"You said I can't be human, but can't I just look like this and have something a tiny bit different? Like, I don't know, pointy ears or something? Maybe fangs?" you plead, desperate to have some sense of normalcy. Lawson tilts his head, giving you hope that he is considering your suggestion.
"Well, we don't know your what form 'at rest' is yet," you hear him mutter. "But we don't have time to waste. The more forms you are familiar with, the easier training will be." Lawson frowns thoughtfully, then looks at you decidedly. "Then again, using a form you know well may allow you to better understand any partial modifications and the flow of magic necessary to achieve them," Lawson nods, and without warning, points at the brand on your chest.
You cringe, expecting your head to reel, but instead you feel as though you were hanging from a bar, your back stretching. The sensation stops, and you look down, but see only your still naked form, nothing different. You almost sigh in relief, but then you look up at the mirror. There is a strange slight shadow behind you, and in the dim light you almost think your eyes are playing tricks on you, until it moves. Your breath catches, and you gawk at a sight stunningly incongruous with your ordinary human form: a tail.
It's not as though you hadn't had a tail before in this crazy nightmare; after all, as a snake you could have been considered nearly all tail. But at those times, you were completely changed into an animal; seeing a tail juxtaposed with your human form leaves you dumbfounded. It twitches again, and you turn to look behind you. The ropy tail neatly extends from the end of your spine, where the human tailbone would be. It is about three to four feet long with a diameter of about two inches, and covered in soft dark fur, the end slightly tufted. It seems somewhere between the tail of a monkey and that of a cat, and somehow you know it is very maneuverable.
"Get familiar with that for now, and we'll try something different next time," Lawson says easily, turning to open a wardrobe and pulling out some regular breeches and a shirt. "You can wear this, but keep the servant outfit at hand in case we need to change you back into Azra. You'll probably need to adjust the clothes as we work with different forms, anyway." Lawson tosses the clothes on the bed and turns to leave. "You can sleep here for the night, as none of the other rooms are usable right now. Don't go poking about. Use the time to understand how having a tail affects your center of gravity and hot to put it to use." You stare as Lawson closes the door behind him, your hands hanging and your nudity forgotten.
While you would think the insanity of the past few days would have inured you to any changes, something about seeing your old self with a tail shocks you more than anything else, and drives home the point that, yup, Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore. Worse, in this world you're probably Toto. You move around in front of the mirror trying to get a good look, shuddering at the strange sensatons traveling up your spine. At first, your tail's movements are rather clumsy, and you realize, as with your other transformations, you don't instinctively know how to use the new anatomy; rather, you have to learn it.
You put on the shirt Lawson offered and remove the breeches and servant's clothes from the bed. You need to make a hole in the breeches for your tail, but as the shirt is long and you are tired, you don't want to bother with it tonight. You slip under the sheets, trying to find a position that doesn't crush your new appendage. Lying on your side, you snake your tail over your side and wrap it around your forearm, then unwrap it. Stranger to you than having a tail is feeling your tail touch your hand through your tail. You fiddle with your tail for a while, but exhausted, eventually drop off.
However, maybe because of your return to human form, your sleep is fitful, and you dream strange dreams. Scenery flits by, unknown to you yet strangely recognizable. As the visions become clearer, you suddenly dream...