Fire

The fire danced in the ring of stones at the campsite, jumping up and falling back as if possessed by an alien spirit.  As the campers looked on, the fire jumped and jittered faster and faster.  They put it down to an increased breeze, which ruffled their hair and chilled their noses.  
Then, for no apparent reason, the fire all clumped at the tip of the highest log.  To the shock of the onlookers, it then tentatively bobbed upward, leaving the fire pit entirely.  It rotated slowly on a vertical axis, as if getting a grip on its surroundings.  All of a sudden, it let out an ear-piercing shriek and rocketed into the air.  The flame ball trailed tendrils of red-hot nothingness as it shot out of the circle of astonished and confused campers.  It shrank as it rose higher and higher, then started growing again as an immense fireball shot back down from the sky.  The campers scattered, their stunned silence shattered as each of them let loose a primal scream of terror.  
The flames came to an abrupt halt about two feet off the ground.  Pausing as if in thought, it began to compress, growing brighter and brighter as it did so.  Eventually, it was a speck of such bright white that none of the watchers could even look in its general direction without risking permanent eye damage. 
Some whimpers and moans escaped the again-silent audience as a searing wall of heat surged out from the ball, burning everything in its path.  Then the ball zipped away, faster than the blinded eye could follow, to pursue its own adventures.  
The campers did their best to forget it.