Zimeral was fourteen years old. During a storm of violent rain and wind and thunder and lightning in her small village, everybody else along with everything was washed away, never to have been found.

When Zimeral eventually managed to struggle to land, her one leg was hurt so badly she could only limp along, slowly. She was in pain all the time.

In those days when you lost everything in a flood, you ended up being caught by criminals, and sold as a slave. The criminals who caught you were as evil as the people who bought slaves.

Zimeral was sold into slavery to a wealthy family of four who lived in a vast modern City.

That wealthy family of four were cruel to Zimeral because all the wealthy people in that vast modern City believed that since everybody dies sooner or later, it was a waste of time being kind to strangers.

In the home of that cruel family of four Zimeral washed dishes, swept floors, raked yards, did laundry, and did everything else anybody in the cruel family of four ordered her to do.

The Dad ordered her to wash the car every day. The Mom ordered her to carry the heavy bags of groceries from the car into the home. The daughter who was Zimeral's age ordered Zimeral to throw out the garbage two and three times a day. The son who was younger than Zimeral ordered Zimeral to stand still while he pulled her hair and stuck sticks and leaves and spider webs and dead insects into her hair.

Zimeral had to live in the shed at the end of the backyard. There wasn't much space in the shed because that's where the family kept their lawnmower, snow-blower, weed-whacker, and other tools and things.

A storm of violent rain and wind and thunder and lightning hit the town. Late that stormy night Zimeral was huddled in the shed. Her leg, as usual, was stingingly painful.

Above the deafening chaotic noises of the storm, she heard noises of angry animals fighting in the backyard; this happened a lot every night, even when there was no storm.

Zimeral lay still and hoped there would be no flood that would wash the shed away with her in it.

The storm subsided. Zimeral heard scratching against the metal door of the shed. She shut her eyes and tried hard to not go look. She heard soft sounds of pain; the sounds of pain caused her to open the door a little to peek out.

There was a frail wet skinny cat, barely alive, softly meowing in pain.

It was hurt. One of its eyes was missing and the bottom half of its tail hung loosely out of joint as if it was a bit of wet string.

The storm suddenly died out. Zimeral gently carried the cat into the shed. She was closing the door when she saw another small animal lying wet and limp in the grass. She went out and brought it, too, into the shed.

The second animal was a skunk. It looked as if it was dead.

The two small animals were still in the shed when Zimeral left in the dark at five o'clock in the morning to go to the home to do her chores.

All the time she was away from the shed, she feared the cruel family’s two gigantic hunting dogs would harm the cat and the skunk.

She had been able to provide shelter for the cat and the skunk because those dogs did not prowl by the shed when there was a storm.

The family kept the dogs in the yard to ensure that Zimeral would not try to escape from the shed at night. Just about every day in the country there were reports of slaves somewhere running away and, most of the time, never being caught ever again.

The cat and the skunk were still safely in the shed when Zimeral came back at ten o'clock that night.

The skunk was dry, but still limp. The one-eyed cat was there asleep on a high ledge. Zimeral shared her scraps of food with them.

This went on for a number of nights and days.

The skunk improved so much that it was looking well-fed. Zimeral hoped the skunk was going out of the shed by day and finding food for itself. It still eagerly awaited the few scraps of food Zimeral shared with it at night.

The cat, too. Its empty eye-socket had healed. The tail had healed. The end of its tail healed at an angle that made the whole tail look like the number seven facing the ground.

Another violent storm arrived. Zimeral and the two small animals sat nervously inside the shed.

The angry-sounding noises of the thunder and the lightning and the rain and the water on the ground crashing against the shed made Zimeral cry in fear.

The skunk went up to her and snuggled itself against her to comfort her. She gently petted the skunk.

The cat got jealous of the skunk and lightly jumped down to the floor of the shed. There was a flash of bright light.

Zimeral thought the shed had been hit by lightning.

It was the cat! It had turned into a girl as young as Zimeral.

Zimeral scrunched herself more tightly against the shed wall in order to give the magical girl more space she needed now that she was no longer a cat. The magical cat-girl had both her eyes, and an extra one between them. The skunk fled the shed!

In the darkness Zimeral thought it was the cruel girl of the cruel family.

Because Zimeral’s leg injury throbbed in pain more than usual, Zimeral feared the magical girl would be cruel to her.

Without saying anything to Zimeral the magical girl pointed her finger at Zimeral's crippled leg. The leg healed instantly. For the first time in years Zimeral felt no pain in that leg.

The girl pointed to the walls and the roof of the shed. All the noises of the storm outside were blocked out. She then spoke softly to Zimeral.

"If you want to come with me I will take you to my home in the sky. Everything is very stable in my world. Everyone is happy. All of us can change into anything we want to be. While I was so seriously injured as a cat I didn't have the strength to change back. In my world I will teach you how to change into anything."

For a few seconds Zimeral was too surprised to speak. When she spoke she first thanked the magical girl.

Zimeral asked about the skunk. The girl replied "It’s a real skunk. We will leave it here for the time being to deal with that cruel family of four and their dogs when they come to find out why you did not show up to work for them as a slave."

The girl took Zimeral far away to her home in the sky where they live happily forever.

A few days later the magical girl came back for the skunk.

It was a clear night; a full-moon night; not a cloud in the heavens. The cruel family’s hunting dogs were in full prowl around the shed.

As she flew away with the skunk in her arms, the magical girl turned those hunting dogs into tiny sparrows; and that cruel family into four fleas, along with all those other wealthy slave-owning families in that vast modern City.