Time

9 Hours

Stumping around the room, he gathered the things that he needed. Levitating them over to the recently cleared off desk, he placed them down upon the worn wood. An assortment of objects already littered the desk's surface: the lavender pelt, the hardened clay skull, the skeletal wings, several spools of thread, and a jar of gems. As he continued to limp around the room, he eyed the list held in his magic, making sure that he didn't miss anything. Not looking where he was going, his back leg snagged on a box, and he tripped. Grumbling softly, he pushed himself back up, shooting the box an angry glare before continuing with his search.

Shortly after returning home, he had tried to repair his injured leg. He managed to restitch the wound, but the leg had remained useless. However, instead of being limp, it was now uncomfortably stiff and unable to bend at the knee.

Reaching the end of the list, he let it flutter to the floor before he quickly sidled over to the cluttered desk. The hourglass—nearing the end of its time—cast a red glow over the assembled items, tinting them all blood red. He ran a critical eye over the items before pushing them all aside and unrolling the lavender pelt. Running a hoof over it to smooth it out, he stretched it as far as it could go, spreading it out across the desk. Once that was finished, he levitated over a large box, which he opened and began to pick through. Pulling several bones out of the box, he opened the anatomy book to one of the latter bookmarked pages. He studied the skeletal diagrams for a brief moment before beginning to slowly piece the bones together, discarding the chipped and cracked ones. Before long, he had a rudimentary rib cage assembled.

Lowering the rib cage gingerly onto the pelt, he positioned it in the general area it needed to go. With that, he continued the slow assembly of the skeleton, breaking out the caliper again in order to make sure he was putting the vertebrae in the proper order. The whole process was going smoothly until he reached the hips. Pulling out the pelvic bone, he frowned, his brow furrowing. He picked up the caliper and measured the gap in the bone. The instrument confirmed his fear: it was too small. Tossing it over his shoulder, he delved back into the box, searching for another hip. The next one he pulled out had a large crack running across the left ilium, and the third one was clearly a stallion's hip bone and would never work.

Snarling silently, he pushed the box aside before grabbing another one and opening it. Tossing aside a couple of ribs, he paused before reaching down a pulling out another hip bone. This one clearly belonged to a mare, the wide flare indicating that she had given birth in her lifetime. There were several small cracks and chips running across the iliac crests, but besides that, the bone appeared to be in good condition.

Sand continued to flow steadily through the hourglass as he worked, the soft hiss a constant noise in the silent room. Bone after bone flitted in front of his eyes as he continued his methodical search. The skeleton was slowly assembled piece by piece, although the task was not without troubles: leg bones were too long, scapula were too short, nothing but left clavicles in the boxes, and the wings not connecting to the shoulder properly. Each new issue set him back, as he was forced to waste time finding the needed piece. As his amber eyes flicked to the hourglass, sweat began to bead up upon his brow as he found his mouth suddenly dry. He took a breath to steady his nerves, before trying to ignore the hourglass and continue with his work. Lifting a bone up to his face to inspect it, he fumbled, the bone clattering to the desk, and then to the floor. It rolled several times before suddenly falling through a crack in the floor.

Panicking, he pressed his face to the floor, trying to see through the crack. Unfortunately, all he could see was darkness, the bone lost to view. Sitting back on his haunches, he chewed on his bottom lip, praying that that wasn't a piece he needed. Trepidatiously, he returned to the desk and picked up another bone, making sure to be extra careful with it.

A while later, he breathed a sigh of relief as he put the last neck vertebrae in place. Levitating the skull over, he connected it to the top of the spine, finishing the skeleton. With that, he leaned back and cracked his neck, before wincing in pain. He rubbed it with a hoof, trying to work the tension out of the muscle. He would have liked to take a breather, a quick break so that he could lay down and rest his weary eyes, but he couldn't. There was still so much to do, and time was not on his side.

Flipping through the anatomy book, he searched the bookmarks for the needed pages. Upon finding them, he propped the book up on a book stand, adjusting a light as to see the pages better. As he studied the diagrams upon the pages, he levitated a large, insulated container onto the desk. Flipping the lid open, he began to pull out the required organs, checking each one for imperfections. Luckily, they all appeared to be in decent condition, having been kept stored in ice.

Giving the anatomy book one last glance, he began to place the organs in their indicated spots. Lungs, stomach, liver; the ribs were soon packed with organs. The intestines went into the open space between the ribs and the pelvic bone. Gingerly, he lifted a uterus out of the box and placed it snugly in the open space of the hip bones. There were several moments he had to consult the anatomy book in order to find where a certain organ went, or to find out what an unknown organ was.

Placing the last organ—the bladder—into place, he levitated the excess organs back in the container before slipping it underneath the desk. With it put away, he turned his attention to the jar of gems. Pulling it closer, he tipped it over and spilled its contents all across the desk. Gems of varying sizes clattered across the wood: emeralds, sapphires, garnets, amethysts, and diamonds. They glinted in the light of the hourglass, sending a swirl of dim light twinkling across the room.

He picked his way through the gems before settling on a large garnet. Picking it up, he levitated a magnifying glass over. He set the gem beneath the magnifying lens before turning his attention to one of the papers tacked to the wall. It was covered in symbols and runes, the ink faded and worn.

Tearing the sheet carefully off the wall, he placed it beside the gem. With his reference in place, he picked up an engraving knife and, holding it firmly in his magic, he began to slowly, deftly, cut the runes into the garnet. He took his time, barely daring to blink or breathe, lest he make a mistake. Once he was finished with that rune, he moved on to the next one, rotating the gem to allow for better access. When finished, the runes began to glow softly, emanating a pink light, and the garnet began to grow warmer and pulse.

Putting the finishing touches on the garnet, he placed it aside before picking up a medium-sized ruby. It too was placed under the magnifying lens and runes were etched onto its surface. The symbols glowed a bright red and pulsed faintly.

When he was finished, he placed the ruby next to the garnet before selecting two amethysts of similar size. All other gems were pushed onto the floor. They clattered loudly, causing his ears to press against his head, but he ignored them.

Levitating the four selected gems in his magic, he loomed over the skeletal form on the desk. First taking the garnet, he inserted it into one of the skull's eye sockets. Maneuvering it around gently, he pushed it deeper into the skull. It resisted for a brief moment before sliding in with a 'click'. The two amethysts were placed in the eye sockets. Taking the ruby in his hooves, he pressed it against his chest—enjoying the soft pulsing sensation—before moving over to the skeleton's rib cage. With great care, he pushed the ruby in through the mass of organs, maneuvering it until it was in between the two lungs. With a 'schlink', he withdrew his hoof and the organs shifted back into position.

Returning the sheet of runes back to the wall, he selected his next tool: a needle, along with several spools of lavender thread. He threaded the needle, having to try several times to get the thread in the eye of the needle. Once he had the thread firmly tied off, he gave it an experimental tug before turning his attention to the skeleton. Or more specifically, the pelt beneath the organ-filled skeleton.

Starting with the hind legs, he wrapped the pelt around the bones. When it was in position, he held the two ends together and, using his magic to control the needle, he began to stitch the two ends together, starting at the hoof and traveling up the length of the leg. Upon reaching the point where the leg attached to the body, he changed directions and headed back down towards the end of the leg, criss-crossing the stitching in order to give it added strength. He did the same thing with the other hind leg before moving on to the forelegs.

The first foreleg went without a hitch, although it finished off one of the spools of thread. He was forced to pause in order to rethread the needle with a fresh spool. Turning his attention to the last leg, he stretched the pelt out, but in his eagerness to finish, he pulled too hard. With a sickening tearing sound, a large rip appeared. He froze, his eyes widening in horror. Bile rose in the back of his throat as he stared down at the jagged tear in the pelt. With a whimper, he ran a hoof over the rip, willing it to mend. When no such miracle happened, he quickly turned his attention to the shelves on the desk. Tearing into the pile of fabrics and cloth, he searched desperately through them. Greens, yellows, oranges, whites; they were all thrown over his shoulder and onto the ground where they unfurled, adding to the already enormous pile of debris.

After several seconds of furious searching, he came across a roll of purple fabric. It was a darker shade than the pelt, but it would have to do. Unrolling it, he used a knife to cut the fabric, the blade slicing through the material with some difficulty, leaving behind frayed bits of string around the edges of the cloth. He tried to clean it up as best he could, but in the end he just let it be. There was no time. Placing the cut out piece of cloth over the tear, he used the needle to stitch the patch into the coat. With that completed, he breathed a sigh of relief before continuing with his previous task, albeit at a slower pace.

He continued this pace for the rest of the body, gradually covering the entire skeleton with the pelt.

As he worked, the sand continued to fall, filling the room with a gentle hiss.