It was like that, when sleeping Victoria felt her eye on her, slowly opened her eyes and jumped up sharply.

Trap was sitting next to her, looking at the mirror.

“Get ready,” she said thoughtfully, without looking at Vic. “We’ll go to the old swamp today. Oh, I miss it so much. It’s my favorite trap, you can get an eyeful of it!”

Trying not to think about anything, Victoria quickly put on her dress and silently looked at Trap.

“What a cunning creature you are! Cunning, indeed! Why don’t you ask why I’m taking you with me? Not even a thought in your head! Have you finished my shawl?” She bent over to Victoria’s face.

“It’s almost ready,” answered Victoria, gasping.

“Good, well done… Get some food for the road. You are rather reasonable, by the way… Well, whatever,” Trap waved her hand, got up and left the house.

Victoria quickly put the fried meat in a knapsack, grabbed the matches and salt and popped out of the house.

Trap was sitting on the door sill, gazing at the stars. It was hard to tell the time of day, she had long ago ceased to use the concept of time. She breathed in some light, fresh forest mist, she realized that the dawn was coming.

They went for a long time, and stopped only by night. Victoria collected firewood and built a fire. She laid out the supplies and started cutting meat for dinner.

“Why don’t you read the books? You like to discover new, don’t you? You have a great chance… I do not quite understand you.” Trap asked gently. “And what is that bird you’re thinking about all the time? None is here, isn’t it?”

“Why do you even need my rubbish?” Victoria sighed wearily. “You are on vacation, take a rest…”

“Don’t you get smart with me!” Trap snapped. “If I ask you a question, all you need is to answer it, don’t push it.”

“Well, I do not know what kind of bird it is.” Victoria answered honestly. “It pecked me a couple of times, by the way, when I took the book. I’d also like to know, what that was.”

“Ah, everything is clear, it’s your mother… Argh, I’m sick and tired of you both, can’t get any rest!” Without saying another word, she went down to the river, leaving Victoria completely confused.

“What about the dinner?” Victoria said quietly to Trap, trying hard to understand her words. “Dress, honey, maybe you will explain me what she said about my Mom?”

The dress flashed thoughtfully.

“I know you can talk to me, I can’t decipher your shimmering… At least a couple of words, what happened to my mother… She disappeared, and I worry so… Well, think about my mother, please… What? Do you know about books in the chest?”

The collar blushed with a bright green light, and Victoria heard its joyful words in her head.

“You read them and become a superb witch, and you will always be with me, I like you so much!”

“Why did the bird peck me if the books are good?” Victoria continued in one breath.

“Your mother sent a bird. She doesn’t want you to be a real witch…” Squeaked the dress and stopped abruptly.

“Dry up, you, rag!” Trap appeared all of a sudden, out of the blue, her evil eyes sparkling.

“A unique bug she has, she can hear everything!” Victoria thought, and a chill instantly ran down her spine. “Powerful help and constant control at the subconscious level is a new word in science!”

“That’s right,” she heard Trap’s husky voice in her head. “You are clever. Don’t you beat about the bush with a dress. It’s bored, and it’ll gladly tell you too much. You, dress! Don’t relax either, it’s the real witch that we have here, since she managed to teach you to lie! I don’t give a damn about your science. Once came to me, don’t forget that you’re on a visit… And don’t spoil my vacation, I can get really angry.”

Victoria was sitting on a thick fallen branch silently. Nice talk.

“All right,” Trap snorted. “Let’s have supper and get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll go into the swamp, it’s not far away…”

“My swamp! My quagmire! What happened?” Trap was literally freaking out.

“What’s wrong?” Victoria asked excitedly.

“Everything! It’s a mere puddle, it’s not what my favorite swamp used to be! What is left of it? How did it happen? Why? Trap ran along the bank of the quagmire, stroking the wet slime. She was furious.

Victoria looked at the vast forest swamp in confusion and did not quite understand her despair.

“It was giant, do you get it! Why is it vanishing?” Trap screamed in a shrill voice, so that all the birds around took off, as if they were blown away by the wind.

Victoria closed her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. “There must always be a reason,” flashed the thought.

“I’ll be right back!” She shouted loudly to Trap, and walked along the shore, grabbing a strong stick.

Trap waved a hand, still stroking the moss and whispering something…

Victoria returned by the evening and found her in the same place.

“It’s very dear to her…” Victoria heard the voice of the dress in her head, and then answered quickly: “Everything will be fine, let’s go faster!”

“Listen to me, please…” Trap heard Victoria’s cheerful voice and angrily turned her head.

“Having fun? Although you don’t. I hear, you know something.” And she turned all ears, so that Victoria, just for a moment, thought that she was peeping in her head like in a chest with things. She felt goose bumps on her skin…

“I’m sorry, but I found the reason and I know how to save the swamp!” Victoria blurted out in one breath, unable to tolerate such interference in her brains.

Trap approached Victoria closely and sniffed her face.

“Speak…”

“I have found a ditch a few kilometers away. It was made artificially, with some machine. “They might have decided to drain the swamp to pick up the peat… It’s extracted ' Victoria replied. “This is money. People didn’t think that the swamp and everything around would wither and die.”

“People?!” Trap went mad. “They need money. Isn’t that great.”

“I’ve been to the village, when I went to look for wool, and saw a swamp buggy. I know how to drive a car, I think I can manage it. It’s unreal to backfill it by hand, the ditch is huge, and it dewaters the swamp…”

Trap silently cruised around Vic.

“Go, take the buggy, my little reasonable witch. I understand the reason, we’ll sort it out. Let’s get back,” she continued in a minute. “Let’s heal my quagmire, and then I’ll take care of everyone, who thought of this. It’s next door to blasphemy! They drink this water! They breathe this air after the rain! Idiots! I play hell to them a lot, well, not enough, since they’ve decided to kill themselves like this. Well, isn’t it funny!”

“Let’s go together…” She gasped. “You won’t cope by yourself. I’ll bring down delusion, so everyone will sleep. You’re not able to do it yet… I’ll send some beavers to build a dam. It won’t hurt.” Trap sighed. “I didn’t think that I could be out of sorts! But what a thing to do; to dry my best trap! Ugly little people, you’ll get what you deserve! Ungrateful bastards, should have thought with their own heads! They spoiled everything!”

The theft of the vehicle and spare cans with diesel fuel went at the touch of a button. Vic didn’t expect she could manage with a machinery like this, but she guessed that the dress still helped to direct thoughts to reach the result, especially when the whole village was sleeping and no one interfered Victoria.

Several days after, the beavers have built an excellent huge dam with all the intricacies one can think of. Now they sat proudly on the hummocks, watching Trap and Victoria on approach on a tractor with bucket.

Trap didn’t prevent Victoria from working and disappeared in an unknown direction, leaving a bag with food.

Victoria spent the three lonely nights on a swamp in the forest, calmly listening to the birds before going to sleep, realizing that the beasts won’t touch her, and her dress will warm her like a warm blanket.

She coped with a huge wide canal and a few smaller ones. The tractor didn’t fail her, and Victoria admired that she mastered the new skill.

“Great!” Victoria heard the familiar, hoarse voice of Trap behind her. “Can you drive it into the swamp?”

“We won’t return it?? Victoria asked in surprise.

“Not if I can help it! They have probably gag out this filthy thing with it. Get it in the swamp!” Said the Trap. “So that they have no desire to do anything like that!”

“What if they do it again? Say, they will find another machinery?”

“Not here,” Trap smiled. “Can’t speak for other places, though… Well, can you drive it in?”

“I’ll try, of course,” Victoria agreed thoughtfully. “The main thing is to jump out when it goes to the bed…”

“Take off your dress, otherwise you’ll soak up the hem,” Trap continued hoarsely. “Take that driftwood with you, and then I’ll help you out.”

“Why do I need take off the dress?” Asked Vic.

“It’s a must,” the Trap smiled wryly. “Take it off, and don’t ask stupid questions.”

“Well, that’s it,” flashed the thought in Vic’s head. “The dress is a necessary thing. I’m not. Why should anyone mess with me? Send home? To pipe me down, so as to prevent chatting too much… Classic, but I still didn’t think that I would end my life by drowning in the swamp…”

The collar of the dress sparkled nervously.

“Hush,” the Trap hissed threateningly, and in the next breath added gently. “Otherwise she’ll mess you up, you know? She’ll put you on real soon; first, she’ll drown the tractor, and then she’ll be dry and warm, don’t worry.”

Victoria carefully put the dress on the grass, took a driftwood and, not looking back at Trap, headed the tractor into the swamp water. Very soon she realized that it ingulfs her, so, she quickly jumped out of, grabbing a driftwood. At first, it helped a little, but soon Victoria began to get bogged down.

“It’s so stupid,” thought Victoria… “She’s Trap, why have I even decided that I’m her guest? No, I will not say goodbye, that’s too good for her…”

Realizing that she could no longer make a single step, Vic looked up at the sky.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” she whispered, barely audible.

“You know,” she heard Trap’s hoarse voice from behind. “Jealousy had really got up my nose with you, so had Vengeance. I don’t care so far, whose way did your mother stand in, but you helped me to save the swamp, which I didn’t expect at all… And the dress confirms, that you absolutely sincerely wanted to help me… Me! So it’s kinda… I don’t quite understand it, so I am making an amendment. Hold the stick!” She threw Victoria a long pole. Jealousy and Vengeance, go and dig their souls in another place. I like you, you are reasonable…” Trap muttered, pulling Victoria out.

“Thank you,” sighed Victoria, falling to the grass, having lost almost all her strength from the tension in a few minutes. She cried.

“No tears, will you? It’s already damp all around, if you didn’t notice it.” Trap snorted, spat on the ground and turned away from Victoria.

“Why are you like that?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? How else do I check my marshy trap?” Trap has gone cheerful.

“It’s all right,” Victoria laughed, too. “Tell me about my mother! Who hates her so much, and where is she?”

“Where is your mother or who hates her?” Trap grinned.

“Where is she? Well, if I know who wants to harm her so bad, that’s would be good, too.”

“Your mother is at home. You have almost finished the shawl, I know, that you’ll finish it… So I’ve let her go. Speaking about who hates… Turn on your dampen brains.”

Victoria stood up and reached for the dress.

“Angelina Sergeevna?”

“Well, you see, you have guessed without a dress,” pleased Trap approached Victoria and added without a smirk. “She’s always number two. Your mom’s mate, she sold her soul to Jealousy; Vengeance is always around. They are hellions, they always go together. They’ll now eat your Angelina for breakfast, after such a mistake…”

“She’s not mine,” Victoria answered dryly.

“And that’s right, she’s mine now. I didn’t want to think about work, it’s so nice in the forest…” Trap sighed.

 
                                           ***
 

“My goat…” Victoria burst into tears and curled up in her soft bed.

“Your goat is at home,” her mother stroked her head. “Trap has returned it, she also liked it… You are so smart. I had faith in you. You saved us, my precious,” her mother whispered proudly.