All the fire sprites were excited. No, they were beyond excited – they were ecstatic. They caught sight of the humans setting up the fireworks display and immediately began bouncing and zooming around. Fire works were the highlight of the year for them. Last year, the big fireworks display hadn’t been held, and all there was were some sparklers and a few illicit Roman candles, firecrackers and bottle rockets. The year before, it was pouring rain, which spoiled the fun. The year before that, it was a small display and only half of the fire sprites got to play. Summer wasn’t terribly fun, anyway, without woodstoves and fireplaces to inhabit. There were barbeques to play in, of course, but they only lasted a few hours. Campfires weren’t near the town. So the fourth of July was the big day for the fire sprites, one they looked forward to all year round.
Sometime during the day on the fourth, most likely in the early evening, all the sprites would congregate near where the launching tubes for the fireworks were. Humans tended to stay away from these because they were dangerous, so the sprites were fairly safe in gathering together so many at a time. Then each sprite would choose a launcher and settle in to wait. As soon as the firework was launched, the fun began. The sprite would ride the firework, zooming high into the air and then, just as it exploded, jump off and play in the sparks and colors. Then each sprite would float down again, glowing from the fire of the explosion. No one noticed a stray spark or so drifting to the ground. The best fireworks were the ones launched all together – then the sprites would play together and dart all through the bright fiery glitter. It was a day made for fire sprites.
This year, the sprites met early in the evening, before it began to get dark. They worked out who got which fireworks – it turned out there were enough for three rides each – depending on the order the fireworks were going up in. Then they snuck carefully over to the launching tubes to settle in and wait for the ride.
As the first sprite began to enter the first tube, there was a shout. The sprite popped back out again in shock. There was something already in there! Another fire sprite, a strange one, popped his head out of the tube. “Just what do you think you’re doing, trying to get into my firework!” the strange fire sprite snarled.
“Excuse me?! Your firework?! This one is mine! I called it and I intend to ride it. Just who do you think you are, anyway? This is our territory, and you don’t belong here!” answered the local fire sprite indignantly.
“Yeah, where did you come from? Go away!” the other fire sprites joined in.
Several other heads popped out of nearby tubes, and then others, right down the line. The whole display appeared to be taken over with strange fire sprites.
“I think you better just run along home now,” sneered the fire sprite in the tube. “We are the ones who are riding this display, not you. This is our territory. We get in the fireworks cases at the factory and ride along. That’s what we do. All the fireworks are our territory!” He smirked.
The local fire sprites looked at one another and then at the huge numbers of strange fire sprites already in the launching tubes. The little sprite who had been confronting the strange fire sprite shrugged and drooped and flitted slowly off. The rest of the group followed.
As soon as they were out of sight behind a building, they stopped and regrouped.
“What do they think they’re doing, claiming all the fireworks?”
“Yeah, that’s not fair!”
“Somebody should teach them a lesson, that’s what should happen!”
“Yeah, and I say we should be the ones to do it!”
Everyone stopped and looked at the sprite who had said this. He stood there with his chin up defiantly and his arms crossed.
“You think we should be the ones to teach them a lesson?”
“How’re we going to do that?”
The sprite replied, “I’m not sure, but I say their free ride is over. We’re going to stop the greedy so-and-so’s, and we’re going to do it now.”
The sprites muttered among themselves for a few moments and then they began to plot. The rebellious sprite was right. This was War.
As the day spent itself and the sun began to set, the fire sprites readied themselves for battle. One of the littlest ones found his way into the control area where there were many humans, and hid carefully. He noted what was what on the control board – after all, electricity is a form of fire – and decided on his course of action. He slipped back out to report to the other sprites, who nodded and set off for the appropriate areas.
Each sprite except for the one who went back to the control room silently hid by a launch tube. The control sprite carefully waited, and then, at full dark, just as the moon cleared the horizon, he struck. The humans who worked the controls were not paying much attention because it was not yet time for the show to begin, so the sprite had no trouble in setting off all the controls at once.
Every firework began to launch. As each firework cleared its launch tube, the sprite waiting beside it jumped aboard the hurtling firework and tried to knock the sprite already aboard it flying. The air was filled with shooting fireworks and sparks and colors. Many of the fireworks careened into each other, bouncing off in all directions. A few exploded as soon as they collided, but others did not. Some of the sprites on the fireworks fought back, and the battles sent the fireworks flying in still more directions. They flew far off course, zinging away towards where the crowd was gathered to watch the spectacle, zooming back towards the control area, and flying in strange loops and spirals high into the sky. The fire sprites fighting aboard the fireworks barely noticed.
Humans ran screaming as the fireworks buzzed them and threatened to go off in their midst. The people in the control booth were yelling and cursing and trying to figure out what had gone wrong. The sprite who had set everything off at once slipped away to watch the fun enviously.
Fireworks exploded, colors blooming and glowing against the night sky. There were cracks and pops and booms that echoed through the night and shower upon shower of colored sparks. The entire sky was alight with color and fire. All of the fire sprites, both the local ones and the usurpers, stopped fighting in the wonder of the moment and jumped off to dart in and out of the sparks and colors. They played in the night sky amid the confusion of a hundred fireworks going off all at once. All of the fighting was forgotten in those few wonderful moments of fire and color in the sky. The sky was completely filled as all of the fireworks exploded at the same time. It was an incredible sight, and the sprites were in the middle of it. They had never had such a wonderful time in all the years they had been hitching rides on the fireworks.
The fireworks finished in a few last twinkling sparks and random pops. It had been spectacular, and spectacularly fun for the fire sprites. As the last of the sparks died out, the sprites coasted to the ground replete with pleasure. The strange sprites ran as soon as they hit the ground, never to be seen again.
The people who had come to watch shook their heads. The show had been incredible, they agreed, but clearly there had been some malfunction to cause all the fireworks to go off at once.
The people in charge of setting off the fireworks were puzzled. They could find no reason for the fireworks to have all gone off at once.
The fire sprites were delighted. They planned to do this again, next year.
