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“Dear Mother Miranda,
The girls have grown well, though there are some complications. Bela seems to have some form of anxiety and very low self-esteem, Cassandra has anger issues, and Daniela, I believe, has some type of hyperactivity disorder. Despite all of this, I love all of them dearly.
However…more strangely…they have…feline-like habits. I expected the hissing and growling, but the other things… Well, I’m not too sure how this has happened, as they were born from insects, but they weirdly act like little kittens in the most absurd ways. These mannerisms include, but are not limited to…”
“…headbutting…”
“Oof--” Alcina blinked in surprise and looked down as Bela headbutted her leg. “Yes, my darling?”
Bela giggled and headbutted her again. Alcina rubbed her head, which triggered a strange sound to fill the air.
“…and purring…”
Purring. Her daughter seemed to be purring.
Alcina’s heart swelled with love. She couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips.
Later that day, Cassandra and Daniela did the headbutting thing, too, both of them bonking her in the legs while giggling adorably. When she scratched along their scalps, they purred, just like their big sister had.
“…staring when they want something…”
“Yes?” Alcina asked, raising an eyebrow at the trio of girls staring at her. If it weren’t for their different hair colors, it would have been difficult to discern them from each other with their matching black gowns and hoods. She made the mental note to give something to them to help make them out better.
Her daughters continued to stare.
“Is everything alright?”
Still nothing.
“Darlings?”
Cassandra reached out, swatted at her dress, and then they all took off running in different directions, their sock-clad feet making them run in place for a few seconds before they gained traction and streaked away in blurs of black.
“…and also staring at nothing at all, as though they are seeing ghosts…”
Alcina blinked. Her daughters were staring intently at the wall, their eyes wide and shiny, like they had just witnessed the secrets of the universe. She tried to see what they were looking at but could spot nothing at all.
“What in the…?”
“…pushing random things off of surfaces for seemingly no reason other than the fact that they like to…”
A loud clatter echoed down the hallway, and Alcina was quick to hurry to the source of the noise: the parlor, where Daniela was perched on one of the tables inside, staring down at a fallen candelabra. Luckily, none of the wax sticks were lit, as they would have sent the red-and-gold carpet over the floor up in flames. Daniela looked up at her, her eyes awestruck and shiny.
“Did you knock that over?” Alcina asked.
Daniela stared back. Then, slowly, reached out her hand and swatted over a cup.
“…causing utter destruction…”
“Hey! Hey! Hey!” Alcina snapped, shooing Cassandra away from the blinds. Her daughter leaped back, her claws ripping out of the fabric she had been sharpening her talons on. “No. Do not scratch things up, Cassandra.”
Cassandra inspected her claws. “Then what am I supposed to sharpen them on? Look at how blunt they are!” They showed them to Alcina.
They were sharp enough to gut a human in one swipe.
In amusement, Alcina said, “How about tree bark? It’s rough enough to hone them.”
Cassandra considered it, then nodded. “Alright!” She bounded away to go destroy one of the trees in the garden.
That same day, Alcina found Daniela chewing on a branch in her bedroom, creating a small pile of woodchips beneath her jaw. She seemed to be doing the same thing as her older sister: sharpening her natural weapons. Alcina left her be.
“…sudden hyperactivity…”
The loud sound of footsteps suddenly burst throughout the hallways, rebounding like thunder. They would stop at random, then begin again, seemingly in a sporadic pattern. When Alcina finally stepped out of her bedroom to investigate, she barely caught a blur of black as one of her daughters, she couldn’t tell who, whizzed past her like lightning. She spun around, blinking.
“What--”
At the same moment, one of the others came from a different direction and skidded to a stop in front of her. She whirled to them and saw that it was Bela.
“What are you three doing?” Alcina asked.
“Playing,” Bela answered blithely. She stepped forward, headbutted Alcina lovingly, then zoomed off again, slipping on her socks as she went.
“…getting startled at the most mundane things…”
The parlor had been peaceful at one moment; Alcina was drinking her tea, while Cassandra and Daniela played chess and Bela multitasked reading and watching the game. It was then that Bela’s thread bookmark fell out and she swiped at it to pick it up. However, when the string seemed to catch on her claws, she got frightened, leaping at least five feet up into the air. Seeing their older sister so unsettled, Cassandra and Daniela did the same, nearly jumping out of their skin and scattering the game of chess as they scampered away in terror. Alcina laughed loudly as her daughters huddled against her sides, shaking.
“…bringing me dead animals as gifts…”
Alcina was cleaning up for bed when there was a knock that filled her bedroom. She walked to the door and opened it, only to see no one. When she turned around, she saw Daniela clinging to her window sill, a mass of fur caught between her teeth.
“Daniela!”
Alcina quickly opened the window, and Daniela hopped inside. She presented the thing in her mouth to her with great pride: a rat.
“For you, Mother.”
“Ah-- thank you, my dove.”
Daniela purred as her head was rubbed affectionately.
The next day, Cassandra padded up to her, her chest puffed in pride, a large snake pierced by her fangs.
“A gift, Mother.”
“Thank you, my sweet.”
And then, that evening, Bela came to her door with a bird in her mouth.
“Here, Mother.”
“Thank you, my darling.”
And then the bird jerked away when Bela set it down and flew off down the hall in terror. They both watched it go.
“It was too pretty to kill.”
Alcina chuckled. “I see.”
“…laying on my things when I need them…”
Alcina stared tiredly at the stack of girls laying on the folded clothes on her bed. All that space on her giant mattress that was made specifically for her size and they chose that exact spot. On her clothes.
Well. They were much too cute to wake up.
“…laying on me and keeping me from getting up…”
“Maiden,” Alcina whispered.
The maid passing by stopped and turned to her instantly.
“Get me a glass of blood. I can’t get up and I am thirsty.”
The maid eyed the form of her youngest daughter stretched out on her lap, asleep, and then nodded, whisking away.
She hadn’t moved for three hours.
“…they have no concept of personal space…”
Alcina was awake that night, her girls piled on top of her to the point where they were practically smothering her, Daniela and Cassandra under arms and Bela on her chest. Every time she twitched, they would move closer, snuggling in deeper to her heat. She wouldn’t be sleeping very comfortably, but at least her daughters were warm.
“…sitting in strange places…”
“Are you comfortable?” Alcina asked, laughing.
Bela looked up from where she was reading and wedged inside a basket that was meant for quilts. Despite her small, wiry frame, it technically wasn’t her size, but she managed to curl herself inside, piled by the blankets and indulging herself in a good book.
“Yes,” Bela said, smiling.
Alcina would also go on to find Cassandra napping haphazardly on the banister of the upper hallway balcony, which she picked her up from and placed her back into her bed in fear of her falling off, and Daniela hiding in one of the cupboards in the kitchen.
However, none of these things beat when she found all three of her daughters crammed in a box, murmuring and giggling to each other over something.
“…did I mention the purring? Because the purring is absolutely endearing. I do believe it has healing properties…”
Alcina wasn’t quite sure what she had come down with that day, but she woke up feeling exhausted and achy all over. She didn’t even think to get up and alert her girls to her condition, choosing to rather wallow in her bed, so it wasn’t a surprise when her room was soon filled by three worried bug-spawn creatures.
“Mother?” Daniela’s small hands were set on her shoulders.
Alcina stirred.
“Mother?” That was Bela, now.
She rolled over and blinked tired eyes at the worried-looking faces of her daughters.
“Hello, my darlings,” she croaked.
“Mother,” Bela said again, her voice thick with concern. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, yes,” Alcina nodded, though her mind was wavering, shrouded in a heavy fog. “I am fine. Just a little unwell.”
“Can we help you?” Cassandra asked, her hands twitching.
“Don’t worry,” Alcina answered. “I’ll be fine.”
Her daughters exchanged looks. A moment later, they were climbing onto the bed, curling up around her.
“We’re helping,” Daniela said.
Alcina had no idea how cuddling was supposed to help her, but then she heard the soft churring that filled the air. The purring in itself did little to actually heal her sickness, but something about the soft sound and the presence of her precious daughters soothed her. Bela, with her head on her chest, filled her heart with a gentle rumbling. Daniela, curled up right next to her, chirred gingerly in her ear. Cassandra, stretched out over her stomach, resonated a soothing burr throughout her body.
She chuckled tiredly. “Thank you, my loves…”
“…and, at least when they were newly reborn, absolutely hating when I go into a room without them…”
She was just taking a shower. That was all. And yet, she could hear her young, one-week-old daughters on the other side of the door, yowling and screaming and scratching their claws into the wood.
“I’m just bathing!” she snapped.
They wailed louder.
“…to wrap the letter up, it is certainly a strange phenomenon to the experiment, but I am not complaining at all. They are much more entertaining and endearing this way. I wouldn’t have them any other way. I would like to thank you again, Mother Miranda, for letting me have such sweet daughters.
That will be all for now. I will follow up in another letter if anything new comes up.
-Alcina Dimitrescu”