Chapter 59: You’re welcome
The wolf hesitated before it slowly brought down its head for Sunnie to pat. Sunnie smiled, stroking its forehead.
"That’s good... Good boy..." She said as the wolf stayed there for a while.
Afterward, Sunnie turned and stared at the group of people she had just saved. They sat there on the floor, shivering in fear.
The wolf turned and headed into the woods. Sunnie tried stopping it, but it was gone. And Sunnie could see it stagger as it left.
She sighed. "I guess it’s shy."
Sunnie turned to the people. "Don’t worry. You’re safe now."
Zuna, Zukka, Azure, and Little Black also approached to get a better view of the scene. They all stood there, watching as Sunnie bent before them.
Sunnie saw them better. There were a total of seven: a woman who was carrying a little mouse cub, four women who weren’t carrying any little ones, and a male mouse beastman who was with them.
They all stared at her hopefully as the wolf left, all blinking as their ears twitched. Sunnie smiled at them as they slowly began getting up on their feet.
They were all soon standing except the beastwoman who was carrying her little one in her arms firmly as though someone would snatch it away at any moment.
"Thanks a lot for saving us!" one chubby mouse woman said happily. "If you hadn’t come, we would have been a meal by now."
"Yes, yes! Thanks a lot!"
They appreciated her as Sunnie smiled back at them. Sunnie stared down at the woman who was still sitting there with her cub. From their ears and all, she could tell they were from a mouse clan or something, but she didn’t remember there being any around here.
"But what are you guys doing around here though...?" Sunnie inquired, looking around. "You should have known that this is an evil forest and it’s dangerous, so you shouldn’t be moving here at will without any plans."
The chubby woman sighed. "It’s not like we had an option. Who would even think of coming to live in this forest at will?"
She seemed bitter as she spoke, making Sunnie feel like there was more to it than she could see. She stared at them as she asked, "What happened? Why are you guys here...?"
At first they didn’t wish to speak. She could see the sadness and dejection on their faces as she asked the question.
Sunnie then added, "The mouse clan isn’t in the evil forest here... so let me guess, you guys came in from outside?"
One of the women nodded. "True. We were rather cast away from our tribe..."
Sunnie raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" It sounded like the story of her original host’s life. "Why?"
They hesitated again before one of them finally spoke. "Well, the four of us are barren. We couldn’t produce any cubs for our land or our husbands. So after a festival, our land decided to cleanse the land by casting us out into the evil forest to die."
"..." Sunnie was speechless.
She continued. "For me... my husband insisted on not letting me go. He refused to denounce me, so he came along. But for these three women, their husbands were part of those who cast them away to die and took another wife."
Sunnie instantly took pity on them. Women still faced similar discrimination even in such an era; she wasn’t too surprised.
She turned to the woman with a cub. She seemed extremely quiet and withdrawn, not even saying a word. "And what about her...?"
They stared at her for a while as the chubby woman explained, "We don’t know much about her. But she was locked up after the death of her husband. They accused her of killing him... and in the end, also cast her off as a bad omen to die in the evil forest."
The beastman finally spoke up, the husband of the barren woman. "So we all were sent here to die in this forest without an option. And we would have been dead already if you hadn’t saved us."
Sunnie had her eyes on the cub for a while. She took pity on the mother with a little one as she said, "How can they do this to a mother with a cub...? It doesn’t make sense."
She walked up to the quiet woman and bent down. "Your little one is so pretty... She takes after you..."
The woman said nothing. She only held onto her cub without saying anything.
Little Black, Zuna, and Zukka approached.
"I can’t believe any clan would do this..." Zuna said. "It’s so sad..."
Sunnie scoffed. "It’s no surprise, though." She said as she got up to her feet. "But we can’t let them win. They want you all dead as soon as possible, but we can’t let them have what they want."
The mice stared at Sunnie, blinking.
She smiled at them as she said, "You all must be hungry after a long journey, right?" She stared at them. "You should come home with us. I’ll be preparing a grand meal tonight to welcome everyone. You should definitely join in."
Sunnie was accepting them with open arms. She felt they deserved a place to find a home and peace after experiencing what they did. And even though she wasn’t that stable, she was willing to take them in.
The evil forest was where people were sent to die mostly unfairly—a place where they punished people. Sunnie and her husbands had experienced such unfair treatment too. So Sunnie took it upon herself to make the so-called evil forest a home for these people.
They would survive and live happily, contrary to the wishes of those who cast them here!
The mice stared at each other and then at Sunnie. "How’s that possible...?" one asked. "All my life I’ve known that this forest has no life at all. One can’t find a home here, talk more of even eating. So how are your words possible?"
But Sunnie smiled. "Well, it’s simple. You make a home where there is none."