Dhajla

"¡You cannot be more charming, my lady! Folks, I've been seduced." Said the specter. Then he made a theatrical movement towards his chest as he leaned towards Lynn.

"However, you are not worthy of her favors. She is for our lord." Another ghost answered in the middle of a laugh.

Lynn didn't find it funny at all. On the contrary, it seemed more like a horror play. In any case, Lynn looked calm. Contrary to her nanny, who seemed terrified.

Lynn took Nana's hand and squeezed it to distract her. She hoped she could encourage Nana a bit as well. For its part, the group of ghosts laughed, emitting upsetting shrieks. It was a few hours before sunset. And for the moment, they rested in a clearing in the forest. Of course, the specters did not need rest. They had stopped for the captive ladies, who barely could breathe.

Lynn sighed, resigned for the moment. At least she wasn't going to be devoured by a beast. Lynn thought. Then she felt how Nana shuddered beside her: a ghost had just passed them by, bouncing his head on his hands. The sight was not pleasant. Lynn had imagined ghosts to be incorporeal. But it turned out that they could become quite tangible.

The truth was, Lynn still found it hard to believe they had escaped so effortlessly from the strange abode in which both, she and Nana, had been confined. The sphere that laughed mischievously had guided them through the Red Castle to some tunnels into its depths. At first, Lynn and Nana were scared and also suspicious. But, contrary to their fears, somehow, they managed to get away from the castle. The tunnel had got them near the dark lake, far away from the walls and the citadel. It was incredible, but in the end, Lynn and Nana could find their way to freedom. However, when Lynn was beginning to harbor some hope, right after leaving the lake: the ghosts caught them.

Lynn had been thinking of continuing relatively close to the road, which, although disused, did not seem entirely abandoned. She and Nana had been quickly walking when they were surprised by the gang of specters. Well, the ghosts turned out to be consistent enough to grab hold of Lynn and her nanny as well.

Sitting on a rock, with a shudder, she now recalled the touch of the specter: it had felt cold and sticky. Another tremor from Nana brought Lynn back from the depths of her thought.

"Calm down, Nana. They have no intention of harming us."

At least for now. Lynn kept the thought to herself.

"¡What a misfortune for us, my child! ¡What a misfortune! ¡Oh, what a misfortune!"

That were the only words the poor woman had spoken in a while. Moreover, Nana wouldn't stop shaking, and her eyes looked so lost. Lynn seriously feared for her sanity.

"Nana, we'll get out of this. You see, my father is sure to be looking for us." At least Ghosts don't eat people. - And for the moment, that was good enough for Lynn.

Just in case, Lynn was whispering in Nana's ear. In case some specter was to change his mind when he heard her. Thinking in this way was Lynn when she began to feel something strange: it was as if the earth had just moved under her feet. And so, suddenly, the ground they were stepping on started shooking with strength.

"¡What a disgrace, Lynn... what...!" Nana seemed to lose her voice as she tried to balance herself.

"¡By Tutanojh! ¿What is this?" - Shouted an alarmed ghost.

For some reason, the specter being scared made Lynn more uneasy. Nana was holding Lynn's arm so hard that it was beginning to hurt. She was going to gain some nice bruises there.

Hoping Nana would calm down, Lynn hugged her. Then, she heard one of the new kidnappers speak cautiously to whom seemed to be the head of the ghost gang. "What a place you chose to camp, Smiles. If I'm not mistaken, this is Dhajla's territory. Right now, we will withdraw very slowly the way we came."

So, Lynn felt Smiles's hand grabbing her by her free arm. The group of ghosts compacted. However, that was when the world seemed to come crashing down. The ground trembled while terrible rumblings exploded in their ears.

The screams of the ghosts were also impressive. Most of them fled away when some gigantic roots began to appear everywhere.

¡Oh god! ¿What is happening? Lynn thought as she watched the place fall apart.

"Nana, whatever happens, don't get away from me..." - Lynn tried to whisper to her friend, but she couldn't continue because a thick branch grabbed her by the neck.

Immediately the branch pulled upwards until Lynn had to stand on her tiptoes; so as not to be strangled. But as if this were not enough, the stem began to tighten, threatening once again to suffocate her.

Lynn moaned, the agony and terror like two rocks crushing her mercilessly. Desperate, since she couldn't even scream, she widened her eyes while making all sorts of grotesque groans as she choked. It was then that she saw Nana letting out shrill cries. Her nanny was hanging above, about fifteen feet off the ground, from a dark root that gripped one of her feet. Looking at the chaos around him, swallowing hard, the specter Smiles stepped forward and shouted into the air.

"¡Lady Dhajla! The young woman belongs to Tutanojh. ¿My fair lady? ¿Can you hear me?" - There was no answer, only the sound of branches and roots moving capriciously all over the place - "¿My lady Dhajla?"

Right after Smiles's last words, the roots suddenly went still. That seemed to give the ghost renewed courage as he spoke again with more confidence this time:

"Our lady, we will gladly leave the other woman but return the young one. Our lord will thank you."

He had hardly finished his speech when a tree near them with leaves of magnificent green began to shake. It was a pretty elm with graceful and showy branches. The tree moved and began to open like a rapidly blooming rose. Then, from within the crust arose the body of a woman: Dhajla.

Dhajla was massive; however, she had one of the most beautiful faces Lynn had ever seen. Her body of slender curves was a trunk from the hips down. Her skin was an incredible shade of pale green like bark, and her eyes were like two emeralds. However, her cruel smile didn't do justice to her beautiful features. Dhajla's long hair fell in heaps to the ground and, from there, rose in elastic branches that she moved and stretched as she pleased. One of those kept cruelly squeezing Lynn.

Dhajla looked at the wraiths with marked contempt. Then she gave Lynn such a sinister look that it made her shiver.

"Who do you think you are to ask for such favors in my domain" Dhajla inquired as he leaned towards Smiles. "And ¿why should I leave you this rare flower and keep that root?" The tree-woman finished with parsimony and boredom.

At the end of such speech, Smiles looked as if he was the one being strangled instead of Lynn. Before speaking again, he seemed to gauge his response as he stared from the green woman to Lynn.

"My Lady, Tutanojh will not be pleased... When he discovers that you..."

"Mmm... And, who says he will find out" - The cold woman threatened with a calm, sweet voice. And, somehow, that made her sound even more sinister.

"But..." - This was Smiles's only word because, in just an instant, he got trapped in a network of thorny branches.

"¡Oh! Don't worry, you will meet your friends in the underworld ghost. ¡How dare you threaten me in my domain!" - Dhajla sentenced as the thick branches closed over Smiles. The ghost's screams and curses died down in a few seconds. "¡Oh, come on, ghost! ¡It's not like you can feel pain!" - The green woman complained sweetly - "Of course, you must not like leaving the world of the living. It will take you a while to get back."

Lynn heard Dhajla laugh loudly as more screams rang out. Some sounded distant, while others not so much. Lynn wished she could cover her ears so she wouldn't hear such horrible sounds.

The grip on her neck had loosened just a bit. Therefore, with an effort, Lynn looked around her. She soon realized that just as the screams had indicated, the rest of the ghosts had suffered the same fate as Smiles. After one last effort, Lynn saw Nana, who was still hanging. Most importantly: her friend was still alive. In any case, they both were still in danger. And Lynn did not know what would happen to them.