Phoenix

Earth, Fire, Wind, Water Demonstration

That's when the dance began.

Twirling the staves around their painted bodies by the tips of their fingers, the orange-robed men and women began a complex series of twists and turns, the tips of their wooden staves flicking the sand in mesmerising patterns. It was only when the sand grew to form a perfect pyramid that Ash realised there was more to this performance than impressive timing and practice.

The men and women stood around the growing sand pyramid, hands joined, foreheads lowered, voices and arms rising as they began to chant in time with the beating drums. The sand quivered, coalesced before their eyes, then rose up before erupting outward and taking human form. Then, taking three, long strides the sand figure collapsed back down into a heap. Ash realised what the figure had been doing. It had been wandering.

The drumming and chanting subsided and attentions shifted to the fire where men and women in pale red robes stepped forward, taking the wooden staves from the ochre painted individuals and lighting both ends in the flames. Splitting into pairs, they began to spar, using the flaming rods as makeshift weapons. With each impact, sparks flew like fireworks and the roaring fire burned higher and more ferocious. The fight was precision co-ordinated, though one wrong move could end in disaster. As the sparring became faster and more dangerous, so did the heat of the flames and Ash found herself shielding her face with one hand.

All of a sudden, the fires went out, the pyre left nothing but a pile of smouldering embers. From the embers, something stirred. Expanded then contracted like a live, breathing thing. The coals rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and stayed. Rose and stayed until they took the form of a proud-breasted bird, body of coals, and wings of flame. It flapped, seemed to lift for a moment, before collapsing back into the pyre.

A phoenix rising from the embers, Ash thought.

Before she could recover from this wonder, another was upon her. The breeze stirred against her body, a stroking caress, coaxing the tension from her shoulders and inspiring a sense of calm. Those around her felt it too. Jacob, Apple and Ollie's heads flopped against their chests, eyes fluttering closed. The calm was a stark contrast from the fiery tension that had preceded it.

She heard something, distant at first, then unnervingly close, like a lullaby sung right into the ear. Men and women in light lilac robes ghosted around the gathered crowd, touching their foreheads in turn. As they did, a song wafted through the space, a melancholy, distant melody that was both crystal clear and impossible to follow. It whistled to trilling highs and swooped to hollow lows, raising the hairs on Ash's arms with each cadence. As the song came to an end, the fire went out, glowing embers extinguished to a fine ash. The ash lifted from the pyre and swirled in the air, rising, rising until it formed a gauzy cloud. The cloud amalgamated just as the sand had done until it resembled the shape of a raven which glided towards the water on a buffeting breeze. There it hovered for a moment before diving, beak first, into the sea and exploding in a shower of fine, black talcum.

Ash looked from left to right, wondering if it was all over. Earth, fire and wind had been manipulated in extraordinary, inconceivable ways. But there was still one force left. Water.

The ocean quivered and from it hands rose like the dead rising from a grave. Fingers first, followed by knuckles, wrists, forearms and bodies, all moving in perfect synchronisation. The men and women of water flipped and twisted, their silk robes replaced by a silk of the water, their bodies slipping and gliding with the porpoise grace. Using their arms and fingers, they conducted patterns in the liquid medium, flicking, splashing, furrowing, carving the water as though it was an extension of themselves.

Heads bobbed out of the water, bobbed back in again followed by feet. Then, the five women were propelled into the air by the men. They flipped mid-air and dove back down like flying fish. The demonstration ended with the five women standing on the shoulders of five men, holding hands and raising a perfect dome of water in an archway over their heads. The dome then froze solid and the women dove, one-by one, over it and back into the water, barely leaving a splash or a ripple behind.

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