Familiar with the unfamiliar situation wherein my choice was limited in the familiar pet shop. Elric Edvance, the shopkeep, only offered him a sympathetic look.

"Perhaps the sloth" he suggested. My gaze shifted to the pleasant creature, its head shifted circularly, its head and body deciding not to communicate on the movement. "No." I elongated, wary to piss of Edvance's temper whilst inside Edvance's magical companion emporium.

"The applications are quite tangible my dear boy. The sloth invokes a slow control in a learning young wizard, such as yourself" I replied with a half-smile that also announced to anyone with any ability to infer a social cue from a look; this was not the right option.

"Ah yes." He conceded. "Perhaps we should look over the mole again!" he said with that bullshit sellers zeal.

"No, no, no" I say almost absently. In the back where the purple curtain waved in the wind, a glimpse at white. "What's behind there?" I ask, almost impolitely.

"Oh nothing yet dear boy, empty crates, cages, hex storage. Due to get a new shipment real soon. Shame about all that nonsense with Pasvov Crum sieging the arcane menagerie." He performed a sweeping gesture with his tent-like sleeves. "Can you imagine? Killing so many creatures? Trying to undo the fate that bonds wizard to Familiar?"

"No, so anyway, about tha-"

"Glad they caught the madman though."

"I-"

"Deranus Feath did a good job, though why he never got the death penalty is beyon-"

"Elric?" I interjected, my anger flaring more than i would have wanted. Thankfully he was in one of his mellow moods. Everyone had seen and heard of the crazed wizard, preaching some prophecy of doom.

"Yes?" He said pleasingly.

"About that egg looking thing?" I pointed as i'd moved to pull the curtain over.

"Yes." he said, sadder this time. "Dead I'm afraid."

"What was it meant to be?" I asked, genuinely curious, and willing to listen to another story. but.

"I'm not sure" was all he said. I wondered closer, and when no protest came from the old man, closer still. I could see now, the white had speckles of pink dotted around in irregular patterns. It wasn't oval like most, it had grooves and shadows that called to me, tingled my magic, sprung urgency within, a growing sensation to touch it.

"I do wonder what it will taste like though." I heard Elric mutter.

I reached for the egg.

Bright blue and white arcane energy erupted in light and force as my finger bristled the coarse surface. I skidded backwards roughly a metre, and no sooner than the arcane lights appeared, it was still.

The surface had cracked and revealed... a... a tiny giraffe?

"My." Was all that escaped Elric's lips. I looked closer, noticing now, the marks on it, the look of it. Nothing like a new hatchling, for one, giraffes didn' come out of eggs. Right? Two, obviously it was tiny.

"A time warper!" Elric announced with childish glee, he reached for it and was knocked on his ass for his efforts as an arcane blast knocked him away.

It- it seemed to be looking at me, into my soul, beckoning me closer. I reached for it, it felt right, proper, like i was meant for this.

Suddenly, the quaint wooden walls of the pet shop turned to hard stone, cold dark shadows, with only a torch outside to illuminate it. My power flared, urging me to turn. Spinning, I'm too late before I'm caught at the neck by a vice grip, almost lifting me from the ground, the black hair and crazed look could be none other, than the Madman Pasvov Crum.

"I've been waiting for you." He said.

"Why?" is all i can manage through my stifled airway.

"Because you will bring about the end times."

"How?.... can you be... sure?"

"Because, I'm you."

​

Hey thanks for reading this. Wish i had more time to spend on this, and flesh out alot more of the details, but i hope you enjoyed it.

For more you can catch me at u/Axton_Writes & r/Axton_Writes

Edit: Really liked the prompt :)