While the Spider King was gone on one of his many side quests the Lamia Queen took the reins of ruling the Spider Kingdom. The weight of the duty was unbearable and the job gruellingly hard. She was forced to lounge on the Spider King Throne and listen to the woes of petitioners; a labour-intensive task if you asked her. Her royal rear was planted firmly on the stuffed and silken pillow, the Divine Pillow, her long tail was resting on the steps leading to the throne, and she had a bored expression on her face.

In her hand, she had a golden fruit, something she encountered by chance near the entrance to the Oberon Undermountain. Needless to say, she had raided the tree bare of its fruits. Not only the fruit was delicious, it also gave her +1000exp, that’s exactly why she was biting into it greedily as if starved. The sweet juices leaked down her arm to the elbow where small droplets tricked down on the throne making it all sticky.

It was past noon already and time for her beauty nap, however, a petitioner appeared; the first one today, and hopefully the last. She gave an exhausted look at the petitioner. The petitioner misunderstood that gesture as an encouragement to speak.

“Mighty Lamia Queen,” the centauri began giving a curtsy bow only the Centauri could pull off. “I am here to bring an important matter to your attention. We are out of AshenClover and none remains in our stores…” She gave a meaningful pause. “If this continues, I fear the lesser Centauri will revolt.” She bowed again but more apologetically this time.

“AshenClover, sss?” She hissed struggling to remember.

it sounded like a weed and not something she would ever eat. But from the petitioner's words she understood that it was a type of staple for Centauri.

“How cruel of my husband to force them to eat weeds…” She muttered under her nose. “I’ll speak to him about this.” She muttered again.

*Mutter, *Mutter, *Crunch, *Mutter…

The Centauri Petitioner gave the queen a nonplussed look. Without getting a meaningful reply she looked beggingly at the nearby spider. The spider scuttered close to the Lamia Queen and chirped a whisper into her ear. Likely explaining the situation.

“SSS! I understand now. So, it is these Ashen Rabbits who are responsible for the AshenClover production?”

The Centauri Petitioner nodded, and the spider chirped more whispers into the queen’s ear.

“I guess, sss, I’ll have to go and see what’s happening with them. But do I have to?” She looked at the spider.

“Chirp-whisper*

“I guess I do… Worry not, Centauri Petitioner, I’ll sss-sort this at once. We can’t have a rebellion, sss, not when I’m in charge!”

She really couldn’t; that would be a massive dent on her otherwise immaculate royal image.

“Spider, please accompany me to the nest of Ashen Rabbits.” She beseeched the nearby spider.

…

The Lamia Queen went to the Ancient Forest and then north to the Magical Forrest, that was where the nest of the Ashen Rabbits was supposed to be. But first, she had to pass past countless odd and strangely symmetrical trees, their branches turned only at right angles giving the trees a box-like appearance. Some of them were infested with shadowy vines which clung to their stick-like branches. The vines shrouded the odd trees in shadows giving them a spooky look; no doubt, this was the work of her husband.

“Don’t touch them.” The spider cautioned. “It will Drain you.”

Then she encountered another plant, this time more familiar. A big nut was resting on a single branch, buzzing and begging to be picked up.

“I know, I know, sss.” She hissed before the spider could speak up. “I won’t touch it, it’s a TrapBush.” She recognised.

There were other plants scattered nearby, all clearly mutated like the WitheringCabbage or RootSnare, or BewitchingFern, or SleepMoss, or… Well, there was a theme: It was as if the entire Magical Forest was trying to trap you. How these Ashen Rabbits managed to survive here was beyond her understanding.

“We’re almost there.” The spider informed her.

And true to his words, soon she emerged into a large clearing, no, it was more than that. It was a beautiful garden, the Clover Garden. The silver plant she had mistaken for the weed before, the AshenClover, was growing here in vast quantities. The silvery clover patches were divided by a neatly paved path of cobbles. The sides of the cobble path were lined by neatly cut CageBush, it was cut into a perfectly symmetrical cube. Past the vast clover fields and at the end of the path she saw a densely packed bundle of buildings. The buildings were made from sticks and leather, and somewhat wonky in their design, clearly, they weren’t made by spiders.

Once she got closer, she saw the inhabitants of the Clover Garden beginning to emerge out of their tent-like hovels. It was likely they were coming out to tend to their gardens.

“That is as far. As I go.” The spider instructed.

She gave the spider a puzzled look.

“I’ve been instructed. To leave the Rabbits alone.”

Ah, another strange command her husband must have issued. Whatever… She slithered towards the bundle of the buildings. But before she could reach a rabbit hopped in a sprint to intercept her. At the first sight of the Ashen Rabbit she knew the creature was a primitive savage, probably worse than a kobold. It had that feral look and was pretty much naked, with the exception of the loincloth which he wore incorrectly hence giving away his sex. Well, at least she knew now that the rabbit was a he.

“Hello, spider.” The rabbit greeted her with a broad smile.

She blinked twice then looked behind her. It was just her and the rabbit.

“Sss… I’m not a spider, I’m the Lamia Queen!”

“Oh! I’m sorry, I just assumed you were a spider. Spiders come in various shapes and sizes.” He leaned in to sniff at her rudely. “You smell like them. But also like our Father.”

“Father?” She questioned.

The rabbit just nodded. “I’m Ashen, welcome to our garden.” He offered his paw for a shake.

She shook it. “You know who I am right? I’m the Spider King's wife.”

“Ah!” The rabbit jumped. “That makes sense. Everyone!” He shouted putting his hand together near his mouth. “Come and meet the Lamia Queen, the wife of our Holy Father!”

The rabbits hopped from all over swarming around the Lamia Queen.

…

It took a while, but she managed to reign in the rabbits. There was so much wrong with their settlement. The Spider King was clearly neglecting them. Poor, poor Ashen Rabbits, sss! As his dutiful wife, she took it upon herself to fix the wrongs.

First things first, she couldn’t bear the sight of these poor creatures eating only weeds; they looked so skinny and famished. That’s why, she decided to share her travel ration with them. She opened a large backpack stuffed with the Fruits Of Knowledge and shared them with the rabbits.

Upon eating it their eyes went wide and they began whispering amongst each other. Soon they were looking at her with awe filled eyes. Yes, that’s how they should look at their Queen, sss!

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Now that she had their trust, she slithered to fix the second problem: none of them wore their loincloths right. instead of wearing it on their thighs, they tied the cloths on their heads wearing it as a bandana of sorts. Wrong!

“You wear it like this.” She fixed the loincloth for Ashen.

“I see… The Father told us to wear clothing, but he didn’t tell us where or how. Thank you.” Ashen beamed another smile.

“Did he, sss, tell you anything else? Anything of use?” She felt like complaining.

“Hmm…” Ashen thought. “We’ve been told to grow AshenClover and expand the garden... Actually, it’s good you came. As instructed, we expanded the gardens, but now that we have so many children, it’s not enough for us. And…” He gave an apologetic look. “We have almost none to gift to the Centauri who visit us.”

“I sss-see…”

Indeed, she couldn’t help but notice that for every adult there were at least ten or twelve children. The rabbits were rather fertile in that regard, she was even jealous of that fact. But also, this was the source of their problem and the Centauri Petitioner's problem too.

“Can’t you just expand the garden?” She offered.

“That would destroy the Magical Forest. We can’t.” The rabbit shook his head. “The Holy Spirit would be angry with us.”

“The Holy Spirit, sss?”

“Yes, it came to us and gifted us a boon, Blessing of The Great Ancestral Wisp.”

Right, she saw that in the rabbit’s status screen. Apparently, it shortened the time needed to rear the children into adults, granted the juveniles the exp gain boost, but also it increased the fertility for the adults. The latter only added to their problem. Well, the culprit was known, it was the Wisp this time. She wasn’t surprised the Wisp was friends with her husband. So irresponsible, sss!

However, there was a solution.

“How about sss-sending you the TomGrape?”

“No, we’ve been told to be self-sufficient. But also, we don’t like it much. It’s just too sweet.”

Self-sufficient? – More stupid rules which made no sense. Husband, sss, what are you doing?

“SSS! If you can’t grow your food here, you can always grow it sss-somewhere else.” She voiced another obvious solution.

“But where?” Ashen asked the good question.

“You're right, sss, all good spots are taken. You will either need to make land or take it from someone else. Yes-sss.” She nodded. “I know a good spot. But first…”

There was another issue, the rabbits here knew nothing of weapons and nothing of fighting. In a sense they were lucky to be protected by the trap-riddled Magical Forest otherwise they would have been wiped out by monsters a long time ago. But maybe that’s why their race reproduced so rapidly…

“I’ll teach you how to make weapons, and how to fight, sss.” She offered.

Yet another thing her husband neglected to do! Sss!

Luckily, the nearby CageBush provided the already straight and sturdy sticks in great quantities. And there were a lot of plants nearby which could be turned into poisons or used as weapons. The Lamia Queen wasn’t a crafter, but she was competent, and like all lamia should, she knew how to make a spear. And even better the rabbits seemed to also have a natural knack for it.

With no time at all, together with everyone’s effort they made an Ashen Spear, it was infused with the Withering poison. And then they made Draining Net, it would work great for capturing. And for the times when the things went bad, they made throwables in a shape of Sleep ShellGrenade and Bewitching ShellGrenade; those big shells of BerryNut surely came in handy. By no means the rabbits were adept at using the weapons, but with more practice, they would get a hang of it.

“You can use these to claim new land, sss, and protect your gardens.” She patted a large pile of roughly crafted weapons.

“Thank you for teaching us, Holy Mother.”

She smiled at her new title; she rather liked it.

“But, do you know a place where we could start a new garden?”

“Hmm… about that, sss.” She had to think that through.

The rabbits here would need a lot of space. Not only to support their own population but also to grow enough AshenClover to satisfy the Centauri. She would tell those fat mares to grow their own food, but unfortunately they just sucked at farming. And most unfortunately of all, her husband fancied the nasty smelly food they made from their bodily liquids, meaning that there was clear favouritism going on. Sss, her husband was a flawed-flawed man… But she loved him, that’s why she helped to fix his mistakes.

“I know a good plot of land, yes-sss.” She hissed remembering. “A kingdom in the east had fallen to ruin, sss, and I remember hearing that it was rather fertile. Yes-sss, you can go there to make your garden.”

“To the east?”

“Yes-ss to the east of here.” She pointed. “Ah, sss, but the trip might be dangerous…” She paused to think. “I’ll lend you my Lamia Warriors to help you with monsters, no need to bother spiders.”

“Yes! We’ve been told not to involve spiders in our tasks unless it is an emergency. Holy Mother, thank you!”

Huh, it seems she circumnavigated another stupid rule.

“Yes, but don’t rush, sss, make more weapons, sss, train your Rabbit Warriors, sss, and then go east to expand your garden.” She gave them simple instructions. “I’ll send you help when I get back.”

“Holy Mother, just one more thing.”

“Yes-sss, Ashen?” She addressed the rabbit.

“The fruits you gave to our children. Could you bring us more?”

That was a good idea, the Fruits Of Knowledge would make them gain the first few Fighting levels in an instant. Moreover, it would work in tandem with the Blessing of The Great Ancestral Wisp forging the juvenile rabbits into warriors that much quicker.

“Good thinking Ashen, sss, I will do just that.”

“Thank you, Holy Mother.” He bowed deeply.

Now the rabbits were fed, dressed, and taught how to defend themselves. She fixed all the wrongs and it felt great! The primitive and savage rabbits now seemed more civilised; all thanks to her. And actually, she sort of grew to like them and the title they gave her. With that, it was time for her to return to the Spider Palace and take her rightfully earned nap.

…

The Ashen Rabbits pushed east through the Magical Forest; they encountered some monsters but with their new fighting levels and the assistance of loaned Lamia Warriors they made quick work of them. Rabbits didn’t eat meat, so they fed it to lamias and offered the rest to the Holy Spirit, however, they had use for bones and leather, so they took those.

The trek by no means was easy, but they made it to the border of the Magical Forest, emerging into a more common variant of the greenery. They looked with horror at the scars of destruction, they were old, but they were clearly there. The rabbits saw defiled old stumps of trees and other transgressions made towards the Holy Spirit. They couldn’t help but wonder what monster would do so.

Later they emerged into a great clearing, no, they were just out of the forest. As far as they could see there were overgrown plains. A potential place for the new garden. However, making it so close to the forest was not the best of the idea, they now understood just how many monsters it housed. Instead, the rabbits moved further east.

They encountered another strange sight, a cluster of abandoned buildings. They were made of defiled wood which was half rotten, but the land nearby had signs of plants growing nearby a long time ago. And the soil here was deep and black in colour, in other words, very fertile. There was no need to go any further. The rabbits decided to clear the dilapidated structures and make their New Garden here.

Luckily, they’ve brought all the seeds they needed, and the ground was not only fertile but also soft. It was just so much easier than trying to work with the soil in the Magical Forest; They’d barely need to use their Burrow perk. At that realisation, everyone gathered to give a short prayer to the Holy Mother, the one who guided them into this promised land. Yes, the place was perfect, soon a massive silver garden will replace the dull and boring colours of brown and green.

However, no place came without its challenges. While clearing one of the rotten structures the rabbits encountered a local monster. It was clearly a pest. It was small and stinky, its fur was messy and dirty, and while it wore some clothes they too were tainted with grime and unwash.

It was Ever, who had found the small pest. The little monster yelped something incomprehensible at Ever while swinging a rusty knife at her.

“Ever, back away,” Ashen warned.

“I’m just curious,” she protested.

“it’s feral and dangerous,” Ashen stepped in between her and the rabid monster.

“But it looks intelligent enough. I wonder if we could tame it.”

“Ever, you can’t be serious.”

“But I am, we have Animal Affinity. Let’s put it to use.”

“Last time you did that you got bitten.” Ashen reminded her but stepped away regardless.

The monster remained warry of Ashen growling and hissing at him. Meanwhile, Ever retrieved a mix of nuts and berries from her leather pouch.

“Pss-pss-pss,” She made a sound to get the attention of the monster. “I’m friendly. It's food, take it.” She crouched stretching the offering towards the monster.

Ashen not wanting to spook the monster further put his spear away and stepped right behind Ever.

“It will bite you.” He said knowingly.

“Pss-pss-pss.” Ever called again shaking the food in her hand.

With the rusty knife still at hand the smelly monster approached Ever taking small and cautious steps. Ashen stiffed at that moment but Ever remained relaxed so as not to signal anything bad to now a somewhat calmed down monster. The filthy creature reached hesitantly towards her palm and pinched a handful of the food. It brought it to its mouth and munched on it greedily.

“Here we go.” Ever said in a calm relaxing voice.

The monster reached again but with less hesitation this time.

“You see, it's working.” She grinned at Ashen.

“Colour me surprised.” He looked with disbelief.

“Now-now, slow down little stinker.” She spoke to the monster. “I have more in the pouch.” She reached for it to pour more food onto her palm.

Now mollified, the monster munched happily taking small handfuls out of her palm. Ever reached for the monster’s head to pet it. And then she did the monster gave her a toothy smile.

“See, we’re friends now.” She looked again at Ashen.

“I guess, we can keep this one.” Ashen shrugged.

And that was the first ever monster they’ve tamed, but undoubtedly not the last.