The Bunny Prince Paints A Picture
~ To Create Is To Follow Your Heart ~
One day, the Bunny Prince decided that he would paint a beautiful picture. So he went to the castle warehouse and picked out a large white canvas to paint. He set it up on an easel in his art studio and then he gathered his paints together. He had all the different colors of paint, which he set up in a row. He had red, and blue, and violet, and green, and orange and yellow and purple and gold and white and black and silver and brown as well.
The Bunny Prince stood there with his paint brush in his hand and he stared at the big blank canvas, trying to decide what to paint. He stood there for a long time, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't think of anything. Finally, when he just didn't know what to do, he decided to ask his mummy, the Queen Bunny. The Queen Bunny suggested that the Bunny Prince be still for a while and maybe an idea for a painting would come to him. But that made no sense to the Bunny prince, so he went marching off through the castle, looking for someone who could tell him what he should paint.
As he walked through the castle corridors, the long hallways which wind every which way throughout the castle, the Bunny Prince came upon the Hog Dog. Now, the Hog Dog was called the Hog Dog because he ate so much food that he was as fat as a hog, which is a very big pig indeed.
In fact, the Hog Dog was so fat that every once in a while he would lose his balance and fall over onto his side. And there he would stay, lying on his side, because he was so heavy that he couldn't get up by himself. He had to lie there, waiting for someone to come along to set him back on his feet again.
Well, when the Bunny Prince came by, the Hog Dog was lying on his side, so the Bunny Prince pushed him up onto his feet and then asked him, "Hog Dog, what do you think I should paint?" Hog Dog answered right away "Paint a big bowl of food" he said "and then I shall eat it!" Well that was not the answer that the Bunny Prince was looking for. "Never mind" he said to the Hog Dog, and off he went towards the courtyard to find someone else who might have a better answer.
There in the courtyard, the Bunny Prince found the Hat Cat, taking a little stroll in the garden. In case you didn't know, the Hat Cat was a very special cat who always wore a different kind of hat, and never the same hat twice. He wore all sorts of hats. Long hats, short and stubby hats, big red hats, little furry hats. The Hat Cat felt like a completely different cat whenever he wore a different hat. Today, the Hat Cat had on an upside down sort of hat with a beautiful white feather on top.
"Excuse me," said the Bunny Prince "but I've been trying very hard to think of something to paint, and I'm not having any luck at all. What do you think I should paint?" "Why a hat of course" said the Hat Cat, "a large and fancy hat!" The Bunny Prince was starting to get a little frustrated. He certainly did not want to paint a silly hat.
The Bunny Prince started walking, his head hanging down a bit sadly. He hadn't walked very far, when all of a sudden, as he looked down at the ground, he saw the most beautiful feather he had ever seen. It wasn't just an ordinary feather. It was long and wide and it was made up of every color imaginable. It was a feather that looked like a rainbow! The Bunny Prince picked it up and looked at it. He knew that it was special. It made him feel good just to look at it.
The Bunny Prince put the feather in his pocket and decided to go back to his studio when suddenly, he heard a sweet but quacky sounding voice coming from behind him.
"Hey, where are you going with my feather?" said the voice. The Bunny Prince turned around, and there near the bushes stood a duckling, but not just any duckling. This one had a large, beautiful white tail and both of its wings were rainbow colored. "Well?" said the voice, where are you going with my feather?"
"This is my feather," said the Bunny Prince. "I just found it."
"Can't you tell that it belongs to me?" asked the duckling.
"It might" said the Bunny Prince. "But anyway, it's finders keepers. Maybe if you're lucky, you can grow another one."
"I don't need luck. I am the Duchess of Duck!" said the duckling.
"The Duchess of who?" said the Bunny Prince.
"The Duchess of Duck." she said "Anyway, if it means that much to you, you can have it. You seem like a cute little guy. Just keep it. I will grow another one. Besides, I have to go now. I'm on my way to Sillyland."
"Sillyland?" said the Bunny Prince "What's Sillyland?"
"It's anywhere that something silly is happening, silly. And today, there's a snail race going on in some part of Sillyland" said the Duchess.
"A snail race?" said the Bunny Prince " What's a Snail Race?"
The Duchess of Duck looked at the Bunny Prince. She couldn't believe that he had never seen a snail race or heard of Sillyland.
"A snail race is where two or more snails line up and they race from one spot to another, but since they move so slowly, the race takes all day. So there's plenty of time to sit and have a picnic and laugh and sing and be silly while the snails are racing" said the Duchess of Duck.
The Bunny Prince thought for a moment. Sillyland did sound like fun. And for some reason, the feather didn't really seem that important anymore.
"You know what?" said the Bunny Prince "Why don't you take your feather back."
"No, I insist" said the Duchess. "I gave it to you."
"No really," answered the Bunny Prince "take it back."
"Listen Bunny Boy," replied the Duchess "the feather is a gift. You keep it. But would you like to go to Sillyland with me and watch the Snail races?"
The Bunny Prince smiled. Snail races sounded really good, and this Duchess of Duck seemed quite fun; but for some reason, the Bunny Prince really wanted to go back to his studio to paint, even though he still didn't know what to paint.
"Well, I'd really like to go to Sillyland," said the Bunny Prince " but I also want to paint a picture."
"That sounds like fun too!" said the Duchess. "I'm sure you know just what to paint".
"Well actually, I don't have any idea" said the Bunny Prince.
"Don't worry, you will" said the Duchess.
"Really?" said the Bunny Prince "How do you know?" .
"I just know these things" said the Duchess.
The Bunny Prince still didn't know what to paint, but he knew he was ready to paint something, and he was in a hurry to get home.
"I've got to hop!" said the Bunny Prince. "Come and visit me at the castle on the hill of flowers sometime. I'd love to go to Sillyland with you one day"
The Duchess of Duck barely had time to wave good-bye to the Bunny Prince as he turned and quickly scampered back to the castle where his studio with all of his paints and his big white canvas were waiting for him.
When he got to the studio, the Bunny Prince just stood there staring at his big white canvas, with no idea of what to paint.
But he was thinking about his new friend, the Duchess of Duck, and about Sillyland and Snail Races. And he remembered her beautiful rainbow feather, which was tucked into his vest pocket.
All at once, the Bunny Prince just grabbed the big brush which was in the jar of blue paint and he happily splattered the blue paint against the white canvas.
That felt good to splatter the paint, thought the Bunny Prince, still not knowing what to paint. So he grabbed the red paint brush and made a huge red splatter on the canvas too. Well, the Bunny Prince rather enjoyed this splattering of paint, so he took every color, one by one, and he splattered them all on the canvas, thinking about his wonderful friends as he painted. He did every single color including orange, red, violet, yellow, purple, green, gold, white, brown and even black.
Then the Bunny Prince stood back and looked at what he had done. There, right in front of him, was a wild rainbow of splattered colors. The Bunny Prince loved the way it looked. And for some reason, it reminded him of the Duchess of Duck!
The Bunny Prince's painting looked so good that the Queen Bunny found a special place for it on a big empty wall right above the large fireplace in the sitting room.
And that's how the Bunny Prince discovered that it was much more fun to paint when he didn't think about it too much. And that's also the story of how the Bunny Prince met his new best friend, the Duchess of Duck.
~ THE END ~