once upon a time, there lived a little girl. she was a quirky girl, who spent a lot of time on her computer. over time, she developed good friends on the computer, ones she could trust to talk to and comfort her, ones that she herself grew to love like family. she cherished her little cyber friends, in hope that one day she could meet them all face to face. one day, the little girl heard that one of her nearest and dearest friends was in the hospital, very sick and hurt. she was extremely worried about him, so she started to pray with all her might that he would be okay. it didn't seem to have an effect, as her friend died a short while later. the little girl knew her friend wouldn't want her to be sad over him, so she stayed strong and hopeful as to see her friend in heaven sooner or later. eager to know what it was like "up there" she went outside her house and asked, "so how is it?" she waited a few minutes for a reply, but heard nothing. frowning, the little girl climbed up to the roof of her house and asked a little louder this time, "so how is it?" again, there was no reply. the little girl then figured it must be other noise that was blocking her question. so she traveled miles into the country, and when she was sure she was alone, the little girl asked, "so how is it?" her voice echoed across the empty landscape, but still there was no reply. the little girl was confused as to why, even in a wide space like this, her question was not answered. determined to get something, the little girl traveled far and wide to find the largest tree in the world for her to climb. her search paid off; after a while, she found a tree that stood so tall and mighty that it stretched beyond the clouds and reached into the stars. the girl began to climb and climb until she got as high as she could. she shimmied out to the end of the highest branch on the highest tree in the world, faced the moon, and with a smile on her face, asked "so how is it?" there was no reply. the little girl was devastated. even after all she'd been through, she could not seem to get an answer from "up there". so, defeated, the little girl traveled home, curled up in her bed, and started to cry. suddenly, her window flew open from a burst of wind, and a small little firefly carrying an envelope hovered in and onto her bed. the little girl was very scared for a moment, but delicately opened the envelope. when the little girl read the message, she started to sob happy tears and hug it to her chest. "it's nice." for the bunzinator, i really wanted to do something for him and crows, who i hope is having fun with all the free snacks up in heaven. :> love the crows and the bunny... .07 mech (sketching) / sarasa .07 pen (lines) / sharpie (borders) / prismacolour pencils (colouring) / gallery soft pastels (colouring) / white-out (stars) / photoshopcs2 (clean up&text) 10+hrs? the promised land by sato naoki PS: high res was that firefly.