🥬 It has been so long since I did a picture of my Hog-Nosed Skunk character Siërra. I wanted to do something involving her again, and I'm also a big fan of those starry night balcony scenes in animal-based kids movies, so I decided to do something along those lines. So that's what's happening in this scene. Siërra has found a quiet outdoor terrace after she snuck into an abandoned restaurant during a hunt for food.

As soon as Siërra goes through the door, a gorgeous star-filled sky greets her. The skunk moves over to a lone steel terrace table standing near the broken overgrown wooden fence. She clambers up to it using the only garden chair in sight, and climbs onto the table. A bright moon is visible in the sky, as well as millions of stars that are twinkling in the heavens. The only things covering the beautiful sight are the occasional small cloud drifting by, and the odd dragonfly zooming past, but besides that, nothing is disturbing these painting-like sights. ''It's beautiful out here, eh?'', Siërra hears behind her. She looks back at the opening she came from, and spots a small kitten with dark red fur approaching her. ''Hi, I'm... I'm Siërra'', the skunk says, ''what a beautiful view, huh? I could look at it for hours''. ''Yeah'', the cat replies, ''it really is gorgeous out here. I'm Karoshi''. Siërra continues looking up into the darkness above her, while Karoshi finally manages to grab onto the chair's platform and get on Siërra's level. ''It's so... so precious...'', he says,

''...
...
...
.....do you think my mom and dad are up there...?''

Siërra feels something stuck in her throat when she hears those words. ''...What... What happened to them?'', she asks. ''They crossed a highway somewhere in the mountains'', Karoshi sighs, ''...then that truck appeared. They didn't realize they had entered the road, and when they finally did, it... well, they realized it too late''. It turns silent for a moment, it is as if time itself has stopped to ponder on the story the cat just told. Wow, Siërra just met a new friend and already she gets hit with a tear-jerking backstory. She surely didn't see that one coming! A few crickets start chirping again, and all other forest life around the two terrace-goers continues its course through the dark, moonlit night. Siërra makes a decision: ''Eh... I was looking for some food around here when I found this restaurant. Do you perhaps want to join me? I'll share the food with you if we happen to find some''.

Siërra works her way off the fence and down to the terrace floor again, and Karoshi follows. Together they re-enter the door to the upper level of the restaurant building. The whole place is shrouded in darkness and has been almost entirely abandoned, aside from a few birds and dragonflies making the place their home, nestling in the upper-most corners of the various rooms and behind select tables found throughout the building. Here, too, the chirping continues, although less prominent compared to the vast, nocturnal outside world our two four-legged friends found themselves in prior to entering the restaurant. ''There isn't much food here'' says Karoshi, ''but I did find some leftover buns and pieces of sausage and bread at certain spots at this place. I think there's something behind the counter that's edible, I can smell it!''. 🥬