Well, things sure went to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly.  One minute I was having a nice, pleasant conversation with a girl in a bunny-suit, the next, the weather took a sudden turn for the worse, and the ship wound up getting tossed around on the ocean like some child's ball on a field.  My erstwhile conversation partner ducked down beneath a table for protection, and since she seemed to be in a good position to take care of herself, I, for my part, decided that it might be a good idea to try and get back to my room before I got flattened by furniture.  Admittedly, ducking under a table could have worked, as well, but since I had no clue how long this storm would last, I couldn't exactly take the risk that my Alter Self spell would expire before it let up.  There would have been all sorts of awkward questions to answer afterwards if people got a good look at my wings and horns, after all, to say nothing of the tail...<br/><br/>It was as I was making my way back to our room that I almost ran past a familiar face heading in the opposite direction.<br/><br/>"Mother?"<br/><br/>"Helli!  There you are."  Mother and I each have a few preset forms we often tend to use when changing shapes.  Aside from being easier to work with when you need a quick disguise at a moment's notice, they also tend to come in handy for those situations where we need to find each other, but don't know what forms the other has taken on.  With our respective skills at disguise, it can be rather difficult to find one another, otherwise.<br/><br/>In this case, she was a pale, strikingly-beautiful woman with long, raven-black hair, a curvaceous figure, and cold blue eyes.  Her choice in clothing was similarly black in color to her hair, but it was good, practical clothing, the sorts of clothes you'd travel in if you were expecting to go into rough terrain.  A simple tunic, pants, good, solid boots, and of course her magical cloak and belt...  Compared to my own current appearance, a well-tanned blonde with an athletic figure and brown eyes, there wasn't really much of a family resemblance.  Fortunately, though, I doubted any of the people around us were in a position to notice that little fact.<br/><br/>"Return to our room."  And after a short tap to her forehead, she rushed off.  That little tap on the forehead was a signal, though, and one I recognized.  Apparently, she still had more to say, and since I was going to be in range of her innate telepathy...<em>Once you're back at the room, drop the Alter Self spell so that you can benefit from your innate damage resistance.</em><br/><br/>...Ugh.  Really?  Unsolicited advice?  This wasn't exactly my first time in an emergency situation like this.<br/><br/><em>I was already planning on it, Mother.</em>Even speaking telepathically, I was fairly sure I managed to get my annoyance across...  If she noticed, though, she didn't give any sign of it.<br/><br/><em>Good.  I've still got my own innate toughness in this form, so I'm heading down to the common room to see if I can help out.  I'll contact you if anything else comes up.</em><br/><br/>And just like that, I was left to my own devices...