secret swap - The Mystery Egg

PROMPT: Your character finds an egg. It’s a large, interesting egg with an air of importance about it; definitely alive, just waiting for the right circumstances to hatch. It’s one of those eggs that shows you that the universe believes you to be a Very Important Person by giving to you. What mark does the egg leave on your character’s life, and them on it?

"OH! I think I got a good story~ It was way back when, in my beginning days at the academy, when I couldn't even use my magic properly yet. What am I saying, I couldn't use it at all then! 

It was… kind of a field trip day? The learning objective was to gather experiences with the local wildlife and such. There were even stories going around that some kind of Greater Beast was roaming the area! 

The instructors all were top-class mages though, so we didn't worry much about those stories. In hindsight, I guess we did make the instructors and especially guards work double shifts, like that, to keep our reckless rears save, b u t . . . it all turned out well in the end? 

To get to the interesting bit about this one though, it was what happened to me. The big heads were favoring me for the longest time… not as in preferential treatment, but having the teachers work me over time… extra lessons... the whole nine yards. Trying to make me develop as they'd hoped and whatnot. 

Anyhow. The other students didn't like me much, because of that and so: I was all alone for a while during that trip and ended up finding… an egg! It looked… weird! Bigger than my head… almost had somewhat of a mysterious air about it. Being the do-gooder I am, I of course couldn't leave it all alone out there in the forest, with the chance of a monster of the kind of a Greater Beast wandering about! So I of course brought it back to the academy with me. 

It spent most of the next year with me, I took all the greatest care to keep it good and healthy. It seemed well… but also, its gestation oddly didn't make any advancement at all! I did all I could to make sure it developed healthy and well… but nothing helped. 

It sure helped develop my skills, though? I ended up researching all kinds of new things... techniques… all kinds of biology, anatomy, and all that . . . until I finally managed to make a breakthrough! 

I was trying new things with my magic, trying to help the egg along… until it suddenly worked! After years of fruitless efforts, I finally managed to activate the same power from back then… or at least I thought so? 

Long story short: at that moment, when I thought I had finally gotten a grip on my magic, the egg suddenly started to glow… glow in a blindingly bright light, the shell shattering in thousands of microscopic pieces and . . . there was nothing! 

To this day I have no clue if it all was just some kind of . . . dream . . . a magical... maybe even mythical creature, that vanished the second it had hatched, or whatever else it could have been… I had taken care of it for close to a year, and when I finally had a breakthrough, whatever had hatched from it, went POOF! Vanished in the blink of an eye, right after its birth. 

No clue what it was about in the end, but one thing I know for sure: it sure had helped me get over the plateau I was stuck at forever! Whatever it might have been though, in the end… I sure am mighty thankful for it~"