“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