In 2015, I began working on an animated short called “The Last Hunt.”

In 2017, I halted work on the short to focus on writing the story as a novel instead.

In 2020, I published IN THE ORBIT OF SIRENS, and the rest of the SONG OF KAMARIA would follow in the subsequent years.

Now, in 2022, I am finally releasing the unfinished short that started it all.

The short takes place toward the second half of the novel, when Roelin is living out in the Kamarian wilderness under the control of a mysterious being called the Siren. This short has events play out a little differently than they happen in IN THE ORBIT OF SIRENS, but the overall sequence remains similar enough. When I created this in 2015, I only had a vague sense of the context around the event in the film. As I kept creating, and the thing was forming, the idea began to take on a life of its own.

It was too big to squeeze into 5 minutes.

I needed more space to play in. At the time, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my ability to write a novel people would enjoy. But after a lot of careful consideration, I told myself “Screw it! I’m going to write this thing for ME. If no one reads it I don’t care, I’ll know my story has a start and end, and that’s enough for me to be satisfied!”

Luckily, people really seemed to enjoy it!

I firmly believe I made the right choice. As proud as I am of this short animated film, I had no idea how I would get it out into the world for people to see. My reach was very limited, and it would have just become something I put a lot of energy into that only I would watch from time to time. I wanted people to visit Kamaria, I had been there alone too long.

Maybe by showing this off it gets some traction and helps me sell the novels to a studio. That’d be something! But for now, I’m just happy it gets its chance in the light. It lived too long in an archived folder on my PC.

I hope you enjoy the short, although unfinished. The guy who made it put his heart and soul into it. (Yes, that guy was me. Yes I am now heartless and soulless.)

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the short in the comments below. I love talking behind-the-curtain about this whole project.

Cheers!
—T.A.