"Ex....explained?" you stutter out, too dumbfounded to ask any of the thousands of questions now rattling around inside your brain, the foremost of which is, I'm still dreaming, right? Of course, before you can pinch yourself, you trip backwards over your feet and end up landing rather painfully on your rear, confirming that you are definitely awake.
"Yes, your grandfather's will and the lawyers he hired to oversee his estate should have given you a clear understanding of your inheritance," Phaunos frowns as he strokes his goat-ish beard, his strange eyes weirding you out.
"Th-they said something about the occult...and magic...but...but..." you are still tongue-tied as Phaunos' frown deepens.
"I see," he says thoughtfully, pauses to give you a searching look, then continues. "Well, I suppose we shall need to give you a full explanation then. But you must understand, this zoo is more than just your grandfather's legacy." Noting that you are still stupefied from the earlier revelations, Phaunos sighs, then states resignedly, "All that will have to come later, I suppose. For now, we should repair to a more appropriate setting." So saying, Phaunos reaches next to a tapestry that lines the hallway and tugs on a bell-pull.
A moment later, a figure in a maid's dress comes scampering up the hallway. You look up, hoping for some confirmation that you are not losing your mind, and maybe a fellow human will help you make sense of this inanity. However, your wishes are quickly dashed as you meet a pair of emerald-green eyes with slitted pupils.
"Cait, please take care of the young Miss' rooms, and inform Cook to have breakfast ready in about an hour, Miss and I have some things to discuss," Phaunos directed, for in fact, it is true, the figure was none other than that of Cait, the seemingly quiet maid from the prior evening who made off with your suitcase. However, in the light of day, you notice not only her odd eyes, but a pair of twitching, triangular black ears poking just above her maid's bonnet, and as she turns to enter your rooms, sticking out from just under the skirt...a tail?!
"She....she..." you stammer as you point at Cait, and in spite of yourself look back at Phaunos.
"I believe you met Caitlin Felis last night; she will be responsible for seeing to your quarters," Phaunos states flatly. "She also happens to be what I suppose you humans tend to call a were-cat, although there are many like her who are part animal and part humanoid at all times, and not only on specific occasions such as a full moon, just as I am." Phaunos then extends a gloved hand to you and says, "If you please, Miss?"
Sitting there, you stare dumbly at Phaunos and wonder what a sane person would do in this situation. Scream? Flee? Check themselves into a psychiatric facility? Since you're feeling a bit weak in the knees at the moment and all of those options sound like they would take too much energy, you allow Phaunos to lift you to your feet and follow him down the stairs to a rather nice sitting room with large windows providing a beautiful view of the rear gardens, surprisingly bright and airy for what had seemed to you to be a dark and oppressive mansion.
"Now then," Phaunos begins as you both are settled into quite comfortable armchairs, "I suppose I should start from the beginning. Your grandfather may have seemed odd to most humans, but he was quite the visionary. He knew that much was being lost due to the way humans were changing the world, and he resolved to save some piece of it. You see," Phaunos continues as he pulls a short pipe from his pocket and lights it, "our kind were once as numerous as humans. We lived side by side with them, some respected, some feared, but always together. However, times changed."
"Our...your kind?" you finally pluck up the nerve to question.
"Magic folk, mythical creatures, legendary beasts, gods, demons...humans have called us many things," Phaunos replies. "Humans seem to associate our kind with some strange force they call magic; in truth, I suppose there is some sort of energy which allows our bodies to bind together incongruous forms, so one could label that magic. At any rate, we whose lives were dependent by magic were eventually driven out of the areas we lived by the expansion of human technology. You see, the more magic-dependent the creature, the more vulnerable a reaction they have to certain things like electricity and radio waves. Now, we did not know this, we only knew we felt weaker in their presence and so fled them. However, your grandfather managed to point out this link to us." Phaunos pauses, and you blink in surprise. "He traveled the world to find us, offering us safe haven here in his estate, a large land with mostly no electrical wires, radio towers, etc. You see, he, to some extent, became our savior."
"But why...a zoo?" you break into Phaunos' reverie.
"It takes money to maintain a large estate," Phaunos smiles wryly. "While we, as magic folk, could have helped your grandfather achieve that in our own ways, but he understood humans all too well. If he possessed income from no obvious source, all he would do is set himself up as a target for petty and grasping individuals." You nod unconsciously. "Instead, he decided to use his research to create a self-sustaining haven for all magic folk which could last beyond his death. Thus, he created the zoo."
"So there are normal animals here as well?" you ask, oddly relieved that not everything here was magical.
"No," Phaunos shakes his head. "Instead of having to care for normal animals, your grandfather used his research to set up an enormous magic array covering all of his land. The array draws in magic energy from deep within the earth, and it allows any magic folk within the grounds of the zoo to appear as either a completely normal animal or a completely normal human. Outside the zoo itself, on the rest of the estate, we remain in our regular forms and are careful to stay away from guests. However, within the zoo, thanks to the magic, no human can tell the difference between one of our kind and one of your kind. Thus, the zoo has been successfully used to camouflage the true purpose of the rest of the estate: to ensure the safety and survival of all magic folk."
"But then why...why leave it to me?" you finally get around to the real question. "Couldn't he have just made it...I dunno, a wildlife preserve or something?"
"Because we need a link to the human world," Phaunos smiles, a disconcerting expression on his goatish face. "You see, we cannot easily leave this estate, as we do tend to stand out. We cannot attend meetings at lawyers' offices or banks, or do business with suppliers, or even use computers with ease, although some of us who are not as dependent on magic may do so in a desperate situation. Also, someone must carry on your grandfather's research, as the existence of our kind grows more perilous each day. Therefore, we need your assistance." Phaunos lays aside his pipe and leans forward a bit. "Will you help us?"