Zalu has a minion!

Milika the Bean Sidhe

It was on the night of a particularly fierce thunderstorm that a strange, pure white cat had showed up on the doorstep of the elderly herbalist of Kohanna village. Milika, the herbalist, didn't think much of the strange creature at the time. She fed him, gave him a cozy place to sleep and in return he kept her thatch hut free of vermin. There was nothing remarkable about him. He was just a cat, after all. The other villagers were a bit leery of him. Strange creatures were often foul omens. While cats were common enough in the desert village, no one had ever seen one with such perfect white fur. The cat often had to avoid a well-aimed kick from some of these less than kindly folks.

The old lady knew the cat wasn't normal, though. Milika could swear he knew what she was thinking. He would cuddle up to her if she was feeling lonely, or bring her herbs from the garden that she was running low on. She never spoke of this, though; she was certain the villagers would kill him. Never before had an animal shown such intelligence. Surely this creature was a demon sent by the Gods of Choas - or so they would say.

Milika named the cat Zalu after a God from her home village that she had been run out of during a raid as a young woman. Zalu was as a God of the sky, the mythical being that gave the world color when he painted the sky at dawn and dusk. Without Zalu, there would be no color and the world would be covered in darkness. It was something of a joke, seeing as Zalu's flawless fur was colorless. Or was it? According to myth all colors of the spectrum join to form perfect white light. That was also the form that Zalu took, pure light.

As time went on, Zalu developed several odd habits. Milika sometimes caught him staring intently at a page in her herbal medicine manuals. She was positive he was reading them, and not only that - he understood them. Zalu had also grown a fondness for nipping at the heels of ungrateful customers, and winking at the ones he liked. Milika even thought she'd heard him speak every now and then. That was silly though. Cats couldn't speak. She simply told herself that it must be a trick of the wind. These things often frightened the old woman, but Zalu was her steadfast companion and friend. She could not bring herself to believe the sweet cat was capable of any evildoing.

One day though, Milika and Zalu's peaceful life came to an end. A young woman from a neighboring village had come to seek Milika's aid for her mother who was seriously ill. But the woman was ungrateful and rude to the extreme. She demanded Milika's medicines and threatened to harm her when Milika asked her to pay. This angered Zalu who had been seated on the windowsill beside her. In fury that anyone would harm his beloved Milika, Zalu took a swipe at the beautiful young woman's face and left four deep gashes in her cheek.

"Filthy beast!", She screamed,"That cat has the spirit of a demon in it!" Milika did not punish Zalu though. She merely picked him up and held him close. She had a very bad feeling about this.

The villagers heard the woman's shouts, and were more than sympathetic. They had been looking for a reason to kill the strange animal for some time. They were certain he would bring ill fortune to the village. Within moments they had charged, weapons in hand to Milika's hut. She stood there on the porch with Zalu in her arms. He did not panic, but there was venom in his green eyes as he glared at the villagers.

"Witch! Release the demon so that we may destroy its tainted soul!", Several men shouted.

"Fools! This is no demon!", Milika cried. "No!", She yelped as Zalu sprang from her arms. At once the men lunged for him. But it was not Zalu who howled in pain when one man's crudely made spear met with flesh. At the sound of the scream, the men stopped to look, only to find the elderly healer dead with the spear through her heart. In horror they stared as the cat ran to her side mewing in sadness. In the confusion that followed, Zalu escaped into the desert. For days on end it rained leaving everything flooded.

Zalu sat alone near a pool of fallen rain in the desert, his wet fur making him look skeletal and weak. But he saw something move near him as the lightening struck. Patiently he waited until he saw it again. A pale outline of an elderly woman materialized in front of him.

"Dear Guardian of the sky, you can stop this rain now. My soul is hardly worth such a lament." Came the voice of the old healer, Milika. Zalu's ears perked at her voice. He purred softly, and the clouds began to recede.

"You knew who I was?", The cat said, in the human tongue. Milika's spirit only smiled.

"Can you paint the sky like the legends say?", She asked. "I wanted to see at least once before I left this world."

"Of course, my friend, I can do that just for you." Zalu said. He stood on his back paws and reached for the heavens. Slowly he transformed into the light itself. As the clouds parted, he streaked into the sky. Behind his trail of glittering light, colors began to show in the sky forming giant arches as he leaped across the desert dunes. Before long, all of the sky was filled with color. And as they disappeared with the sunlight, Milika's spirit too faded away as she found her final peace, a smile on her face.

Back at the village the people stared in awe. The story of that cat and the healer would be one to be passed down for generations. Eventually, old Milika was even worshipped as a goddess of mercy and kindness. According to the legend, she has a small hut on the foothills of the great mountain where the gods live. She tends the ill there with the help of her little white cat who paints rainbows in the sky.