Keep experimenting; what's the worst that can happen?

You heft up the small rat and cradle it against your body. It seems to be quite content to be held by you, and when you go to pet it, it doesn't seem to mind. Not that you're an expert in rat body language or anything. It'd be useful if your spell made, like, a magic talking rat or something, but no. This seems to be a normal white rat. Feeling a bit bold, you move it up onto your shoulder, where it perches itself while curiously sniffing around.

You suppose you have a familiar now. Not a real familiar, of course. That'd require infusing the small animal with your life essence and registering it at your local DMC (Department of Magical Creatures) field office. You're obviously not ready to make that jump, but you suppose you should give the little critter a name.

Based on the fact that it doesn't have any big gross rat balls, you're going to assume this is a female rat. So maybe something cute? But when you think about it, all you can think of is something to reference its stark white coloration. You could call it Snowball, but that seems kind of cliche. It used to be a coffee cup; maybe that's a good starting point?

Eventually, you come to a decision.

"I'm gonna call you Latte."

The newly christened Latte doesn't seem to mind. She seems more interested in sniffing your hair.

Well, that's settled at least. You leave your new shoulder rat to do her thing, and place the next object of experimentation into your magic circle; the T-shirt. The ugly thing was bought on the spur of the moment last summer, and you regretted it as soon as you got home. It's a bright orange shirt, with a customized "prisoner number" in black on the front; you chose 69-000-420, which was funny for all of two minutes. The back has black text that reads, "I escaped Alcatraz and all I got was this lousy shirt".

You hate it with a passion, but nonetheless begin to focus your magical energies into it. Same as before, when your mana begins transferring it becomes infused with a pale blue light. A moment later, and it begins to shift and shape itself same as the mug did, but with an interesting difference; it begins to grow, and massively at that. Latte seems to be watching the show with rapt attention, even as the blue light becomes blindingly bright as the thing inflates in size.

You have to close your eyes to protect them, but a moment later the feeling of your mana leaving you begins to subside, and a moment later the light against your eyelids abates. You cautiously open them, only to jump several paces back in surprise at what stands before you.

In front of you is an impressive form, one you've only seen in books. The creature is standing on four legs, with the front half of its body feathered, and it's back half covered with short coarse hair. A massive hawk-like head, complete with gigantic eyes and a sharp beak, looks down on you as the creature stretches the massive feathered wings on its back, revealing a beautiful beautiful tawny orange plumage. They contrast with the red-orange patterned feathers on the creature's head and forelegs, both of which end in massive yellow talons. From what you can see, the rear of the creature is bright orange in color, with a long haired tail and hooved feet, and resembles the back half of a particularly large horse.

Well shit. You turned a T-shirt into a hippogriff.

The hippogriff looks down and regards you with its massive red eyes. While you don't feel a sense of malice, there's something unsettling about its gaze, as though its eyes were judging you for having the temerity to create it in the first place. You don't really remember what exactly a hippogriff's whole deal was, though you vaguely recall something about them being prideful creatures. Before you can collect your thoughts, though, it takes a single step towards you, leaning on its dangerously sharp fore-talons, and lessening the distance between the two of you. Fear begins to overtake you, and in your mind, you begin to wonder if perhaps this is how the tale of Elias ends.

It slowly reaches a single talon out towards you, and as you freeze in terror, you suddenly remember that you can turn it back.

And then, with an anti-climactic "pop", it's gone. And sitting on the concrete, right about where it was, is an orange T-shirt.

It takes you a few moments for your heart to stop pounding out of your chest and for the adrenaline rush to subside. On the bright side, that solves the next question you had, that being "how to turn something back into an inanimate object". Apparently, the pamphlet wasn't exaggerating when it said it only took a thought. As soon as you remembered you could, and knew you wanted that to happen, the hippogriff was gone, replaced by a tacky souvenir.

It's then that you realizeyour shoulder is bare, and Latte must've scarpered when it had the chance. Which, considering it is apparently just a normal rat, isn't surprising. It takes you another ten minutes of calling and searching to find Latte cowering in the bushes on the side of the house. It takes another few minutes of cradling and petting the poor thing to get it to calm down. You've never had a pet rat before, and you're not completely sure how to care for one, but apparently what you're doing right now works.

The only question after that is...