Turning into a frog, Alex swam up to the surface and climbed onto a lily pad. He didn't recognize his surroundings at all, but at least now knew he wasn't in the city anymore. Where was he? And what was he? Some kind of jello? A gelatinous blob that could turn into whatever it tasted?
Birds twittered above him. That would be a fun thing to turn into, though he'd need to catch one for that to happen though. Maybe later. In the sky was another kind of bird he didn't recognize. It sparkled with colorful glittering lights as it flew. Not a bird then. Some kind of fire fly maybe? It stopped in the air just long enough for Alex to get a good look at it. It was a tiny human with wings. A fairy! He opened his mouth to call out to it, but nothing came out but a croak. Damn, he couldn't speak in this form. Not yet anyway.
The fairy didn't stick around for him to figure this all out. It flew off and vanished behind the tree-lines of the forest. That settled it, Alex wasn't on Earth anymore. The realization wasn't as terrifying as he'd thought it would be. He was oddly relieved. All those responsibilities and debts he'd had back in his former life were suddenly lifted from his shoulders. He had a fresh start. A start where he could be anything or anyone he wanted.
Alex's old life had been a struggle. This life on the other hand seemed to give him so much freedom. He wanted to reinvent himself. Start from scratch. Forget his old life and name. He pondered what he should call himself now. Raiel. Yes, he liked the sound of that. More befitting of a fantasy world.
He hopped back into the water and swam his frog body towards the shore. The bushes rustled and out came a cat. Not your average house cat. This one was of the wild kind. More like a small lepard or something. Raiel knew very little about feline species. He didn't even know if this variety existed back on Earth. It was only the size of a regular dog, but compared to Raiel's tiny frog body, it was a huge monster. Perfect!
Raiel hopped towards it. Any sane creature his size would have jumped back into the water at the sight of the beast, but not Raiel. Just as planned, the cat pounced at him, claws out to slice him. Raiel's body turned back into slime at the last instance. The cat cut through the goo. It was so surprised that it just leapt back. Raiel had touched the cat now and therefor was able to transform into it.
But more bizarrely, Raiel now found himself split in two. He still had control over both bodies somehow. It was strange. They were both him. Yet they could both think individually. He didn't have to divide his attention much to move bothy bodies. It was like he was a hive mind of two lesser minds. Like the lesser minds were just instinct. Simple body movement and coordination, but no higher function or decision making without his input. It was strange. Actually, now that he thought about it, it wasn't that much unlike how he didn't really think about walking in his former body in order to walk. His legs just went automatically while his higher functions told his body which direction he should go. This was just a more extreme version of that.
The cat quickly lost interest in the tasteless goop and left the lake. Raiel waited for it to leave before transforming again. He was still in two parts, but wanted to experiment a little with what he could do. He told one of himself to turn into the cat and the other to turn back into the frog.
Both parts of him transformed, but it was not what he'd intended. Neither became what he'd meant. Instead, they both became the same strange hybrid of cat and toad. An undersized feline with bulging frog eyes and thick hind jumping legs. A long toad tongue lay behind sharp fangs. He stared at him-selves as if looking at a mirror. Yeah, no. He tried again. Transforming two bodies at once was tricky, and trying tow separate transformations at the same time was even harder. He had yet to master control of the hybrid forms he could create too. This was something that required a lot of practice. But one thing he did find was that he could control the age of the creatures he became.
Poof, and he was a kitten version of the cat. Then poof, he was an adult. Then poof, he even switched back and forth between genders. Even with this single creature, he had so many version he could chose from. Where the extra mass came from or went was a mystery. He still wanted to learn more about this world he'd been dropped into. And for that, he probably needed something humanoid, or at least a creature that could talk. He merged his two bodies back into one before trotting off into the surrounding forest in search of a village or something. He probably could use his new superior sense of smell, but he was still getting used to it.