The easiest part of the day was to sharpen the paling in the pits; first in the one she had freed, then in the second, which was located near the lake, easy to find. It was already dark, and Victoria walked slowly to the hut. She almost didn’t feel tired, the dress helped her a lot, giving her strength and power, but she was lonesome, and couldn’t cope with it. For the first time in her life she had to bury a man, even though he was a stranger…

The collar managed to cheer her up a little. Flowers shimmered and brightly lit the way, like a lantern.

Victoria returned later than Trap. Approaching the hut, she noticed Trap in the clearing. She made a large broiling rack and was frying a boar.

“It will be ready soon,” she winked at Victoria. “You’re doing fine today, eat, and go to bed.”

“Thank you,” Victoria smiled sadly and sat down beside Trap. “I am to go to the village,” Victoria said quietly.

“What for?” Trap turned to her.

“Wool. Maybe I’ll find it there.”

“Well, yes, they have goats there, that’s true. Go, you can bring one home, it would be nice to have milk. Head north, you won’t get lost, the dress will help you.” Trap approved.

The boar turned out delicious. Trap and Victoria were sitting in the clearing for a long time, listening to the chirping of birds.

“She likes the stars…” Victoria thought, watching Trap as she looked thoughtfully into the night sky.

“I’m going to sleep then. Thank you for the dinner.” Victoria rose from the grass and walked slowly into the house.

Trap wrapped up in her old shawl and nodded in approval.

Victoria changed her clothes and neatly put the dress on the chest. She curled up on other two chests. She no longer felt their stiffness, as she really wanted to sleep. But all of a sudden, the chests transformed into a soft bed with pillows and a blanket.

“Thank you,” Victoria whispered weakly, smiled and fell into sleep.

Early in the morning, Trap was gone. Victoria washed herself, changed her clothes and found old scissors in the attic. She went out onto the clearing and plunged into reverie, looking at the huge furry spruce around her…

“Where is the nearest village?”

She was staring at the spruce branch for several minutes.

“Why haven’t I seen your beauty before?” She slowly stroked the rough trunk of the tree. A light wind slightly lifted the hem of the dress.

“Looks like I’ll learn to understand the wind soon. Do I understand you correctly? Was that a direction?”

But the wind didn’t answer. Somewhere deep inside, timidly, as if trying to get to know her, inner confidence in her actions awoke.

“Well, Victoria, now we need to go there… It’s very simple,” Confidence grew bolder. “Listen, and you will hear… Look, and you will see. And I will help.”

“All right, that’s a bargain,” Victoria said softly. “We need to get to the village. And if I understand it correctly, we need to go straight.”

“That’s right,” whispered the confidence.

“I have to take food along,” thought Victoria, cutting a piece of meat from the boar and wrapping it in bag cloth. She fixed a small bindle and swung it to her back.

“There we go. Funny, no one ate it up during the night… It seems that the beasts are avoiding the house, they feel there’s something fishy going on here… I’s time for me to think about going back home, preferably unharmed, both mentally and physically.” Victoria looked back at the hut.

“One question bothers me, confidence. A poser, that is… This was me, who thought about the food, and that was you, who gave a clue on signs, is that right? It’s not that I have any problems with that, perish the thought! It’s just that the split mind is not what I need right now.”

“What?” She heard a surprised voice of confidence.

“I’m sorry, dress, is that you?”

“It’s me,” Victoria felt embarrassment. “But I liked the new name, ‘Confidence’. Could you call me that?”

“No problem,” Victoria smiled. “That’s better… I’ve brought something upon myself.”

“I understand… But I like you. You duly raise the hemstitch, and you hear me perfectly well!”

“You know, I’m also very happy, especially that you can talk. Very nice to meet you, can I ask another question?”

“Of course.” The dress livened up a little.

“You hear my thoughts, don’t you? Well, what am I thinking about?”

“No, I don’t. I only feel your condition, you were sick yesterday…”

“Yes, I’m glad that I can thank you. I wasn’t sick, I’d say, scared is the right word… If it was not for you… Well, thank you very much.”

“It’s my duty to protect you and help you,” the dress answered.

It was only in the evening, when Victoria came to the village. It was a long way. But she liked it. She admired the trees and grass, listened to the birds, peeped at the forest animals. They really couldn’t see her. The dress enshrouded her, the only thing that could give her away was the rustling of fir-needles under her feet, although the beasts took her steps for the wind and were not frightened. Victoria was very surprised.

The constant idea of finding wool pushed her to a desperate experiment, which was quite successful: she managed to shave a piece of wool from the sleeping wolf, neatly folded the lump into her bag and with childish delight continued to look for another opportunity to find something else, but she did not get any more luck in the forest.

“It’s OK, the goats can be pretty fluffy, I’ll get as much as I need. Let the locals forgive me, I really need to go home…”

She walked around several houses, but she didn’t see any goats, so she sat down in confusion near the well, wondering what to do.

“Well, I can’t shave dogs, can I. Although, perhaps, their wool also suits well… There must be some goats in the village! I just need to go around all the yards,” reflected Victoria, when suddenly she noticed a boy coming from the field. He shepherded a dozen or more goats, including the little ones!

“That’s luck!” Victoria was inspired. “So happy about the herd of goats… I would not have believed, if someone told me this a week ago,” she smiled.

After tracing the shepherd, she memorized all the yards, where he had taken his wards to and followed him in the last yard, where he had led five of them. She wanted to start shaving, when she realized that the landlady was going to milk them.

“I’m stupid,” Victoria scolded herself. “She would have me in this barn and shut up with them for the whole night.” She took a deep breath to calm herself and moved away from the barn.

After the whole evening procedure had passed, Victoria slipped into the barn. It was dark there, and for several minutes she wondered whether it was worth turning on the light, but she didn’t dare to do so.

“I feel like a thief, a nasty feeling that is,” Victoria was nervous. “But I really need to go home. Without this shawl, she just won’t let me go… Forgive me, dear house owners, your goats will grow a new coat. This one I need for my return ticket…

Victoria was hesitant.

“I’ve traveled a way that long, now what?”

The collar glowed slightly yellowish, gradually growing brighter.

“Thank you, I can see now,” Victoria whispered with relief and stroked the goat. She twitched slightly, but then calmed down. Carefully, not to injure the animal, Victoria began to shear the wool. At first it worked out with difficulty, the scissors were clumsy, but soon she caught the trick.

“That’s how absurd rumors appear,” Victoria thought, and suddenly stopped, realizing that she was being watched.

She turned her head slowly and saw a large fluffy cat, who kept his eyes on her and jerked his tail nervously.

“Can you see me?” Victoria was genuinely surprised.

The cat lay down on the straw, but didn’t avert his gaze.

“Go, tell me something. I hope you don’t mind me having some wool? Are you guarding milk? I won’t harm them.” She said tenderly and slowly to the cat, who listened attentively.

Victoria went around all the yards, and managed to gather quite a lot of wool. She hoped that it would be enough for a shawl. She felt exhausted, so having reached the last barn, she lay down in the hayloft to get a quick nap. Victoria woke up in the morning, the roosters were crowing loudly. She nervously felt for the knapsack of wool under her head and looked around… A cat was sleeping in her legs. He lazily opened one eye and stretched. Victoria carefully pulled the hem from underneath the animal and silently went out into the street, taking a goat on the rope along…

“It will be quite a challenge, to get you home,” she said, patting the goat on its side. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you back afterwards…”

“We did great job, you and me.” She fixed the dress. “It’s time to go back, I’ll try to knit a beautiful thing. Although, I’ve never knitted in my entire life…”

The collar reacted by turning blue. Victoria looked back. The cat sat on the well and watched her go.

“Bye, wigglefloof,” Victoria smiled and waved to him.

The way back was far more difficult… The goat would get stubborn, obviously afraid of the forest, and constantly looked around, trying to escape. At one moment, she even managed to escape. Half an hour later Victoria found her near a small river. The goat was drinking water peacefully.

“Don’t you do that again,” Victoria was nervous. “You’ll get lost, and end up eaten by someone. Hold beside me.”

Victoria also drank some water and washed herself. A little further the river formed a small dam. Victoria, after a moment’s thought, looked around, tied the goat to a tree and carefully took off her dress. Then she got into the icy water.

Her heart nearly leapt out from the sharp sensation of cold. She gasped, slightly out of her breath, but at some point her body switched the tumbler, and dissolved in transparent cold water. Victoria doused completely and closed her eyes. The flow of the river was soft. Like the seaweed, it ran its streams through the strands of her long hair. The feeling of freshness penetrated through the skin and rushed all over the body.

“I’m probably cold,” Victoria didn’t want to open her eyes. “But I should somehow understand, maybe, just for a moment, that everything that’s happening to me these days is like water, it will all go away. Maybe it’s a dream, but if not a dream, then how can I find a way out? What if I’m to stay here forever? After all, she called herself Trap. I don’t know much about people, and now… It’s just more complicated.”

Her thoughts were interrupted by a desperate scream of a goat. It seemed to sound almost like human moan… Victoria instantly jumped out of the water and quickly evaluated the situation. She rushed to her dress, unflinchingly looking at the wolf, which was astonished by his luck. The goat writhed in hysterics. She got entangled in a rope and was now desperately roaring, calling for help.

Victoria was wet and slippery, the dress would stick, the hem was tangled. Finally, she managed to put it on. The collar, this multi-colored garland, changed one color after another, trying to tune to Victoria’s mood, and yet, having picked up a warm red color, it calmed down. The girl’s body became warmer; the cold receded, cool calmness appeared. These moments seemed like an eternity to her, and Victoria rushed to the goat. Having reached the wolf, realizing that he didn’t see her, Victoria was slightly confused about what to do, and touched his head.

“Don’t touch my goat, please,” Victoria said kindly. The wolf jumped from abruptly. Victoria overbalanced and fell down.

“No, that will not do.” She rose and pushed the wolf to the side.

The wolf whimpered desperately and fell to the side.

“I gave you a little push.” She thought in a frightened manner. The force that Trap spoke about could be a reality. “He is obviously hurt…”

Victoria’s heart sank. She felt sorry for the frightened goat, for the wolf she has almost crippled…

“What’s wrong?” Her hands shook… The wolf whimpered, the goat went on screaming. Victoria was trying to calm down and take a decision. She looked around distractedly.

“Are you a she-wolf?” Victoria noticed three small gray fluffballs with tails, staring at their mother. They rushed toward her, head over heels, loudly and gaily yapping. “That’s why you didn’t bite her to death at once,” Victoria smiled. “Did you want to teach your kids how to hunt? Did I hurt her?” Victoria turned to the dress. “Can we do something? I didn’t want to, I…”

“We can…” she heard an answer. “Come to her.

The wolf was lying on her side and whimpered softly, the little ones were spinning around and poking her with their noses.”

“Maybe I broke her rib,” Victoria thought.

“She is hurt, pet her,” the dress whispered, and the collar glowed purple.

“Shut up already!” Victoria shouted at the goat. “You are in no danger, sit quietly.”

The goat instantly went silent and pressed herself against the tree.

Victoria walked slowly to the she-wolf and began to pet her on the side, feeling the warm wave rushing along the fur… A few minutes later the beast clearly became better. She looked around, grasped one of the cubs and staring angrily at the goat, quickly ran towards the river. The rest of the toddlers rushed after her.

“Look, thank you… I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” Victoria whispered to her dress and sat down on the grass. “How did you manage to do it? Did we cure it??

“Yes, she’s not hurt anymore…” She heard back.

“I think, I can now distinguish your voice in my head and don’t confuse it with my thoughts! Cool, we have improved our contact! And a thank you for warming me up, otherwise the water was really cold.” Victoria smiled.

The dress didn’t answer, nut small multicolored rays ran across the collar.

It was late in the evening when Victoria and the goat came slowly to the hut. After tying the goat, Victoria went into the house and laid out all the wool she got, near the chests. Trap was not at home. Victoria laid down on the chest. She felt exhausted.

“Something must be done with the goat. I should milk it. Otherwise, she’ll be in pain, besides, milk won’t hurt.” Victoria smiled wistfully. “The barrel will do fine.”

After looking all the possible options for milk, Victoria left the house.

“Let’s go to the river,” Victoria untied the goat, gently patting her on the head. “Let’s go, wash off the road dust. You’ll have a drink, too. Everything turned out just fine! How come? I never imagined in my whole life that I could milk a goat.” Victoria admired in surprise, and, catching a clearly embarrassed shimmer of iridescent flowers on her collar, she quietly thanked the dress. “Thank you so much, I hope you’ll help me out me with a shawl, too, will you? I can’t do it… I know that you are helping me, I don’t possess knowledge like this, even in theory.”

“Well, now you do,” she heard an answer.

“Good! Thanks!” Victoria was inspired.

Time passed… Victoria span wool into yarn, and now knitted a shawl. She gladly walked among the woods near the hut, bathed in the stream; cooked food. She got along with the goat, and would often talk to her. The goat would walk alongside the house and, not running away. At first, Victoria was very afraid for it, but Victoria’s dress calmed her down, saying, that no one would touch it… The beasts from the woods avoided Trap’s house, and Victoria noticed this.

The dreams bothered her… Victoria was really homesick, she dreamed of her mother, her lab, a warm bath and a strange bird that pecked her when Victoria was about to take the book out of the chest… Sometimes she went desperate, unable to get out of this strange place she… How much longer will she have to live in the forest? One could only guess. She only hoped, that once she’s finished with the shawl, she might be gone. But the knitting moved on very slowly. It seemed to Victoria that as soon as she have finished it, Trap would let her go.

Victoria often put her dress to the question and asked to explain some unclear issues, but the dress addressed only the everyday questions, although Victoria seemed to befriend it.

Trap would always return by night. She brought prey and disappeared from the house by dawn, barely even speaking to Victoria.