As the sun burrows
First Vigil. Six hours and thirty four minuets before the fall equinox.
Here now, is a small brick house, ornate in its own way, but still simple.
This house is surrounded on all sides by a wonderfully large and diverse garden.
From the center of that garden, a faint flickering glow and the sounds of paws digging.
Now, inside the house.
There are three large windows that look out onto the back garden. Here in the back room of the house, sat in front of those three windows we find Opossum.
Behind Opossum thee three windows loomed, black and pitch….void. Night had fallen and the Sun was burrowing.
Expectedly, the small white door of the house pushed open, the cluster of bells hung from it chimed in clatter.
Through the door came a tall and rather thin bear, after closing the door behind him he silently hung his scarf and knit cap on the wrack. Slowly, he made his way through the dim house, to the back room where Possum sat and took his seat at the small round table. From the kitchen came clattering and shuffling but Bear and Possum remained silent.
And there they sat….for quite some time.
Rat entered the back room with three cups, two coffee cups clattered by their handles in one paw and a slim wine glass was held by the stem in the other.
The mugs were placed on the table and one was slid gently to Possum, who grabbed it up and held it close, the steam curling round their whiskers. The other mug remained with rat and the glass of deep dark wine was gently placed in front of Bear.
Bear slowly slid his long clawed digits between the stem of the glass, but kept his palm face down so that it covered the base of the stem, and there his hand remained, rested on the table as if to acknowledge that he had received the wine though he did not drink it.
“Well” said Rat as he sat at the third chair at the table leaving only an empty fourth, “Our friend is busy at work out there in the Garden, this is no easy task for him, he works ceaselessly.”
Possum drew a shawl around them and picked their foot paws up off the floor to hold them closer up under them, looking over the bridge of their snout (which made their eyes a bit crossed) they peered at something over Rats shoulder.
Rat followed their gaze to a small clock sat on a decorative table in the corner of the room. He sighed.
Bear reached into his worn but well cared for vest and produced a small green glass which contained a candle, Possum from somewhere in their shawl wrangled out a white glass which contained a candle, and rat, who seemed reluctant reached into his pants pocket and produced a purple glass which held in it a candle.
“It’s time then I suppose he said”
But all was silent. Possum, had borrowed three matches from the badger, who was still audibly digging in the night outside they struck them suddenly and precisely. All three were lit.
She passed one to bear who lit his green candle and shook the match out.
She passed one to Rat who held it in his paws a moment, protective and precious, then he lit his own purple candle and snuffed the match out by placing it in his now empty coffee mug.
Finally, Possum lit her own candle, the radiance of white cast each of their countenances upon the darkened glass of the windows in strange faint colors.
“Now is the time that the Badger digs, That the Sun sets, and rest will be needed, though without His might and Light, we cannot stay here in the garden where the frost will assemble and the end will be laid plain. He goes now to prepare a place for us, and I come to watch this house, As I am he who wakes when the Flame sleeps. For a moment, Rat thought that Badger had come to peer into one of the large windows and he meant to wave to him, to bid him come in….but as his eyes adjusted it became clear he was seeing only Possums reflection and he wondered how he could have ever confused the two.
“When the digging is done, we will go under, and there we will stay until his waking, when the warmth and the green returns!"
Bears candle flickered and his shadow seemed to dance and grasp at every corner.
Rat looked at him but bear made no sign to him.
Possum continued "There is still some time left, what you have learned and what you have made and stored up, gather these things unto you, take you candles, and blankets and mirrors and paper and paints and pens and the food for yourself and the food for him and his great feast, take you silver bells and water, take you spices and tea, take you bedding and pillows and books, leave not a single animal out, allow any that come to shelter and, most importantly” Possum said as he held up his candle that shown brilliantly, "Take you the light that the Badger has given, let it be warmth and comfort to you and a sign of his return." and here Possum paused.
"Take you also incense and the oils of flower, and medicines and bandage, take you your auger and dried flowers, and silence, and silence….for as he rests, as the chill and dark seep, the Wolf walks the garden."
Rats mind went to funerary tidings and rain rotted flowers and he shook his head and stood and Possum was silent.
"Then I will gather the others and we will begin our work" rat said and he left the room.
as Rat passed the Den, he turned on every light and the television which was broadcasting a football game, he paused at this, and smiled.
In the back room Possum and Bear still remained, Possum gradually stood and set his candle in the window sill, looking out into the garden, the flickering light from down in the badger hole had gone out and all was silent.
Bear sat very still, he looked down into the deep dark purple wine in his glass and there reflected in it, standing just to his left was a dashing and adorned fox, who upon being viewed shifted the gaze of his fiery eyes and made eye contact with Bear. Bear moved his hand back and turning his wrist upward, lifted the bulb of the glass to his purple lips and drank every drop in one motion without a sound.
SIGH: No.1
“Oh badger, as your work continues and grows closer to its seasonal end, may the solar warmth we have cherished be brought bright with us in our little fires. May passions glow and be shared, candle to candle deep into the nights. May warmth be in every burrow, may light be in every tunnel, that these be happy times, stored up and spared from the cold and frost, cradled in the loving rooms prepared for us by your paws.
Oh Wolf! Oh Badger! Should the fires go out, may the scent of resinous incense and the oils of flowers dress our bodies here in these immaculate vaults, that we be returned to the earth as seeds and brought back anew in the spring by our own bodies and joy, or by the bodies of the new and their joy, Oh Sun, as you burrow, stay true and strong that at the end of your toiling the work be done, Rest in easy slumber with every need met, by those who you have so greatly provided for.”