You look around trying to clear your vision, and you suddenly realize you are not alone. Instead of Lawson, staring at you are about a dozen chimpanzees in the middle of an unknown jungle.
"Oh....shit," you gasp. As the alarm call begins to go up among the chimp troop, you hurry to get away before they can take action. Realizing you are a relatively small female chimpanzee at the moment, you hurriedly expand your body to take on a very muscular male form and lunge for the trees, desperately swinging through the branches at a breakneck pace. You remember from your studies that chimps are not very fond of outsiders, and treat them as rivals. Sure enough, once the troop has gotten over its shock of having a stranger dropped in its midst, it very quickly moves into formation and begins tracking you through the trees.
In between bouts of heartily cursing Lawson, the next two weeks prove to be quite an education for you. While you cannot seem to integrate yourself into a chimp troop, you find yourself ping-ponging between various troop territories, hanging around the outskirts, and observing their behavior carefully whenever you have the chance. Of course, you aren't doing this for curiosity's sake; you realize you have to know what the chimps are doing in order to survive being chased around whenever they discover your presence. You learn a great deal about chimp behavior, in a way the books could never describe, but you also learn an amazing amount about your own body in chimp form. You quickly become quite proficient at moving through the treetops, locating food, and finding safe places to rest, especially since your life does depend on it.
While you mostly interact with the chimps, you notice other creatures around as well. At first, you hope you might be back on Earth, even in the shape of a chimp, but while some animals you spot are familiar, you begin to see strange and incredible forms as well, in all sizes and colors, confirming you are still in an alien landscape. However, you see no humanoid life or life that seems to have human intelligence. As time wears on, you worry you might have to spend the rest of your days in this no-man's-land.
Finally, after two weeks roaming the jungle, you find yourself trapped between two rival troops, both of which are closing in and are heading for a clash with each other, with you trapped in the middle. Frantically, you swing from branch to branch, trying to find a gap in the oncoming line of chimps. Desperate, you decide you are going to have to aim for one of the smaller chimps and try to knock them out of the way, creating a path for you to escape. Building up momentum, you swing violently towards the smallest chimp you can find, trying to catch him off guard...when a bright light suddenly flashes.
"OOOF!" Lawson grunts heavily as you slam into him, and wind up sitting on his chest. "GET OFF!" he growls, pushing you, but as you are a rather strong male chimp, his shoving has little effect. However, you are so dumbfounded by what has just happened that you roll off Lawson and sit on the grass to a side, staring at him as he gets to his feet and brushes himself off. You are back in the clearing in front of the cottage, and there are no chimps or jungle in sight. After a few moments to gather your completely scattered throughts, you explode.
"What the HELL? Why did you dump me in a bloody jungle with a bunch of chimps trying to kill me for two weeks? What does that have to do with avenging your teacher or anything? Are you CRAZY?!" you rant and rave, and even pound on the ground in anger. You are so furious, you don't notice Lawson pointing at the brand on your chest. In an instant, the familiar sensation of vertigo slams down on you, and you find yourself staring up at Lawson from a much lower persepctive, as he reaches down and lifts you up by your mouse tail. You continue squeaking angrily, unwilling to let up your tirade even if you have lost your speech. Finally, trembling, you pause to catch your breath.
"Just taking on a form is useless if you stand out like a sore thumb," Lawson begins lecturing, ignoring your death stare. "You need to know how to blend in behaviorally as well. The portal is one my Master created, and one I traveled through as well, although I had more time to spend there. I apologize for only giving you two weeks, but you need to learn as fast as possible, and the time you spend with the genuine article of each creature whose form you take will only get shorter as we go on."
You can't believe what you're hearing. Two weeks in that godforsaken jungle nearly killed you, and Lawson's apologizing for not leaving you there longer? Not to mention, this was going to become a regular thing with other forms? Chimps were one thing, but what about bigger and meaner animals?
Sure enough, the next few weeks become a waking nightmare as Lawson rams you through a basic course on fitting into varoius animal societies, everything from goats to tigers to more mythological beasts, dumping you everywhere from mountains to lakes. Although it is difficult and exhausting, to your surprise, in a strange sense it also becomes easier, as you feel as though you are gaining knowledge from somewhere that you didn't actually study or experience yourself. However, you don't have any time to wonder about this, as you are too busy for idle thoughts.
**********
"I think you are proficient enough in moving magic around your body for us to try to find out what your form 'at rest' is," Lawson muses as you sit on the floor of the cottage in the form of a cheetah, your tail flicking irritatedly. You had just nearly been set upon by a gryphon before Lawson pulled you back to the safety of the clearing. "Let's head up to the bedroom, you may want a mirror for this."
As you don't have any clothes with you, you don't bother changing back into human form, but follow Lawson up the stairs on all four paws. The two of you enter the room which was actually Lawson's bedroom, but which he had placed you in the first day you had arrived. You suspected he slept in various chairs in the library or living area, but you weren't sure why he did so, since there were obviously other bedrooms in the house, they just needed a good cleaning out. Stopping in front of the mirror, Lawson motions you to join him.
"Every familiar has a form in which it is 'at rest,'" Lawson begins. "This is their easiest form to maintain, as it costs no magical energy. Like I said before, changing your body - making it bigger or smaller, or changing shape - costs magical energy. However, there is a certain balance where you neither have to insert magical energy into your body or take magical energy out to maintain that form, and that is your form 'at rest.' So far we've been working in forms close to human size, so you haven't had trouble maintaining your form over a period of time, but if your size were to change greatly, you would need a proportionate influx of magical energy to maintain it." You give him a blank stare, so Lawson sighs. "In other words, even if you had enough energy to change yourself into a dragon, you would probably only have enough energy to maintain it for a few moments, at which point you would exhaust your energy and your body would return to its 'at rest' state." Starting to understand, you nod.
"Most familiars are put into their 'at rest' state by the binding, since their magical energy is infused into them from their mage, and no mage wants to waste their magical energy on changing a familiar's form when they don't have to. You, however, are Linked, so you have to control your magical energy to find your 'at rest' state," Lawson continues. "Change back into human form, since that is most comfortable for you, then I want you to concentrate on suppressing all the magical energy in your body. Don't let it expand or contract your body at all, keep it inactive and neutral. Close your eyes, if it helps. When you can feel no energy movement in your body, that is when you will know what your form 'at rest' is."
Nodding you change yourself back into your original human form, not flustered as much anymore by Lawson seeing you naked. While it still doesn't look perfect to you, your shift is definitely much better than the first time you tried to do so. Exhaling deeply, you close your eyes and concentrate deeply, feeling for the magical energy which flows within you and bit by bit letting it go. You can feel your body changing as you do so, but you don't open your eyes for fear of losing your concentration. Finally, you feel as though every bit of magical energy in your body has been neutralized and there is nothing more you can do.
Taking your deep breath, you open your eyes to see in the reflection that your form "at rest" is that of...