Dan grimaced as his sister continued to cackle.
"Come on, knock it off-" he stopped, feeling a pressure in his nose.
"Uh oh..."
Kat wiped her eyes, looking at him.
"Changing again?"
"Yeah..."
Dan's nose was twitching, seemingly unable to decide whether it wanted to get longer or shrink down. Suddenly it collapsed, flattening itself against his face. Dan felt hugely congested for a heartbeat, bad enough he closed his eyes. Then he felt the pressure concentrate, pushing out from his face. He could smell again, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a lobster's antennae had taken up residence on his face. He twitched them.
"...Huh. I smell with this."
"You smell regardless."
"Har dee har har."
Kat chuckled, apparently having worked out her cackles.
"Ok, so. Let's start with the basics. Changing into your spirit animal first is part of you learning to understand your magic - how life is connected, how your soul is built, whatever you want to call it. It's usually a deeply enjoyable process, so you'll probably also like this more now that you're not worried about being dinner. Once you finish changing - and you're going pretty fast - you'll be in the shape of a normal Maine lobster for three days, then change back."
Dan groaned outwardly, but inside himself, he couldn't deny that he found the idea strangely thrilling. He sniffed the air with his antennae, delighted at the strange sensation.
"Aw, man - so I've gotta avoid being eaten for three damn days?"
Kat was very quiet for a moment, looking pensive.
"...You don't have to worry about that."
Dan sighed.
"Yeah, I know, you weren't actually going to eat me."
"No, I mean...Look. You drive me crazy, especially since puberty. I'd happily leave you in a tank for the next decade. But...you're my brother. Wanting you out of my hair or humiliated isn't the same thing as wanting you gone forever," said Kat, looking away.
Dan felt touched, and he tentatively reached out to rest his claw on his sister's knee.
"I...thanks, Kat. I wouldn't want you out of my life either."
She smiled slightly.
"Right...so I altered the spell a bit. Well, no, I cast two enchantments instead of one."
Dan reflexively jerked back a bit.
"Er..."
"Don't worry. It's just...I enchanted your room a bit. Bound part of your soul - which is a lot more complex than you think, those things are full of parts I never knew about until I started studying magic. Anyway, I bound the part that's called the ka, or the nephesh, to your room. If you die in animal shape, you'll 'respawn' back there, safe and sound," she said confidently.
Dan felt his eyes bug out.
"You...can *do* that???"
"Not with everyone, just someone who has innate magic in them already. It slightly changes the...I guess you could call it the 'shape' of our ka? It's not really an accurate analogy, but I don't know how else to say it..."
Dan looked at his claws thoughtfully, snapping them one after the other.
"So...I'm immortal?"
"Oh, hell no. That's damn near impossible. You just can't be killed *permanently* while in animal shape. And the respawn takes a while, so try to avoid it anyway."
Dan felt a strange desire then. It had been a morbid fascination as his body changed, but now it was bubbling up as he realized he could do it in relative safety.
'I could...I could get the full lobster experience.'