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Published: 2010-10-10 07:23:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 423; Favourites: 0; Downloads: 1
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Description
Télesphore was an alchemist, sorcerer, and in particular, a toy maker. At the behest of his parents, Télesphore had studied the ways of sorcery and alchemy his entire life, but could never find purpose or joy in it. One day, while practicing the creation of golems out of clay, Télley (as he was often called) accidentally gave life to an old stuffed lion which sat upon a shelf in his study.Paying little attention to the animal, Télley spent the next several days trying to figure out what he had done wrong. On the third day, which happened to be the day of his sisters weekly visit, his niece wandered into his study while he was working. Immediately the young girl began spewing off about god knows what, to which Télley paid even less attention than he had to the stuffed lion. After a couple of minutes of one word after another with nothing that could be construed as breathing, the young girl stopped mid sentence, "What's that?" she asked, pointing at the stuffed animal, which was busy chasing dust bunnies over in a corner of the room. Télley attempted to answer her question, "Oh that's just-." "Ooh!" his niece interjected however. "Can I play with it!?" she asked, clearly overjoyed at the prospect. "Go ahead," Télley answered as he went back to his studies.
About a half an hour later, Télley's sister, Aliénor, walked up and called for her daughter, "come now, stop pestering uncle Télesphore, wouldn't you rather visit Grandma and Grandpa?" "She's fine Ali,," ,Télley told her, "besides, she's probably going to say-." "They're boring!" The girl interrupted, "I wanna play with Leo!" "She's fine," Télley said again, after which his sister patted him on the shoulder and left.
An hour or two later, Télley's sister returned, "it's time to go honey," he heard her say from the hall, where his niece and the lion had been chasing each other back and forth. Disregarding her mother completely, the young girl immediately ran into the room and over to her uncle with a worried look and the stuffed animal in her arms. "He's not moving anymore!" she told him, as she handed the lion over. Télley looked over the stuffed lion, "hmm…" "Can you fix him?" His niece asked. "Probably, but I'm not sure exactly how I made him." … Télley paused, looking over the toy a few more times. "Give me a week, I should have him good as new next time you visit!" he then continued. "It's time to go," her mother repeated, and with a disheartened look and tone to her voice, the young girl agreed and left with her mother after a brief goodbye.
Over the next few days, Télley struggled to keep his word. Frantically he tried to recreate the accident that brought the stuffed animal to life, but without much luck. Only after four days had it finally it dawned on him why it wasn't working. The fibers had lost their charge. When making clay golems, magical energy must be needed into the clay until the clay itself has become magical, but since he had skipped this step and was working with regular clay, the spells wouldn't stick. The stuffed lion had been sitting on a shelf in a sorcerers study for over fifteen years, and had thus built up a charge from the ambient magical energy in the room. "So all I need is magical fabric to replace, or at the very least underline, the fabric that the lion is made from," Télley realized, and to this end he started working immediately.
First Télley disassembled the lion, carefully recording how the pieces fit together. Once the lion had been taken apart, he then proceeded to cut up the fabric of an old dress shirt he had worn as a child (which had been cut from the highest quality of magical fabric) to match the size and shape of each of the pieces. Using a simple alchemic ritual, Télley bonded each of the corresponding pieces together, and then following the pattern he had written, with some slight modifications, reassembled the lion. The modification he had made to the pattern weren't too extensive, just the minimum he felt necessary to make life easy on the toy: a separate piece to serve as a jaw, with enough slack to open and close the mouth, button joints at the base of each leg, and less fill in the tail to make it easier to wag. He also transmuted the eyes to look more realistic.
Finally, after reconstructing the toy, it was time to bring it to life. Setting up the ritual to bring the stuffed lion to life seemed like second nature at this point, having done it a dozen times or so in his attempts to recreate the initial accident, and within minutes the toy was running around his study chasing dust bunnies. "That was easier than I thought it would be," Télley said to himself as he picked up the animal, honestly surprised at what he had accomplished. "But I'm sorry to say that I can't have you cluing mom and dad into what I've been up to for the past week," he told his nieces furry friend, as he stuffed him into his travel bag. "Mother! Father! I'm taking a break from my studies and paying Ali a visit!" Télley hollered as he promptly exited the front door. Eager to see the look on his nieces face, Télley hurried to the stables, mounted the nearest horse to the gate, and hurried to the home of his sister.
"Knock-knock!" Télley obnoxiously shouted as he knocked on the door. Kevin, Aliénor's husband, promptly answered the door. "Hello?" he said with a questioning tone to his voice, having not seen Télley since the wedding, it was understandable why he wouldn't recognize his brother in law. "Umm…" Télley proceeded, unsure of how to introduce himself to someone he had already met, "I, uh…" "DEAR!" Aliénor shouted from the stairs behind her husband, "Surely you haven't forgotten my brother!?" "Come in Télley," she continued with a soften tone to her voice, pushing the door, and her husband, aside. "Have you brought the toy?" she inquired, "Luce hasn't shut up about it since our visit." "Uh, yes,," Télley answered, "Luce!" he then shouted as he stepped into the foyer.
In the blink of an eye his eager niece had coming running down the stairs, "Uncle Télley? Shouldn't you be fixing Leo?" the singular minded girl immediately asked. "I already did," he answered, opening his bag allowing the lion to leap forth. "LEO!" the girl shouted as the toy leapt into her arms. The look on her face was priceless, it was the happiest Télley had ever seen anyone. As the stuffed animal leapt from her arms and started running, and as she gave chase, a purpose for his magic suddenly dawned on Télesphore, and a smile crept across his face.