The Last Rabbit Prince

Epilogue

Rain attends the first meeting after the battle to find everyone in much better spirits than he has ever seen them.

During the meeting they decide to make the day an annual holiday. They also will encourage their citizens to celebrate the end of Korn's rule.

There were also many festivals with games and entertainment, the days ended with music and dances. It was secretly called the proposal days because so many people propose to their life mates. Many children are also conceived during that time.

The Fair itself is a great success. Everyone seems to forget their troubles for the day and have a good time.

Children and their spirit animals seem to be everywhere playing games, watching the entertainment, and having fun.

Everyone cheers loudly when Rain wins the archery contest despite some strong competition.

The children, and quite a few adults laugh and scream at Sky's and Rain's animals' tricks.

Everyone, even P'Pakin, laughs when Sky's cat curls up on Rain's head like a crown.

Rain calls two children of about six on the stage and has them form a large circle with their outstretched arms. He then has his bunny hop through them then back again.

The day ends with a game of spirit animal ball. P'Pai's golden retriever is the captain of one team and P'Phayu's wolf is the captain of the other. It's a fast paced and thrilling game since the spirit animals don't get tired. It's close but in the end P'Phayu wins by one goal.

P'Pai accuses him of showing off for Rain with a laugh and P'Phayu doesn't deny it.

P'Pakin officially crowned Rain as king one month after the war ended. His coronation is attended by thousands of people. His reign begins many years of peace and prosperity for the land.

In the days following the coronation, Rain is very busy. One of the first decisions he makes is to move the capital and the palace nearer to P'Phayu's village. He says it was a time of new beginnings and there were too many sad memories around the old capital.

After the coronation things begin to settle into a routine punctuated by a few grand events. Rain and P'Phayu's official wedding is the first of these. It takes place soon after the new capital city is built.

"Nervous?" Sky asks Rain.

"A little." Rain admits. "But also, very happy. I feel like I have been waiting for this day my entire life." He is wearing a special red cloak with a rabbit embroidered with gold thread on the back. He knows P'Phayu has a black one with a wolf in silver thread, he had seen it when they went to their fittings. Once their vows are said they will exchange cloaks signifying that they now belong to each other.

Everywhere he looks there are wolves and rabbits. The citizens waiting for them to make their first official appearance as a couple even sport wolf ears and rabbit ears and many of them have painted faces.

"It's like a furry convention," Rain giggles as he and P'Phayu raise their clasped hands.

"A what?" P'Phayu whispers back.

Rain shakes his head, "never mind."

The next thing Rain does is to employ a school of scholars to study the spirit animals and their abilities. Up until now people have only considered them tools to channel power. After finding out about teleportation magic, Rain wonders what else they can do and if they are autonomous or an extension of the person they serve.

The third and most important decision is Rain's search for an heir. There are many orphaned children after the war and if it were up to Rain he would bring them all back to the palace to live. Growing up in an orphanage himself he knows how lonely it can be. Beam has already been officially adopted by P'Pai's family but there are just so many more.

Since Rain can't adopt them all he sets up orphanages and schools in many central villages. It's when he and P'Phayu are visiting an orphanage in a village near the former capital that they make a startling discovery.

A pair of twins, a boy and girl, with a weasel as their spirit animals. Even though it's not definitive proof of their parentage, the fact that they were found in the servants' quarters of the castle but not claimed by any of the remaining staff and the way they resemble both Stop and Korn confirm it.

Enid had also come to them with the rumors that they were Stop's children by one of the maids, although neither he nor Korn had ever publicly claimed the twins.

"I haven't told anyone what I suspect," Nui, the head of the orphanage says, "they would be hated for something beyond their control, poor little mites."

Rain talks to the children himself; they are barely four years old and seem extremely quiet and shy.

"P'Phayu, I want to adopt them. I think we could help them." Rain says when they retreat to an office to talk privately. "For two reasons, one this new world should be a new start for everyone. Two I think they would make the perfect heirs. A combination of the old and the new just like I want the country to be."

P'Phayu isn't sure at first but he soon comes to love and accept the two children as much as Rain does. Given much love and affection they grow into bright young adults that take more after Rain and Phayu than their biological family. The weasel twins, Kai and Kal, become just as loved by the citizens as the rabbit prince and his consort.

Sky often says it's hard to believe the children aren't Phayu's and Rain's as much as they take after them.

He and Pai were married not long after Phayu and Rain. Beam lives with them learning magic from Sky and the scholars.

As the children grow it becomes apparent none have bond mates. It seems less and less children do these days. The scholars have theories, one being that many people were killed during Korn's rule including future bond mates. The other being that the need for bond mates have passed in this new era and their citizens have evolved beyond them.

Either way Rain feels sad that his children won't have what he and P'Phayu share, until one day he notices how close Kal and Beam, now twenty, have become. Maybe love transcends the need for bond mates.

Rain stands arm and arm with P'Phayu the day Kal and Beam exchange cloaks, the weasel and the mouse. He is surrounded by his family and friends. Something he only dreamed of growing up in the orphanage.

As if on cue a young woman comes and pulls them into a simple but vigorous group dance where they all link hands and move around in a figure eight. Rain laughs and he and P'Phayu try to keep up with the villagers and not stumble.