The Rabbit Girl and the Swamp Princess

Once upon a time, a young girl lived near the edge of the woods with her family raising rabbits. The forest was dark and evil, her father told her, and she was forbidden from wandering there. “Only wicked things live in the woods,” he would say. “Witches, monsters, and freaks make their home there. Beware!” But the only things she would see there were squirrels, birds, and the occasional hawk which she’d have to keep an eye on, for it liked rabbits. For her, the forest was peaceful and full of surprises, the perfect place to daydream, which she would do often.

One day when she was walking along the edge of the forest, a pack of hounds set upon her. Terrified, she ran into the woods and tripped, hitting her head. Men on horseback followed the braying dogs and found the girl asleep with a nasty bruise on her head.

The men brought her to their camp and nursed her back to health. One of the men was the crown prince, who took a fancy to the girl.

“I want to make her my queen,” he announced to the men assembled.

“She’s but a common girl,” his most Trusted Advisor replied. “Your father has arranged for more suitable matches to consider.”

Unaccustomed to being told no, the young prince had relations with the girl anyway, telling her that he would be king one day. For her part, she willingly submitted because she knew it was a sin to oppose the king according to her father.

Their love affair was brief until his advisors discovered his indiscretion, who promptly removed her from the king’s tent and left her at the forest edge.

She found her way back home to an angry father and an overjoyed mother. “See what you put your mother through?” her father hissed. “You should have thought about her.”

When it was discovered she was with child, her father beat her mercilessly. “My only daughter, you add shame to your wonton vagrancy!”

When the girl pleaded that her child was the king’s, the beatings doubled. “You now add blasphemy to your evil deeds? Tell it to the Bishop!”

The girl, however, did not recount. “I swear by my life, the child I carry is the Royal Majesty's." She did not realize the man had been merely the crown prince and not the king, but those distinctions are lost on commoners living on the edge of the kingdom.

The girl was condemned to death but at the last minute, her grief-stricken mother cut the ropes tying her wrists to the stake, for she was to be burned the following morning.

The girl wandered far and wide in the woods until she collapsed from hunger and thirst. A small coven of three witches discovered her and attempted to heal her but it was too late. She gave birth to a stillborn son and soon died herself. The witches buried them both in a miasmic swamp and cast a poorly-remembered internment spell to protect them in their rest.

Unbeknownst to the three, the dead child’s spirit lingered on, seething in resentment at the untimely and unjust death of his mother, seeking satisfaction. The witches’ miscast spell provided just the window for the child’s spirit to form a new creature fusing the lifeless body of his mother and his own into a hideous black undead creature, lurking in the mud.

Over the years, the prince became king and married. The queen bore him a daughter, but no other children. She showed no desire to rule and spent most of her days wandering the courtyard and, when she was of age, exploring the forest on horseback.

On one such ride she encountered the bog holding the creature. Sensing a presence hungry and dark, she ventured to the swamp’s bank. There, she had her first passionate encounter with the undead creature. It was the polar opposite of her upbringing: filthy, raw, and utterly mind-blowing. She spent the night in the throes of passion, her clothes a tangled mess with mud and slime oozing from her. She reluctantly parted and rode the horse back to the castle, to much worry and chagrin with the royal court seeing the crown princess so sullied.

“What happened to the dear princess?” Her ladies-in-waiting asked. “How did you become so thoroughly covered in such crude detritus?”

“I fell,” she said, trying to suppress a grin, for indeed how far she had fallen, relishing the darkness, filth, and decadence the swamp offered, plotting the next time she could steal away.

Being of marriageable age, suitors from around the realm called upon her. She ignored them, for her mind was made up; the only one for her was the all-consuming creature of the swamp. She cared not for their pleasantries or promises of “love” and “comfort.” She didn’t want either and burned to feel again the pleasurable pain the creature would give.

When it came to the King’s attention that his daughter was spending days in the forest, he sent his Trusted Advisor to follow her. To his shock, he witnessed one of her liaisons with the creature; shedding her clothes, walking into the mud, then being pulled under by black slimy tentacles, with only her head kept above, her moans echoing through the forest as it pleasured her. He was both shocked and mesmerized.

He was easily spotted and she called to him. “Come here, worm. Watch closer.” He obeyed. Upon the conclusion of her intimacy with the creature, she emerged from the swamp, covered in mud, and ordered the servant to strip and kneel before her to pledge his fealty. “I will be Queen one day, after all, and you will be my Advisor.” Rattled by desire and confusion, the Servant obeyed. She then ordered him to have relations with her “to seal the pact.” More than willing from his confusion and desire, he readily obeyed.

She continues her clandestine rendezvous with the creature and the Advisor her accomplice, the King none the wiser.

The Queen for her part is suspicious there is a plot against her, so she sends her own spy. The spy sees all, the girl’s unnatural relations with the swamp creature, and her subsequent congress with the Advisor. The queen keeps this information close to heart until the time ripens.

Soon it is discovered the princess is with child. She is locked in the tower and raves that her child is “swamp spawn.” The King blames the queen for having such a daughter and locks her up too. The queen in her defense reveals to her husband that the father of the child is in fact the Advisor, who has thwarted the King’s plans to marry his daughter to a powerful prince. The king locks up the Advisor as well. The whole kingdom is caught up in the intrigue. The outcome of the birth determines the fate of the princess, the Queen, the Advisor, and the child or creature. If the girl gives birth to a swamp creature, her life is forfeit for having illicit relations with a demon, as is the Queen’s for bearing such a child. The creature will be slain and burned. If the girl gives birth to a human child, the Advisor will be executed and the stage is set for civil unrest. Some may seek to kill the child as well who is seen as an illegitimate heir while others would see him as their future king.

When the time of her confinement arrives, the princess, Queen, and Advisor are all set upon a gallows in the city square, awaiting the birth of either a man or beast. A mighty fire is stoked to consume the swamp creature if one were to issue forth from the princess, followed by her own living body, bound by ropes. The ax is sharpened for the Advisor and Queen alike. To much amazement, the princess gives birth to a healthy son. The Advisor is beheaded and in the melee and confusion, the infant is spirited away by the Queen to her native land. The princess flees to the swamp and gives herself up to desire and need, eventually being consumed by it, the Rabbit girl’s vengeance complete.