The Rabbit Queen

After a few days the kings herald came to the house. The father opened the door, and was told the king was dead, and had no heirs, so everyone who caught the talking rabbit would be king or queen. The son heard it too, but the mother was quietly cooking dinner. The father went out to catch the rabbit, and soon the son went out. The father first came to a tree with the most marvelous gems in the branches. He got greedy and tried to take the treasures, but the tree swallowed him and he died. The son saw this and ran on. After a little while, the son came to a stream. The stream was made of melted gold. The son got greedy, and the stream flooded and he drowned. Now, the mother became worried about her family, and she went out and searched for them. The tree and the stream tried to lure her to take the treasure, but the mother was just looking for her family and did not see it. She finally came to a little clearing in the forest, where the rabbit was hopping around. The mother asked where they were, and the rabbit told her they were turned into gold and gems. The the rabbit told her that her husband and her son was trapped in the castle. She went there with the rabbit, and when the servants and the others saw the rabbit hopping around the mother, she was crowned queen. Now, a magistrate had ruled the castle before her, and he wanted her to find three things and prove herself worthy to rule the kingdom. The mother was helpless, but the rabbit told her just to take it slowly. In the first test the mother was supposed to find a cauldron that could boil soup to the whole army. The second thing was to find a sword that could cut everything it went near. The last thing was to find a ring that granted the bearer the power of the weather. She was allowed to take three things with her, and she took a needle, a butter knife and a handkerchief. The first thing she came to was the cauldron, but it was buried in wines. A soldier hired by the magistrate to stop the mother tried to cut the wines with his sword, but was swallowed whole by the bush. The mother took out the butter knife and with the rabbits help she cut the wines slowly and safely. She took the cauldron and went on. The next object she found was the sword, but it was missing parts. The smith guarding it told her she could repair it with anything she wanted, but forging it whole would kill her. Another soldier hired by the magistrate quickly rushed and banged it with a hammer, and the sword awoke and sliced him into two. The mother took the needle and sewed the sword whole with the rabbits fur as string, and got the sword by taking it slow. The next thing was the ring. It was behind a dirty mirror, and another soldier hired by the magistrate tried to break the glass. The glass absorbed him and he died of suffocation. The mother took the handkerchief and cleaned the mirror, and it spewed the ring out. When she came back, the magistrate tried to kill her, but the rabbit chewed off his head, and she was crowned queen. The queen got worried and asked the rabbit where her husband and her son where. The rabbit then took human form, and told her that they were dead and if she would marry him. She said yes, and there marriage took seven days. She ruled the country just and fair, and after her death she was called the Rabbit Queen.