighted in life. For a time there was a happy peace.
However fire eventually became jealous of earth and life for he wanted water to himself. In a fit of jealous rage, he pit himself against earth and life and sought to destroy them both.
Earth sought help from water and with their combined powers they sealed fire deep inside an earthen prison, separating fire from life and air.
Fire pleaded with light and darkness to free him, but they agreed with earth and water that he had gone too far. However light and darkness both took pity on their first born. Each gave him an eye, the sun from light and the moon from darkness, which he could use to look down upon his beloved air, from whom he had been separated.
However, fire could not forget his jealous rage and turned his eyes on the earth and life again, trying to burn them to ash with the gaze from his fiery eyes. Darkness saw this and chastised him, sealing the burning power of the moon she had given him. She also blocked the light from the sun, covering the earth in darkness for a short time.
But still fire would not relent. He raged against his prison, sending up burning lava and shaking the earth. When darkness slept and no longer covered his gaze, he would turn his still burning eye, the sun, onto the earth.
Although air loved fire, she saw that he went too far in his rage. He could no longer see her in his anger. She approached water and together they created storms, which blocked fire’s gaze from the sun while darkness slept and cooled his anger deep within the earth. She also approached life and strengthened life’s creations by giving them breath. In this way they could withstand the burning gaze of fire's eye.
Finally, seeing the disapproval of air and water whom he adored, fire relented and was calmed. In apology he relaxed his burning gaze on the earth and gave a bit of his own fire, under the care of air, to life’s creations to use for their own purposes. Peace descended on the world.
But every so often fire will remember his jealousy. He will turn his burning gaze again towards life and struggle against his prison, sending tremors through the earth. Seeing this, darkness will blind his eyes while air and water will storm to remind him to not turn his anger onto life and earth. It is these seasons of struggle and calm which mark the passage of time for all.
