The Rabbit Prince

The Rabbit Prince

Long ago, on a wide plain where the morning sun painted the grass with gold, a clever Rabbit lived beside a small antelope named Duiker. Rabbit could always find a shortcut. Sometimes he found one when everyone else was working patiently, and sometimes his shortcuts led him into trouble. Duiker was steady, trusting, and fond of doing things fairly. One day Rabbit said, “Why do we not grow our own food? There is fine earth beside the stream.” Duiker liked the idea. Together they cleared two small fields and planted maize, pumpkins, and groundnuts. Duiker watered his plants each day, pulled weeds, and spoke kindly to the young green shoots. Rabbit worked too, but whenever the sun grew hot, he discovered an urgent reason to rest. He had to inspect a cloud. He had to check whether the shade beneath a tree was comfortable. He had to take a five-minute nap that somehow lasted an hour. When harvest time came, Duiker’s field stood tall and green. Rabbit’s field was much less impressive. Rabbit felt ashamed. But instead of asking his friend for help, he crept to Duiker’s field and took a few ears of maize. Duiker soon noticed. “Friend,” he said, “do you know who has been visiting my field?” Rabbit’s ears drooped. He almost made up a very clever excuse. Then he saw that Duiker was not angry. He only looked sad. “It was me,” Rabbit admitted. “I worked less, but I was just as hungry. I should have asked.” Duiker was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Next year we will work together. This year we can share the harvest. But do not hide the truth from me again.” Rabbit nodded. Telling the truth felt much better than carrying it around alone. That night, something strange happened in the fields. Someone scattered maize on the ground and left behind a long silver feather. “This time, it was not me,” Rabbit said in the morning. “I believe you,” said Duiker. “Let us find out who it was.” The friends made a little tangle of soft grass cords, not to hurt anyone but to hold a visitor for a moment. The next morning they found a magnificent bird caught gently in the cords. Her wings shone blue, gold, and red. One long feather gleamed brighter than the dawn. “Do not be afraid,” said Duiker. “We only want to know why you came to our field.” The bird lifted her head and spoke in a human voice. “I came from the country above the clouds. I did not mean to harm you. I simply missed the taste of maize that grows on the earth.” Rabbit untangled the last cord. “Next time, ask first,” he said. Then he smiled, for he had only recently learned the same lesson himself. The bird flew away. But the next day she returned. “I have come to thank you,” she said. She touched the ground with her long shining feather. In a swirl of light, the bird became a young princess. “I am the princess of the Sky Country,” she told them. “This feather lets me travel between the clouds and the earth.” She often visited Rabbit and Duiker after that. Rabbit showed her hidden paths through the tall grass. Duiker offered the sweetest maize from his field. The princess told them of rivers that ran above the clouds and trees where stars nested at night. One afternoon, she touched Rabbit with the magic feather. Light spun around him. His ears vanished, his paws became hands, and in Rabbit’s place stood a young man in simple traveling clothes. “You are the Rabbit Prince now,” the princess said. “But do not forget who you were. Your quick mind is a gift, and so is your courage to admit a mistake.” Duiker walked around him once. “Strange,” he said. “You have the same voice.” “And probably the same appetite,” said the Rabbit Prince. Soon the princess said, “I want you to meet my family.” She planted the shining feather in the earth. It grew taller and taller until it reached the clouds. “What an extraordinary ladder,” whispered the Rabbit Prince. Mouse and Woodpecker, two resourceful neighbors, joined them. Together they climbed the feather. Far below, the rivers became silver threads and the trees became green dots. At last they reached a great stone gate in the sky. “There is no door,” Rabbit Prince said. “Doors are almost everywhere,” Mouse replied. “You only need to discover where they begin.” Mouse ran around the stone and sniffed every crack. Woodpecker tapped with his beak: tap-tap, tap-tap, tap. Behind a small ridge, he found a hollow place. There was a hidden lever, and when he pressed it, the great gate slid open. Beyond it lay the Sky Country. Silver trees grew beside clear streams, and people could turn into birds whenever they wished. The princess’s parents were delighted to see their daughter. But when they saw her earthborn friend, the Sky Ruler became thoughtful. “Our people have never welcomed an outsider into the royal family,” he said. “Perhaps the custom has simply not had a chance to begin,” said the princess. The Ruler did not want to hurt his daughter, but he could not trust a stranger at once. “Very well,” he said. “Let the young prince pass three tests. They will not be dangerous. We will see whether he can think of more than himself.” The first test was one of careful looking. Dozens of identical jars stood on a long table, but only one held fresh spring water. Mouse whispered, “I smell mint beside that jar. It must have come from the spring.” “Thank you,” said the Rabbit Prince. “But I must solve this one myself.” He looked closely at every jar. On one, he saw tiny drops of cold morning dew. That was the jar he chose. The second test was one of courage. He had to cross a wide plain during a hailstorm. Rabbit Prince did not rush forward. He waited until Woodpecker spotted a narrow line of trees that offered shelter. Then he crossed without panic. “Courage is not running toward trouble,” he said. “Sometimes courage is finding a wise way through.” The third test was the hardest. The Sky Ruler gave him three little bags of magic seed. “Plant them wherever you think they should grow,” he said. Rabbit Prince could have planted all the seeds beside the home he hoped to have. Instead, he divided them into three parts. He gave one to elderly people in a distant valley. He gave one to a large family whose fields had been ruined by a storm. The last he planted with the princess. For a long time, the Sky Ruler said nothing. Then he smiled. “Now I see,” he said. “You have learned not only how to be clever, but how to share.” There was a great celebration in the Sky Country. Yet the Rabbit Prince and the princess chose to make their home on the earth. “Our story began there,” she said. They descended by the magic feather with Mouse and Woodpecker. Duiker was waiting in the field. “At last!” he cried. “I was beginning to think I would have to harvest everything by myself.” From then on, the friends lived close by and helped one another. Rabbit Prince never again took what belonged to someone else without asking. Duiker never felt shy about saying when he needed help. Mouse was always finding hidden doors, and Woodpecker could hear an empty space inside even the thickest stone. And whenever a long golden streak appeared in the sky after rain, the friends looked up and smiled. Perhaps, they said, the magic feather had touched the earth again.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨