One day fire summoned the other five elements to take part in a competition. Curious, the others gathered in the seven sages forest, to discover what fire had in mind.
“Elements” said the fire. “I’ve asked you to come here to decide once and for all which of us is the strongest. “I am fire, the first of all of you, even the giver of life itself is made of me, and it is from me that life is made, and I can prove that I can prevail over the rest of you.”
“You and your games,” cackled metal, who was very old, and used to fire’s tricks.
“This competition is a farce.” Said Wood, who hated Fire. “Your element is one of destruction and vanity. Only knowing how to destroy and not to create. It is from me that all animals and humans are able to live on earth.”
“How would something like this even be proven?” Asked water, "Each of us is so different in our abilities that no competition could prove anyone the stronger.”
“I have a proposal,” answered Fire. “There is a dry patch of land south of here about a mile wide. Each of us will attempt to occupy the territory for three days, and by the end of the three days, whoever is able to keep most of the territory will be declared the winner.”
The others thought about this, and then after some quiet consideration, agreed, and decided that they would meet the following day for the competition. Each was confident that they would be able to prevail over the others.
The next day the elements gathered and set their sights on the patch of land.
Earth, who already occupied the territory from the beginning went first, and green grass and shrubbery sprouted from the barren land, and the earth became fertile and moist.
Wood quickly intervened and sprouted trees from the fertile soil that shot up into the sky, creating a small forest all around the gathering.
At this moment, Fire attacked. And a lightning strike started an enormous blaze across the trees. Wood fought back, hoping that the fire would be extinguished by its own ashes but the flames grew ever larger until the whole forest was engulfed.
Right then, water who had been waiting for fire, decided to strike. She let torrential rain pour down on the whole patch of land for hours and hours. The wood had already been burned to ashes while the rain fell and extinguished the embers. The heat that fire created merely created more clouds that would rain down once more and put out any fires.
Eventually wood and earth tried to once more regain the territory after a day of rain, but each time water would flood the earth with her rain and so trees and plants were smothered and drowned. Earth and wood wailed in despair at the flooded land, while fire howled in frustration.
Another day passed while the other elements schemed and plotted. Eventually the flooding grew so bad that fire and earth agreed to work together. On the last day when water was assured of her victory, a great rumbling occurred underneath the earth and great torrents of fire burst forth. As the earth shook and shattered, the water was drained from the land, and fire burst from the mountains, overflowing the land with lava and molten rock.
Water wept as her plans were foiled, but earth and fire then turned against each other, as earthquakes and eruptions ravaged the landscape. Neither able to win out over the other.
On the final day, when earth and fire were still battling suddenly metal now erupted from the ravaged landscape and spilled out, his lava covering the earth.
“You fools,” said metal. “Through your struggle you have destroyed so much of the earth that you have now unleashed me. And have now made your own tombs.”
The other elements realized their mistake and worked to undo the intervention of metal. They tried to use the land outside of the agreed upon patch to undermine him, and eventually their struggle became so large that the molten metal grew to encompass the whole earth. The other elements wept with despair at how they were unable to overcome metal.
Unwilling to let metal be the victor, and to keep the whole earth as a burning core, the other elements turned to fire for help.
“You and your stupid contests.” Wood cried. “You started this, Fire, you must do something.”
Out of options, fire in desperation stopped the sun itself from moving, and the earth stopped it from rotating around it. And so the third and final day that would signal the victory of metal, never arrived.
Instead the earth simply stopped still, giving the other elements time to cool the core of the earth. And eventually when it cooled they were able to break through the metallic crust, and so earth and soil was able to form once more over the solid rock beneath. But yet again, as trees and plants grew on the earth, fire and water would attack, and either burn or destroy them, and each time they fought, metal would intervene, and pour burning lava over the earth.
None of the elements was able to admit defeat to any of the others. Metal, who the others feared, would not give in, saying the others had cheated, and Fire was unwilling to release the sun again for fear that Metal would eventually win.
No one knew for how long the elements struggled like this, repeatedly burning and then rebuilding the whole earth. Exhausted, the elements conspired.
“We cannot go on like this.” said earth, who had had enough of the whole ordeal. “One of us must be declared the winner.”
“No, " said Fire, whoever is declared the winner will forever dominate the other elements and treat them as subordinate.”
Realizing their predicament, water, wood, and earth quietly came together and hatched a plan.
They waited until Metal, Fire and Earth were tired, before they attacked again. And so the earth became covered in plants and water, but instead of trying to destroy each other, they occupied part of the planet, and then in the water, they worked together to create a kind of plant that could move of its own accord.
Together they watched it crawl out of the water by itself to eat the plants for sustenance, without the direction of either earth or water.
The other elements watched this new development with fascination, and instead of attacking, decided to wait and see what happened.
The creatures of water and wood became more complex, and many different creatures were created that lived on both the earth and the water, using plants. Eventually a creature emerged that was different from the others. It could walk upright, build things out of wood and stone, and one day it even discovered an ability to create fire.
Fire was awakened from his long slumber and exclaimed: “what is this? How have I been summoned without my permission?”
The others said nothing and simply watched as the creatures ventured more and more into the making of tools. Through the use of the fire that they now had, they began to use other features they found in caves, and eventually decided to use it with metal.
Metal was now awake from his sleep.
“What has happened?” Asked metal, who watched the creatures now using fire to make things out of him.
Fire and earth then quietly let the sun move once more, and the sun shone again, much to the delight of the creatures below.
“Look,” said metal, “the creatures live in both water and land, they build things out of wood, and metal, and they use fire.”
“Yes,” said earth, “with these things, each of us can enjoy a part of the land, without dominating the rest. I will agree to share most of my lands with water, and wood, if fire and metal can agree never to destroy the land again. They will still find space to occupy it.”
Metal respectfully agreed, who felt that the competition had reached a natural conclusion.
Fire protested at first, but then realized the sense of the settlement. Though he constrained himself to small lands, he would occasionally lash out when in a bad mood.
And so the elements let the issue of who was the strongest, was finally laid to rest.