A long time ago in Sudan, there was a beautiful girl like a full moon on the fourteenth night with long hair. She was a very kind girl named Fatima who lived in a village near a forest of horror.

This forest looked dark and even the woodcutters did not come to it because they believed it was haunted by a ghoul who ate people. The ghoul had big red eyes. He had pointy yellow teeth that looked like fangs. He never wore any shoes and had tall, sharp, very dirty claws. Also, his hair grew a wild hairdo. He was a wild kind of animal, and he was very ugly.

The villagers knew that it was the year in which the ghoul would choose a beautiful girl to become his wife. Fatima was the most beautiful and respected of the girls.

Thus, her family prevented her from playing with her friends and even leaving the house because they were afraid for her. But when her family went to work, her friends came to play with her outside in the forest where there was a well.

They played “the bracelet game” together. During this game, the children were running around the well and started throwing their bracelets inside. When the girl who controls the game says “stop,” it stops any girl from taking her bracelet and running away to a place called a safe place. 

Eventually, the sun went down and her friends left her. They thought she was leaving but she did not. She sat alone, crying in the forest.

All of a sudden, she saw a big shadow behind her. She started to think about the folktale of the Ghoul. This shadow looked very scary. Out of nowhere, the Ghoul appeared to her.

He looked terrifying with his big body and red eyes. He appeared similar to a very ugly monster, and had a horrifying view like when you see Satan.

He looked at her and said with a heavy moaning sound, “You come for destruction alone!”

She started running and running but the ghoul caught up with her in one step. Suddenly, she stopped and looked with strength and bravery at the ghoul and said, “l am not alone, my Lord is with me!” 

Straight away without her knowledge, the plants began to help her. They became tall vines and grew fast and moved toward the monster’s direction. It was as if the vines knew she was in a big problem and needed help. The ghoul’s feet got tired and he fell when the plants caught him.

Fatima saw the well which she was playing with earlier and the well said to her, “I will bring out the bracelets for you. Take them and give them to him, and he will leave you alone and come to the well dead because he is allergic to gold and silver.”

Fatima was surprised that the well could speak because it was not human. But she snapped out of it and began thinking about her problem.

Fatima said, “Okay.” and indeed the well helped her.

The ghoul was strong enough to break the vines and he began chasing Fatima again. She quickly threw the bracelets at him while he pursued her toward the well. Then he fell into the well with the bracelets on his face. 

It was very small for him and very narrow. Also there was his weakness, the shiny gold and silver bracelets from the girls. He began dying. All this was enough to kill him and end this terrible story of the wild ghoul. As a result, the forest became natural again.

Fatima returned to her family very happily, like she was in a world war and came back winning. She told them everything that happened to her. She learned to listen to what her family tells her. That day she became famous and the legend became known as Generous Fatima and the Terrible Ghoul around every part of Sudan.

النهاية

the end