"Come now, Arte, are you trying to scam my apprentice?" Ms. Vargaz gives Arte a doubtful look, but you still can't tear your gaze away from the cage.
Inside the cage is not an everyday animal, like in all the other cages. Instead, there is an egg. But not just any egg. It's one of the biggest eggs you've ever seen. Even ostrich eggs would probably be smaller. What the heck could be inside there?
"Not at all, Lady Vargaz," Arte shakes his head with an ingratiating smile. "It's been tested, and the magical compatibility of the creature is quite high. The only issue is...we're not quite sure what creature it is, being inside an egg and all."
"I might have known," Ms. Vargaz raises a hand to her forehead, then looks at you, even though you are still staring at the egg. "Well, I suppose it will have to do. Charge it to my account."
"Of course, always a pleasure doing business with you, milady," Arte raises his hat to Ms. Vargaz, and out of your peripheral vision you finally realize the antlers are not attached to the hat, but actually coming out of Arte's skull. You are torn between wanting to gape at the unusual sight and your obsessive stare at the egg. However, Arte quickly gathers all his cages apart from the one containing the egg and exits as he came, through the mirror.
"Hah, it seems this one has quite the connection with you, huh dearie?" Ms. Vargaz snickers, noticing your reluctance to look away from the egg.
"How long will it be before it hatches?" You ask, assuming that any further action will wait until that point.
"Who knows. Hopefully the merging will help speed things up," Ms. Vargaz says dismissively as she lifts the cage and places it in the center of a strangely drawn circle on the floor, then motions you to step into the circle as well. Still focusing on the egg, you do so before you realize what she said.
"Wait, I'm merging with the egg??" you cry out, but it's too late. The circle lights up, and Ms. Vargaz opens the cage and steps out of the circle. The light continues to get brighter, and you feel a slight weightlessness. You can see the egg floating towards you, and it becomes so bright you close your eyes.
A few seconds later, and everything is dark and quiet. It's just that you feel rather cramped, but although you try to wiggle, there's not much room. Where are you?
"That was smoother than I anticipated, dearie, you really do have a knack for this," you hear Ms. Vargas voice, but it is slightly muffled, as though whatever is containing you is dampening the sound. But what happened to the egg? Wait a minute, it couldn't be...were you inside the egg??!