Hours passed, the sky cycled above through to morning, and a loud call rang in the warehouse.
"JACINTA!"
Jacinta's body reacted before her mind, pushing herself up off the bed, slapping the photo back on the wall, and dashing off in the direction the call resounded from.
Jacinta rushed around corners, threw herself down long passages, and crossed half the large warehouse in less than 30 seconds. Her complexion didn't change from the effort, and she wasn't reduced to panting from exertion - Monsters are designed to be energy efficient under all circumstances.
"There you are, Jacinta. Prepare these materials for me. I want all the skeletons to remain assembled, with the tendons intact. The pelts should be cut into portions for later application, the muscles need to be grouped by importance, and the ears, eyes and noses need to be kept undamaged." The Freak Albert casually ordered, while shoving three fresh corpses onto the work area.
They were large hounds of different species - first an Ice Breath Hound, second an Earth Hound, and last a Flame Hound. The Earth hound was easily as large as an adult rhino, while the other two were smaller, but not by much.
Off to the side, in a small cage under a cloth, a living puppy was kept. It looked to be a fox terrier or similar breed, but it was very young.
Once again, Jacinta was disgusted by Albert and his orders. It was more than obvious what kind of experiment he was going to try next, and that puppy would have no good end.
Still, as a Monster, Jacinta had no choice but to take out a skinning knife and set to work on the three corpses. It took hours of dirty, hard work to disassemble the hounds. The skeletons were laid out side by side, tendons keeping them in the feral position, and bereft of flesh they appeared quite tragic.
Their blood had been collected into 3 vats, and their pelts were in 3 neat piles, cut into long strips. Their muscles were arranged in order of head to tail, with eyes, noses and ears placed carefully into preservative solution. The ears included the cochlea, the eyes still had the retinas, and the nose included all the complex sensory organs. Next, the organs like lungs, hearts, and the aortas were placed in their own special solutions. The intestines had been cleaned, and the valve organ at the end of the stomach was carefully left intact.
The 3 large livers were stacked together in a crate, coated in an odd metallic white powder - they almost looked like they had been prepared for cooking. The kidneys were in a similar powder, but this one was vivid blue.
The 3 brains had been placed in their own separate basins, with careful slices in strategic places, letting the luminescent green fluid penetrate deeper.
The other organs with lesser importance to monsters were tossed together into a separate solution, that bubbled and spat out sparks. They were slowly being converted from flesh into something like metal.
After inspecting Jacinta's work, Albert nodded casually and started working. All these materials needed to be used quickly - the longer they are left after death, the more they would deteriorate.
First, the Freak dipped his finger into a metallic silver liquid, drawing out a tendril of fluid to follow, and traced a rune in the air. It hung in place, glowing and twisting, before transforming back into liquid and evenly coating the surface of the largest skeleton. Next, he gripped one of the smaller skeletons and placed it against the first. He kept the necks from touching, and pushed the rest of the bones into each other.
The silver coated skeleton absorbed the other easily, and grew larger. The bones thickened, and adjusted, until 1 dog skeleton with a 1 silver and 1 white head remained. Albert repeated the task on the opposite side, and created a 3 headed skeleton. He traced a new rune on the central skull, and all the silver liquid absorbed into the skeleton and vanished.
Next, he pulled over some of the muscles, dipped the edges in red powder, and used a brush to coat the ribs in glue, before carefully arranging the muscles into place. A few clamps were applied to hold the flesh tight while it dried, as Albert moved onto the next segment.
Once the ribs were coated up to the spine, Albert turned the skeleton with care and started inserting organs back inside the rib cage. He used glowing blue twine to stitch the 3 pairs of organs together, and haphazardly arranged the aorta in place around them. His work was not even close to anatomical correctness.
Then, Albert stitched the rib cage shut, and glued muscles back over it. He left plenty of air gaps, and the stitching was intentionally loose.
Then he moved onto the legs of the skeleton, piece by piece, slowly coating the white bones in brilliant red. Connected the tendons to the muscles with more sloppy stitches.
He worked hard and quickly, but it was still 16 hours later when this step was done. Despite being human, Albert had not taken a break for food or sleep - as a Freak, Albert had changed his own biology through magical augmentation; he can work constantly for up to a week without food or rest.
Next, he grabbed the three brains, drained the excess fluid, and bisected them. Different tiny segments in each brain was glowing brightly, and Albert collected them with extreme care. These are called Ghost-fires - the connections of the brain that the beast used most when it was alive.
Once all the Ghost-fires had been harvested, Albert mixed and divided them into 3 piles, with 1 twice the size of the other 2. He minced up the broken jelly of the brains, and poured it casually into the 3 skulls, before implanting the Ghost-fires in it cautiously. Using more solution, Albert filled up the skulls and sealed them tightly. Another 8 hours passed before he finished them.
Finally, Albert attached the intestines to the appropriate area, tied them in place with twine, and started glueing on the segments of fur. The job was rushed, and looked appalling.
Taking out the sensory organs, Albert returned them to the correct places, and double checked that he hadn't missed anything.
Before him stood a very large, imposing horror, that was clearly a fake three headed hound. The eyes had no life, and the flesh was starting to smell of rot beneath a cocktail of chemicals.
For the final step, Albert mixed the 3 dogs blood into a new vat, added some suspicious purple powders and something that looked like sulphur, and stirred vigorously. Then he pumped all the liquid into the rib cage, forcing out the air gaps.
And now the fake dog didn't just smell bad, it dripped suspicious shiny fluids…
At the final step, Albert grabbed the puppy from its cage, making Jacinta glare at him in hate.
Using a glowing crayon, Albert traced odd runes onto the wriggling dog's skin, while chanting an incomprehensible spell. The dog started to glow golden, and crying from pain.
Albert pressed the puppy against the largest dog head, and the entire fake hound burst into light. A gossamer cocoon appeared from nowhere and covered the monstrosity from view.
"And now we wait. I hope this one won't fail. Wasting such good materials is a crime." Albert commented coldly, before stepping over to a camp bed and casually taking a nap.
Jacinta was left alone, leaning on the wall, watching as the cocoon wriggled and made odd whimpers.
It reminded her of when Albert made her into a Monster. 16 people were used to make the body, and 1 living girl used up to make her mind…
Jacinta shivered, and looked away, and tried to think of nothing while she waited for the new Monster to be born.
Hours passed, and became days. Albert woke up and left, disregarding her as usual. In his eyes, Jacinta was a failed Monster, and only useful for preparing materials.
Finally, the gold cocoon shivered, fell silent, and burst open!
A large 3 headed hound with glowing eyes emerged! It was as big as an elephant, and looked like an over sized fox terrier. The dog looked around, whimpering, as it tried to get used to its feet. From its ungainly actions, it was clearly still a puppy.
Suddenly, the dog slipped on old liquid, and fell over. The smaller heads whimpered loudly, but the large one - "IT HURTS! Ow, ow, ow wow wow!"
"Calm down, and stay still." Jacinta said, stepping over to pay the dog. A 3 headed hound Monster like this was supposed to be terrifying - but it really looked like a giant naive puppy. The smaller heads looked adorably stupid, while the middle one was simply cute.
"What happened? Why did it hurt so much? Why is everything smaller?" The dog asked, aggrieved.
"Nothing got smaller, dummy, you just got bigger." Jacinta replied, and the dog blinked in confusion.
"It's name isn't Dummy, it's Spot." Commented Albert, walking in to the work room slowly.
"Shouldn't it be Cerberus?" Jacinta quipped.
"The hound of hell? Jacinta, Cerberus originated from the old Greek myths. Hades, god of the realm that bore his name, called the dog Kerberos, which translates as 'Spotted'. Your suggestion is irrelevant." Albert ridiculed coldly, and Jacinta glared back.
The dog in question, now named Spot, simply turned his heads in confusion.