A peaceful start

You’d never guess at first glance that Elvira was extremely excited for the arrival of All Sinner’s Day. Every bun in Burrowgatory was gearing up for a wonderful time. Diving into sins, or revelling in some peace and quiet. Didn’t matter either which way. Elvira kept a polite smile on her face as she paced her way past several other buns. She carefully navigated her way through stores to the items she required.

Did she need more candles? Absolutely not. Did she buy some anyway? Yes. And boy was she grateful the store owner had stocked up. One of her favorites were the ones she could put in her oversized tub, they float around on a base, and slowly melted if you lit them. They were the only ones she didn’t have any more of.

Browsing the shelves she shook her head at various shaped ones. Ones that looked like a basic bun shape, some in the shapes of demons, some simple balls, or popular toys, she passed them all. Pausing at a shelf full of candles designed to resemble flowers. All the pretty colors of wax, all the gorgeous floral scents wafting to her nose. These were the ones she wanted.

Elvira happily grabbed five of each kind of flower she liked, giving herself options on multiples of the same one in a bath, or perhaps an array of different kinds. Mentally she tallied the cost preparing for the worst, but it was well within budget. More than enough thankfully for her to move on to the various fruits she wanted to purchase.

After a long day out shopping, Elvira came back home, fed her beloved Imp Blossom, and then made some dinner for herself. She was just sitting down as Blossom moved her way over, shaking her would-be petals with curious delight. Elvira smiled wide and set her food down for a moment so she could open the boxes that were piled in the bags.

“Oh blossom, you will absolutely adore these.” She pulled out one of each of the flower candles she bought earlier and laid them out on the table for her Imp to sniff and flutter about them. Blossom gleefully took her time, which bought Elvira the time she needed to eat, and wash up all the fresh fruit she bought. She was just putting the cutting board on the counter when blossom came to find her.

“Don’t worry, you can have some of this too if you like.” After all this was mostly harmless for imps in small amounts. She could remember Hutch talking about proper Imp food for a while, and trying to keep it on the straight and narrow, but her lovely Blossom did so enjoy a tasty, harmless morsel from time to time, and All Sinner’s Day was the perfect time of year to indulge a little.

“You should have seen everyone rushing about today, why I saw this one pair having quite the fun time right out in the street. I think they rather like people watching them. The rope work on what I assume was the submissive bun was quite stunningly well done too. And so shiny, it must have been silk.”

Elvira told Blossom all about everything she saw while she cut the fruit and put it on skewers. Fetching the candles, which she let Blossom pick for today’s bath, they both headed upstairs. Elvira left one light one while she ran the water, taking time to light just one of the flower candles for now.

It was the one real extravagance in her burrow. Her bath was larger than she needed, long enough two tall doll forms could lay end to end, hoof to hoof in it, and their heads would just barely rest on the edges. Deep enough any bun could sit and have most of them covered in doll form, or swim in the thing a little in bun form.

With the hot water filling the massive square bath, Elvira turned off the lights, set the fruit platter with skewers afloat in the tub, and carefully lit the remaining flower candles and set them on their way in the water. Only one last thing remained. Elvira walked over, and cracked the window slightly. All the noise from outside came pouring in.

Music from the streets in the distance, pleasure filled cries of buns out and about having a good, or rough time, the shouts of drunken buns enjoying some game or another, soft coo’s and sing-song bliss in quieter tones nearby of those more relaxed. The smell of street baked treats. Every once in a while things would slam around somewhere in the streets and she could only make guesses at a few other sounds.

It was better than any spa music. As she sunk herself deep into the water, she listened to all the other buns enjoying their vices, or just having fun for the sake of it. The rhythms all melded together in her mind, a perfectly peaceful cacophony of background noise. The most wonderful of backdrops in this dark room, floating almost weightless, among candles.

She glanced up at the mirrored ceiling, taking in the light of the candles bouncing around the space as they flickered, the smells settling everything in her soul, the way her hooves glowed with the help of a polish just for the events that would be around for the holiday. She wanted to stretch out in her doll form, but decided against it for now. After all, her fur would be easier to dry than her hair. And she didn’t want to ruin the moment.

A hoof reached out to the floating tray to snag a skewer of fruit. While she nibbled she gently pushed the water around with her hooved feet, causing the candles to move just enough that the firelight upon them could be mistaken for tiny dancers, swaying too and fro along with the sounds of the night outside. Some of the candle flames would dip low, and rise again as they righted themselves. It was beautiful. The reflections on the water were alluring in their own right, distorted by the slightest disturbance to the water.

It sparkled and shone, and the candle light caught up all the steam making it appear almost as though a dream. For a moment, Elvira thought maybe, just maybe, she should mirror the three walls around the bath as well, so she might enjoy these gentle flickers even more. Blossom at some point dozed off nearby, no doubt enjoying the warm dampness of the room, and the soothing atmosphere.

It really was a perfect start to All Sinner’s Day, and the events to come from it.