Dropping her off in the kitchen, he kissed her cheek and then vanished again, only to return less than a minute later with a very confused Letari, her pixie face lighting up as she saw her sister, but then she froze, large eyes tracing up and down Etani's form.
"What happened?" she demanded.
Etani made a face, ignoring the question and tugging her sister towards the cold room with the dragon following after them.
"Twins indeed," he said, amused by Lee's immediate recognition of her sister's suffering.
Sitting Letari down on a small stool, Dirdos leant against the wall and looked over the half-finished pile of clay. There was more than enough to make the body needed, and she set to work collecting the chilled balls of clay and examining them.
"Requests?" she asked, tossing balls that had started to dry onto the pile that needed work and adding the ones she would need onto the table between them.
"I want to be taller than you for once," Letari said, and Etani made a face.
"Everyone is taller than me, that's not fair," she complained, Dirdos chuckling softly.
"I want to be taller; you spent the first nine hundred years taller, it's my turn. And I want big…" she lifted her hands to her chest and then looked up at Dirdos and her face flamed. "Eyes," she said quickly, her already large eyes going wider at his wicked grin.
"I'm not doing that. They make your back hurt, and I'm not making a new body when you start complaining about it in three weeks. You can have the same size as before."
Dirdos watched them with fascination, her demeanour when dealing with her sister so completely different from when she was with anyone else.
"Can I at least have a nice butt?" Letari whined.
"Your butt was perfectly fine before."
"Not like yours."
"Exercise will give you a butt like mine, not chocolate."
"I don't want to exercise, I want the chocolate," Letari was pouting now, and it was chipping away at her resolve.
"Then you don't get a nice butt."
Glancing up, she made note of the huge grin on the dragon's face. He was clearly delighted with the whole exchange.
"Natural hair colour and eyes?" she asked, looking back down as she weighed a ball of clay in her hand and decided it was about right.
"Yes, but I want my long hair back. I promise not to get fleas this time."
"Just stop going outside and rolling in the dirt and it won't happen. Stay inside."
"Can't eat birds inside."
"Then stop eating birds."
"But I like birds."
Looking up sternly at her sister, the tiny woman slumped, sulking.
Hooking her foot around the second stool, she pulled it up under her and sat down as she set to work, slowly and carefully crafting the heart that was the start of her project.
"Can I have wings?" Letari asked suddenly.
Pausing, Etani considered the request. "I'm not sure if I could get them to work, Lee. I haven't studied the anatomy of winged beings. How about next time?"
"Deal," Letari said happily.
"Human or natural ears?"
"Natural."
Setting the heart aside carefully, she moved on to the lungs while Dirdos moved forward and studied it without touching.
"Try not to breathe on it, it won't last very long if it dries out," she said, and he shifted back slightly, directing his breath down and away from the clay.
"Can I have a tail?"
Etani looked up from the lungs and frowned at her sister.
"What for?" she asked, trying to picture how a tail would work.
"For fun."
"You can make yourself your own tail when you have your shapeshifting back."
"Okay…" she was pouting again.
***
The hours slipped by with longer spaces between the random requests and she stepped back, studying the pile of organs and bones. That was the easiest part, and she wiped her forehead, frowning as she felt clay smearing over her skin.
"Alright, no more distractions," she said to Letari, who nodded eagerly and crossed her legs, her hands on her ankles and watching intently.
Dirdos moved back to the wall and his interest was keen on her work as she carefully placed the brain inside the bottom half of the skull and placed the top over it, smoothing out the seam and setting it down in position, moving down to place the spine pieces in order and connect them with thin disks of clay.
Letari had begun to hum around halfway down the spine, and it soothed her as she worked, moving carefully to ensure it was all fitting together properly.
Once she had arranged everything, she went back and applied the tiny lengths of rope that would make up her veins and nervous system, and then the tendons and muscles.
She wasn't paying attention to the passage of time. At some point Dirdos had scooped up the dozing Letari and stole her chair, placing the tiny woman in his lap while he stared, refusing to close his eyes or look away from her work.
Finally satisfied, she smoothed out the sheets that would be the skin and laid them out, curling them around the limbs and torso before starting the painful process of sealing it all in and applying normal skin creases and folds.
Hours later, she was done applying the long hair, and she stepped back, circling the table over and over as she stared at it, smoothing away any imperfections she found.
She had given Letari the height she had wanted, three extra inches making her an even six feet. It wouldn't be too hard for her to adjust to the change. Her hair would reach to around her bottom rib, long enough to make her happy without getting in her way, big eyes that would look lovely, and smooth skin.
She was tired, but she moved over to the two and smiled at Dirdos while she touched Letari's cheek, leaving a smear of clay.
"Lee, it's time," she said softly, and the eyes opened, looking up at her before she yawned.
"'Kay," she said sleepily.
Placing her fingers just under the small, pointed chin, she kissed her sister gently on the lips.
Dirdos was fascinated as he watched, her lips darkening and the pupils of her eyes bleeding out until her eyes were a solid black, her skin white with the veins a dark purple-red.
Moving away from him, she approached the body and left him with the corpse, pausing long enough to place a cloth over Letari's body. She bent over the table, placing a tender kiss on the lips.
Her chest rose suddenly, and the clay split to reveal alabaster white skin, the skin she was meant to have if Epharis hadn't changed her.
Leaning back, she swayed and clutched onto the table, focusing on the green eyes as they opened.
"Damned eyes…" she murmured before she dropped and Letari sat up.