Run Rabbit Run by Amy Valzano

5:30 am

I’m looking across the vast field in front of me, I’m stretched up as far as I can go on the very back of my hind legs so as to see over the crop. My balance is good, but not perfect. The relentless cold wind very nearly knocks me down. The safety of the dark forest on the other side seems so far away, I want more than anything to make it all the way across the field this time, I know I’ll finally be at home if I do. My ears twitch as I hear an eagle scream above me, I instinctually duck down into the mud beneath the spike of this year's sparse wheat crop, I don’t think it sees me. I think it’s gone now, I scan my surroundings to check for the other predators who inhabit the American grasslands, coyotes, wolves and such, they don’t bother me, I'm fast, I’m sure I could outrun any beast. Before I start running I am reminded of all my previous attempts, all gone wrong one way or another. Sometimes it feels as though some outside force doesn’t see it in their design that I will make it all the way across and are trying everything and anything to stop me.

5:45 am

I run so fast that sometimes it feels like I’m flying, even if it’s only just above the ground. I’m so focused on what’s beneath my feet that I don’t see the towering straw man mounted on a post just in front of me. I crash head first into the solid wood frame beneath its feet and before I know what’s happening it topples toward me, I scramble backwards as best I can but my feet are weighed down by the mud sticking to my fur. The straw man collapses and hits the ground with a crash, it's arms flailing around, catching on my legs and pinning them beneath its weight. With all the strength I can muster I use my front legs to pull myself free of it’s grasp. As I manage to release the ends of my legs I stumble forward with all of the extra momentum. I’m tripping over my feet and am unable to orientate myself back towards the forest, I’ve lost it. I begin to panic more and I’m spinning around frantically trying to find the edge of the field, all of a sudden I feel my hind leg touch something cold and metallic, I freeze with the shock of the cool temperature against my foot. I’ve never seen anything like it, I slowly take my leg off of the top of it but before I could have stopped to look at this strange object I hear a quiet clicking sound before I am deafened by an enormous bang and then a ringing in my ears.

5:50 am

I am flung across the field back towards where my journey began, I'm really flying now. I hit the ground hard and hear several unnerving crunching sounds, I've fallen on the dull edge of a rock, my head is struck. It hurts everywhere, I can smell burnt flesh. If it weren't for the patchy crop and waterlogged ground around me I might have gone up in flames in less than an instant, perhaps that would have been better. What grass is left around me burns bright and hot, before sizzling out as a steady rain washes over the marshy grassland. I haven’t lived for very long but I’ve stacked up regrets worth a million lifetimes, both past and recent, not running fast enough just then would be the first item on that long list. I feel a brief anger wash over me, this is all my fault. I can feel my blood rushing out, with it my fear, I know what is about to happen. The cold wind hitting exposed muscle and bone and I don’t have to look to know what injuries I must be dying of. This has all happened before and it will happen again, I’m trapped in a loop, I will be recalled now, all of this life’s travels will become meaningless and I'll have to start all over again.

RATIONALE

The internal journal of my character is mostly conveyed through the feelings of the character, he is not capable of any profound thoughts. The journey is however important to him, he knows that he should be living across the field and is likely to be taken by a bird of prey should he choose to continue living by the road. As he goes across the field his emotional state changes quite rapidly between events, internally and externally this is a distressing journey for him. The external journey taken by my character is the physical act of crossing the field and encountering obstacles along the way as well as becoming injured and eventually being recalled out of existence by his friend.

The psychological state of my character devolves along the story from calm confidence to panic and fear to peacefulness and tranquility. The character goes into his journey with very little concern or consideration for the potential dangers ahead. He knows to look for natural predators as they are something he’s come across before but he has little to no experience interacting with people and their attitude towards pests. The first danger he encounters is accidental and no one's fault but his own however this is still a traumatic event which leads him to panic and seal his fate. The character couldn’t have known what a landmine is but he likely wouldn’t have tripped it if he weren’t in such a rush to get across the field after being spooked by the scarecrow. Finally, he can no longer move and so resorts to reviewing past memories, at this point the character has given up hope and becomes calm.

I chose to create a short, partitaly animated video as it’s (clearly) something I’ve never done before, I thought it might be an interesting challenge. When considering what I might write my story about it seemed clearest to me when I thought about it as though it was already an animated clip. The music was an afterthought and the first thing I associated with the premise of my story. Using it helped me with the animation because it provided further clarity when it came to exactly what would be included in the clip.

Drafting helped to flesh out a clear idea and help me convey what I wanted to in the story. This also helped with the planning of my visual piece made to accompany the story as I could see how the two would connect. When drafting and coming up with ideas I could easily see what the entries would include and whether or not they’d make sense in the order I chose.