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The Little Flame

One day a little flame, barely more than a spark, got separated from its family. At first it was scared of being alone and it felt itself start to dim. But the Gods were watching, and they had plans for the little flame. So they sent Air to strengthen it and Dry Leaf to carry it. And then they blew.

The little flame glowed and grew, and stretched itself out. It felt itself lift and fly into the night. The Gods told the elementals to carry the little flame from leaf to leaf, and this is how it travelled.

Soon it found itself blown down towards a man who was crouching on the ground. The man was cold and was trying to light a fire. The little flame landed right in the middle of the man's bundle. It looked up and felt itself grow even more when it saw the joy and happiness on his face. The Gods flooded the little flame with Intent, making it burst open and spread through the twigs and wood. The little flame grew in strength, in meaning, and knowing that it was seen, gave of itself totally.

After a while the flame saw the man look away, and felt cross - until it saw why. There was a second man, very different in appearance from the first, and the flame saw there was much hate between them. They moved towards each other, snarling in such anger and aggression that the flame feared they would destroy each other, leaving no one to watch it. So it blew itself up high, competing for their attention; neither man looked. So instead it tried dying down, pretending to die - and this worked. The flame was surprised to see them both rush towards it, to feed it, forgetting their hate. The flame felt great joy, and slowly it grew again.

Of course in time the men turned to each other again, but now the flame had learnt. When they tried to ignore it, to return to their hate, all it need do was to die away and they would rush back. In this way the flame forced the men to circle around it, and watch each other through it. The flame laughed as it learned to make them jump back and forth.

To make them dance.

And so it passed that the men's anger was burned away by their dancing, their hate gone with their sweat. They fell to the ground in exhaustion; knelt in surrender to each other, to the flame, and to the life between them.

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