Once upon a time there was a small village in a small country, and on an ordinary afternoon a severe storm blew up. The villagers retreated to their homes to wait out the storm.

Suddenly they heard noise and shouting on the main street. The cause of the turmoil was the miller and his three assistants, who came running in the pouring rain.

The miller said a terrible monster had attacked the mill and put him and his men to flight. This worried the villagers greatly, and they discussed what to do. Someone had to go to the mill and ward off the monster, because everyone feared that the creature could also attack the village. Everyone looked at each other anxiously, but no one dared to go to the mill, especially not in the storm.

"Then I'll just go, I have nothing else to do in this crappy weather," came a cheerful voice from among them. The voice belonged to Grandma Nellie, a little old lady who ran a small grocery store. The villagers tried to persuade her not to go, but Grandma Nellie would not be dissuaded. Although the other people were worried about Grandma, they still weren't brave enough to accompany her.

And so Nellie tied her headscarf tighter, closed her coat and made her way to the old mill on the hill.

After a short walk through rain and wind, Nellie reached the old mill. The front door swayed in the wind, all the lights inside were out and there was no sign of life.

It was pitch dark inside the mill, with sacks of flour and other hard-to-recognize things lying around everywhere. Here and there parts of the mill and old millstones could be guessed at. Grandma was walking slowly into the darkness when she suddenly heard a noise coming from the back of the mill. There was a rustling and a faint sound of breathing, and suddenly Nellie saw two large yellow eyes light up.

Nellie waited a moment and then slowly walked towards the eyes and spoke in a calm voice: "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."

The eyes continued to look at Grandma, and now she could clearly see the fear in them. At that moment there was thunder and lightning and the eyes disappeared into the darkness. Granny walked cautiously in the direction in which she had seen the eyes, waiting for a flash several times so that she could at least see something briefly. She came to an niche behind some of the mechanical parts of the mill, and there, in another flash, she saw the animal whose eyes she had seen. It thundered again, the creature made a startled noise and tried to crawl even further into the niche. From what Grandma Nellie could tell by the brief flashes of lightning, the creature appeared to be some kind of large cat with long fur. Grandma couldn't tell more, but she noticed immediately that the poor thing was terribly afraid. She took off her headscarf and coat, hung them over a beam to dry, and then cautiously approached the creature.

"You don't have to be afraid, I'll stay with you all night until the storm is over." Slowly the big eyes reappeared, filled with fear, but the creature trembled a little less and let Grandma get close. Nellie stroked the animal's head, which calmed it noticeably and sat down in the niche next to the creature so that it could lay its head next to her. The creature jumped with every thunderbolt and lightning, but Grandma calmed it down every time, stroked its head and spoke calm words.

So she sat with the poor creature all night, until the next morning the rain and thunderstorm stopped. It was getting light outside, the storm had passed and the animal was sleeping peacefully next to Grandma. Now that it was getting brighter, Nellie could get a better look at the creature. It was about the size of a pony, had long black and red striped fur, two tails each ending in a large tassel, and a cat-like head. The head had two large pointed ears, a mouth full of small pointed teeth, and two large eyes, which now slowly opened as the creature woke up. It looked at Grandma briefly in surprise, but then relaxed and snuggled up to Nellie, purring. Grandma scratched the creature behind the ears and thought with a smile that this cute thing had put four grown men to flight. She then laughed briefly and said to the animal: "Come on, my little one, the storm is over, let's go back to the village." The creature hesitated briefly when Grandma got up and took her coat and headscarf, but then followed her out of the mill.

The clouds had cleared, the sun was slowly rising and it seemed to be a beautiful day. Humming happily, Grandma Nellie made her way to the village, and after a moment the supposed monster followed her.

Enjoying the warmth of the sun, Grandma began to sing a little song and slowly the creature relaxed. It no longer tried to hide behind the much smaller Nellie, but now boldly ran alongside her, and after a short time it even began to frolic and walk a bit ahead.

After a while, the village slowly came into view, and after a short rest, Granny and her companion set off the rest of the way.

They had just reached the entrance of the village when several villagers armed with pitchforks and torches jumped out and surrounded Granny and the creature.

"Quick, Nellie, get here to safety, we'll stop the monster!" one of the villagers shouted, while another grabbed Granny's arm and tried to pull her away from the creature.

The villagers crowded in on the creature as Granny shook off the hand that was pulling her and shouted, "Stop this nonsense right now! Are you out of your mind?” She pushed the people aside, went to the frightened animal and spoke gently to him: “Don't be afraid, nobody will harm you.” Grandma Nellie turned around abruptly and her face flushed with anger, causing the villagers to start backing away from her.

"How dare you scare the poor thing like that!" she asked. At first no one dared to answer, but then one of the men stammered: "We, we, we just wanted to protect you from the monster, and...."

"You better worry about who's protecting you from me!" Grandma yelled at them. "Last night you were afraid of a poor animal that sought shelter in your mill, but in broad daylight in your village you are suddenly brave enough to use violence against it without hesitation!" Grandma took a deep breath, pointed to the creature behind her, and spoke a little more calmly: "Don't you see that it's completely harmless, that it's more afraid of you than you are of it? Storm and thunder frightened it, so it wanted to hide somewhere. The mill was just nearby, it didn't mean to harm anyone!”

The villagers looked at each other in embarrassment, realizing that Grandma Nellie was right. They began to put down the pitchforks and put out the torches. One spoke up: "You're right, Ms. Nellie. We are sorry that we acted so hastily. But now the question remains, what to do with the animal?”

"It's quite simple," said Nellie, already happier. "It will just live here with us in the village, I have a room available behind my shop."

And all the villagers agreed to this suggestion, and so it was that the creature that was not a monster lived in the village from then on. Everyone began to like it very much, it played with the children of the village and it was very diligent against mice and other pests.

Most of the time, however, it lay in front of Grandma's shop, purring peacefully, because it was particularly fond of Nellie.

And for many, many years, the villagers and the creature lived peacefully together, and everyone was happy.