Second Sight and Shapeshifting

I wanted to post this here so I can look back at it on its own. It's something interesting I've compiled from my own thoughts and thoughts of writers such as RASalvatore and Mercedes Lackey on mage sight, as well as my own insight on how magick and ones own chi and magickal signature affects shape shifting.

Rhia glanced over at Senja, speaking slowly so he might take in everything she was going to be telling him. "I'm going to ask you to do something you've probably never done before. You need to open up your Second Sight. Anyone with even a little bit of magickal energy should be able to do it. Focus in on yourself, search yourself for your energy core, the center of your chi, and visualize it. Then, follow that flow of energy back out here into the real world. You should be able to See the lines of energy and magick around you, by way of faint currents of colour or something of the like. It's a little different for each person."
"Um...alright. I'll try." Senja took a few calming breaths, then closed his eyes and tried to focus on what Rhia said, searching for his center. Rhia waited patiently for him to find it, knowing it wasn't easy the first time. She motioned for Zelda to go look at the animals nearby, but surprisingly, Zelda stayed right where she was, holding gently to Senja's hand. Without even realizing it, Zelda's unconscious guided Senja's mind towards his center, almost seeming to introduce him to it, before then pointing out the way to the outside. Senja opened his eyes as Zelda's magick helped guide his own. He was able to see the energy that Rhia mentioned; it looked like ribbons of light, each of different colors.
Rhia wouldn't exactly see Zelda help him, but she seemed to know that Senja had entered that Sight. "Good. Now, you and I both have magick. That automatically links us with the creatures around us. It's kind of hard to See, but if you Look closely, there are faint trails of energy connecting both of us to every person and creature around us. The closer you are to a person, the stronger the connection. An ordinary connection breaks when you're too far away from the person. That connection can be manipulated to become stronger and sounder, but for it to happen naturally is something to look for." Again, he gives a nod as he notices what she is talking about.
"Now, follow me. Zelda, guide him. Second Sight can be very disorienting to try to do anything more than stand while using it." She began to lead him towards that red fox exhibit. While those fingers of energy tended to seek out a connection when the person or creature was within a few feet, she was a good twenty yards away when a bright tendril of energy shot forward towards that cage. A bit of energy would stretch through the cage to meet it, and the link would undoubtedly be strong, it ten times thicker than any of the connections he'd seen so far.
Moving slowly, Senja focused on that energy as it shot out from Rhia, connecting her to one of the foxes. By the time they got up in front of the exhibit, there was a steady flow of energy between them, the fox she was joined to looking at her lazily from the log it was laying on, obviously quite aware of the connection. "There. Do you understand at all what I've shown you?"
"You have a connection to the fox...so it is closely linked to your magick, right?" Senja asked timidly.
"That's right. The red fox and my magick are, how to say..compatible. There's just something about a red fox's aura that works exceptionally well with my own magick. What that means is that my magick can easily be manipulated into the energy signal of a fox, allowing me to change into a fox while still retaining all of my abilities as a person. You see, it's possible to change into any animal you want, but it's a matter of what abilities you retain as that animal that becomes important."
"That makes sense..."
"Good. Now, you won't just be able to walk up to an animal and see a connection like this pop out of no where. When I started, what I did just now was a conscious effort. What will happen, is that energy will start to search past its usual limit, and if you're looking for it, you should see a returning stretch of energy from the animal. What you will learn to do is manipulate your energy to stretch out and meet the animal."
"Alright...so the energy from the animal will come to me and I have to reach out to connect with it...right?"
"For the most part, yes. Right now, that isn't important. Today, you just need to recognize which animals your magick seems attracted to. Simply walk around the zoo, and watch for what you just saw from me. And, like I said, you may not find anything today. For some people, it takes weeks to find the right animal, even when it's been right in front of them all the while. But for some, like me, you know it right away, the moment you see the animal, whether you're watching through Second Sight or not."

(Now, since I feel like it, I'm going to put together Rhia's first encounter with her compatible animal.)

Rhia sighed as she moved through the field. "This is rediculous. It's been two months and I haven't seen even one animal that works." Not that she'd seen that many. It almost seemed like there was a memo that went out in the animal world, saying to stay away from the blundering little girl looking for a soul creature. She grumbled to herself as she sloshed through the muddy field, clinging desperately to her staff. "Nalia is going to pay for this..." How her teacher could think sending a half-trained mage apprentice into the wilderness to look for a soul creature was a good idea was beyond Rhia. She'd barely even seen enough game to suffice for food. If she didn't have Arcane to depend on to take care of her health, she'd have starved for sure by now. She gathered up her soggy robes, tying them at her hip. At least she was 'barbaric' enough to have worn breeches underneathe. Nalia would have had a fit if she'd known. "As if she has any right to make a fuss, the old crone." She went on grumbling as she stumbled over dormant rabbit holes, long since flooded thanks to the torrential spring rains. At least it wasn't raining now.
She sighed as she reached the peak of yet another hill on the plains and saw the descent ahead of her. "This is rediculous...the woods aren't anywhere to be seen..." She tightened her grip on her staff and began the trek down into the next gully. Something red caught her eye off to her left and she jerked her head up. At the same time, her foot came down on one of those flooded rabbit holes. She gasped and tried desperately to catch her balance with her staff, but the slick mud gave way beneathe her other foot and she went crashing down, ankle twisting as her foot was wrenched from the hole. She cried out and did her best to fall as gracefully as possible when weighed down by soggy robes. She managed to tuck her leg up to safety as she rolled down into the gully and right into a mud puddle.
As the world stopped spinning and came to a rest, she let out a slow breath to calm herself, then tried to sit up. A hiss passed through her teeth at the jolt of pain from her ankle, and she at once forgot about the mud in her hair and the chill on her skin caused by the wet clothes. Now how would she make it back to the woods, to safety? Not only that, how would she catch food, make a camp? How would she get back to the temple, to Nalia? It's true this wasn't her first time hurt and on her own, but at least she'd had supplies with her, her sword to ward of enemies and wild animals, and a fire kit. She couldn't risk using her magick if she wanted Arcane to have the energy to keep her alive as long as possible without food and sleep. For she couldn't sleep, not if she hoped to keep from getting eaten by wolves. The overwhelming feeling of helplessness brought a sob from her chest and she hugged her staff to her. She didn't even have the bell that could call Guardian to save her, and he'd told her himself that he wouldn't be close enough to know without it if she were in danger and needed him.
A muffled bark caught her attention and she stifled her sobs at once. There, about five feet away, crouched a brilliantly red fox. Its teeth weren't bare, and its ears were perked forward curiously, so she knew it didn't have any intention of taking a piece out of her. Her eyes met the fox's, and her breath caught in her throat. Without even thinking about it, she unfocused her eyes and pulled up her Sight. A fire bright tendril of energy was reaching for her from the fox, and her own stretch of chi was trying to meet it. She forced herself to breathe and "grabbed" her energy. She coaxed it forward to tentatively touch that of the fox. Effortlessly, the power meshed together and she felt a rush of energy. Inside herself, she could Feel White drink up that energy, and at the same time, the awful pain in her ankle ebbed, then disappeared altogether. She had to remind herself again to breath as she gazed into that fox's eyes.
"Th-thank-you..."
The fox let out another small bark and broke off the connection. It turned and darted away over the ridge in front of her and disappeared from sight. She reached after it with a strangled cry. "Wait! Wait, don't go, I need your help!" She groaned when it didn't come back. "Now I have to find it again..."
Just as she gathered her wits and robes and got to her feet, that streak of red came bounding back down over the hill. It slid to a stop in a flurry of mud and water in front of her, and dropped a rabbit, quite dead, at her feet. Its ears were laid back submissively and it backed away, looking up at her with its tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth.
Rhia's own mouth fell open as she looked down at it and the gift it brought. "I..I don't know what to say. Thank-you again, my friend.." She crouched down and took up the rabbit by its ears, using a bit of string on her belt to tie it securely to her hip. She then turned her gaze to the fox, who looked up at her attentively. "Will you come with me?"
It closed its mouth and its ears perked forward, rising up from its crouch. With another, more excited bark, it hopped up to rest its forefeet on her leg and licked her cheek. She couldn't help but laugh and ruffle its damp fur. "Alright, then! Will you show me some place dry that I might start a fire and get us both warm?" It hopped down and waited for her to stand up, then hurried on ahead. Nalia sure wasn't joking about the bond she'd make with her first soul creature.