Queen Sable's Getaway Cabin

The Getaway Cabin was built to allow the Mother of Bunnies to have some space to herself. Between being the Queen of the Lapin Protectorate, and the fact that there have been two nearly-successful attempts on her life, not even considering the risk of the Word Wars, the Bunny Queen is almost never alone. At least one of her loyal bodyguards, the Owsla, is with her 24 hours a day, even while she sleeps and occasionally, even in the bathroom. The media constantly seeks her attention, and every inch of her Warren fortress is observed by security cameras. For an introvert who cosplays extrovert, this is occasionally more than she can bear.   Erin Righ, sensitive to his wife's needs, discovered this magical grove (though he has not shared the details of how,) and decided to build her a private little getaway. Since the Owsla had to know how to find it anyway, he recruited their help for the additional labour needed to erect a self-sufficient, off-the-grid cottage.   Queen Sable comes here when she has need of quiet and privacy.

Princess Rowean has established a "tree path" to the big birch tree just outside the cottage door. This is a form of fast, extradimensional travel; not exactly teleportation, but more like a quick hyperspace jump, in which moving a few feet within the connected network of trees covers a few miles. This allows the Princess to be at her sister's cabin within minutes if needed.

Erin Righ, with the Owsla's assistance, built Queen Sable's Getaway Cabin as a surprise for her, using plans downloaded from the internet. It is mostly just a simple log cabin, constructed principly of birch wood, with some pine and fir wood features. However, it features a steep brick-and-wood roof, suggestive of more Asian architecture, in order to deal with the heavy snowfall in the region. Window panes are constructed of glass and birch wood, with the birch bark lacquered on for aesthetics, as it is for some of the logs and features of the house. The ceilings are low, to conserve heat. The windows all open to the side, but can be shuttered for heavy weather or cold winds.   The cabin consists of two rooms and a root cellar. The main floor is the sitting room, pantry and kitchen, while the attic level is the bedroom.   Heating is by wood brick stove, although there is some limited plumbing for hot and cold running water, incorporating an RV water system into the cottage that draws from a natural well with a pump. However, there are no sewer facilities; that need is served by a composting toilet in an outhouse (which uses lye and wood shavings to naturally compost waste, giving off surprisingly little odour.)   Bathing and hygiene are served by a large hot tub, located just out the back door. It is necessary to pass by the hot tub to get to the outhouse, thus keeping the route relatively warm. It is shrouded by magical rainbow birch trees, providing a peaceful sanctuary that dissuades prying eyes in its isolation.   The doors and much of the furniture are hand-built of hard fir wood, including the kitchen cabinets, counters, and the small tables and chairs in both main rooms. These pieces aren't incredibly skilled, since the Prince Consort is not a woodworker by trade, but they are functional, and the Queen loves them. One of her favourite features is the wooden chandelier that her husband constructed for her in the attic room, designed to make use of candles.

The greatest defense of the Getaway Cabin is the fact that nobody knows where it is, and while it's likely that someone will eventually discover its location, it is sure to take some time. Its low power needs, and the fact that Queen Sable conserves power by using kerosene lamps and wood heating, makes it extremely unlikely to be spotted by air, especially since most of the structure is hidden beneath the thick, rainbow foliage of the birches in this small grove; a feature that is completely indistiguishable from regular birches by night, when spotting a cabin by its lights is most likely.   However, the Queen's cottage is not without other, more subtle, defenses. The grove itself appears to have a calming, disarming effect on people under the rainbow branches. Lynxes have been known to stroll peacefully through the Queen's yard, allowing their ears to be scratched, and watching the many snowshoe hares and white rabbits that lope through the area, almost as if they've been attracted by the Bunny Queen's presence.   Likewise, the bunnies themselves do not destroy the Queen's small cold-weather vegetable garden, although they do nibble at it from time to time. The Bunny Queen doesn't seem to mind.   It may be this calming effect that is the greatest attraction for the indomitable Mother of Bunnies, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, and has been public about her diagnosis.   It remains to be seen what, if any, Literomantic defenses the Queen herself has installed, but anyone who knows of the cabin, and who knows Lapin's queen, is sure they must be considerable.

There are no tourists to the Queen's Getaway Cabin. Occasionally, she permits her children, and sometimes her husband, to stay with her in the two guest beds in the attic. The Owsla are also rarely permitted to remain (although, of course, they have secretly installed cameras and listening devices unobtrusively, which they can access at any time via satellite, and they can be through the teleporter and to the Queen's side at a moment's notice.)