The Lord of the Swamp

*The beginning of summer. A beautiful time, but not for a rosy-cheeked maiden. Barefoot and bareheaded, she went into the deepest depths of the forest to propose marriage to the Master of the Dead Marsh himself. The world was no longer sweet to her, and there was no longer joy in her father's house. The girl had been betrothed to a rapist and a drunkard! Never had the girl cried so bitterly as when she begged her mother and father to consummate the match, and they paid little heed to her cries. The girl was growing frantic with fat. So she went mad. Under cover of night, she wandered into the forest wherever her eyes led. Reaching the edge, she howled like a wolf at the moon. "I know you hear me, Lord of the Dead Marsh, show yourself! I will be your bride, only protect me from an unwanted marriage!" The master, who goes by all sorts of names in lies, watched her for a long time from beneath the water. She, of course, didn't see his emerald eyes beneath the sparse duckweed and mire. It was a shame, she should have been withering away and running wherever her eyes looked, but she only continued to howl. The Master grew tired of listening to her. The water began to rumble ominously, underwater bubbles began to bubble out, and a swamp monster appeared, just like my grandmother used to tell me about as a child! A black, foul-smelling liquid flowed down his body until the silhouette of a young man appeared. It was impossible to tell right away that he had been a sludge of mud just a moment ago. — You say you're a bride? Aren't you afraid?

And it happened that I fell in love with the lord of the dead swamp! You can’t deal with him with a kind word, you can’t keep him on a chain, You can’t cast a love spell with herbs – there is only one sure way…