Chapter 3: Lost
3693 Words
Chapter 3: Lost
“Mother!”
The vampire lady was greeted by the chorus of mother from her beloved daughters as soon as she stepped out of her office. A couple of swarms of fly charged to both sides of her shoulder before reshaping themselves back into the human form revealed Cassandra on the left and Daniela on the right. Both girls link their arms around Alcina’s shoulder, nestle their head to the crook of her neck. The tall lady couldn’t help but laughs at the sight of her adorable daughters.
“Now, now, girls. What’s all the fuzz about?” Still laughing, Alcina asked the girls lovingly.
“We’re just missing you, mother” Daniela peaked her head up from her mother’s neck and answered.
“Yes. It feels like we barely see you, nowadays” Cassandra added with a sulky expression on her face.
“I’m sorry if I made you felt neglected, girls”
The vampire lady lifts her arm to wrap the girls into her embrace, sighs out wearily. Even when her family and herself are no longer human whose body is warm, presently as she’s hugging the girls, she swears she could feel the warmth from them. After stay hugged for one, long blissful moment, Alcina let go of the girls and set them back on the ground. Looking around, she doesn’t see her eldest daughter, Bela.
“Where’s Bela?” Asked Alcina.
“I’m here, mother”
Bela’s voice traveled from down the hall while she’s getting herself to her vampire mother. Alcina, once again, smiles mildly and welcomes the eldest into her arms. Out of all 3 of her daughters, Bela is the most mature and rational one. When takes her quiet nature, compared to her sisters, into account, Bela does her best not to seek her mother’s attention as she knows how busy the countess duty required of her mother. Yet at the same time, it doesn’t mean she won’t be longing for her mother’s love.
“Are you all feeling better?” The mother asked them.
The girls nod simultaneously as a reply. Alcina caresses the eldest’s cheek once more like she’s trying to wordlessly tell her that, you could come to me anytime. Later on, the ladies of house Dimitrescu made their way toward their dining hall for dinner.
“Ohmygod—I’m super hungry! Could I have extra meat tonight mother?” Daniela begged.
“What? How could you still be that hungry after gobbled half of my share earlier at lunch?” Cassandra complained, which Daniela quibbled back.
“Because I’m the youngest. I need a larger share of food, so I could catch up with you and Bela soon”
Her childish reason rouses an amusing, harmonious chuckle from her mother and the eldest sister while leaves the middle child speechless. “Come on, girls. Don’t fight. There’ll be plenty of flesh and blood for everyone” The mother expresses along with another set of chuckles. Once they’re finally arrived by the door to the dining hall, Bela opened it and the 3 sisters swarms inside to their seat excitingly. Alcina is the last to bending down past the doorframe and settling onto her seat at the head of the table. She rings a tiny bell as permission for the maids to come in and set their table up. Fresh serves of meat and goblets of blood were placed on the table in front of each Dimitrescu lady. Once the food was served, the maids quickly excuse themselves out to give their master privacy.
“Now, children. Let’s eat”
“Yeah! Meat, meat, meat!” Daniela squeaked out gleefully, stabbed that meat on her plate to her lips.
“Jeez. Calm down. If you stab it that hard, the remaining blood inside will spout and dirtied mother’s dress” Groused Cassandra for her sister’s childishness.
Bela tilts her head to the side, looking at her sisters’ quarrel tiredly. She then turns to address her mother with a question.
“How could you put up with us for this long mother?”
“Oh, that takes so many works than I ought to admit my dear” The vampire lady’s answer cackles everyone up as their dinner continues, filled with a joyous atmosphere. She enjoys the scene of her daughters laughs out merrily like this. It reminds her of what she still has to live on for.
Alcina never mentions to anyone, but since Mother Miranda passed away, she constantly feels…lost. She lived her 1st life worshiping and devoting Mother Miranda for decades. Her place in this world used to be nowhere rather than by her majestic Mother’s side. The only goal Alcina ever set in her life was to assisting her dearest Mother accomplished her life-long work of getting her true daughter, Eveline, back.
‘In the end, what that fool Heisenberg said was right, wasn’t it?’
Inwardly, the tall lady concluded. She had been followed Mother Miranda for too long and unknowingly forsake her own life along the way. The idea she had back when she first set foot on the wrecked village, right on the same spot where her dearest Mother had been killed is yet with her even after all this time. And to confirm the fact, Alcina questions herself internally once more, why am I here?
“Mother, can we go out for a hunt after this?” Cassandra asked while her eyes shifted back and forth between her plate and her mother’s bright orbs to wordlessly add after finishing dinner to her question. This snapped Alcina’s attention back to the present. She swirls her goblet lightly, weighing her decision.
“I don’t think that’d be wise, dear—The winter is around the corner, so you should be mindful of how bad the temperature could drop during the night”
“Oww, couldn’t we really, mother? We’re kind of restless since there’s nothing to do when you’re not around much—” Daniela’s talk was cut short when Bela reached her hand over the table to shut her mouth. Only that moment that Daniela noticed she might have hurt her mother’s feelings by pointed out the fact that Alcina hasn’t spent a substantial among of time with them lately.
“I’m sorry, girls” Sighed out weakly, Alcina replied. She downed what’s left in her goblet and set it down before goes on.
“I know I haven’t been around you much since I’m busy working. However, that doesn’t give me an excuse to neglect you”
“Don’t say it like that mother. We understand you’re doing all these for us. I’m sure Daniela didn’t mean it, right Dani?” Bela sends a signal for her youngest sister to say something to their mother.
“Y-yes, mother. I’m sorry I made a slip of tongue—” Said Daniela.
“But we’d still love it if you could spare some time for us” Cassandra interrupted her sister midsentence which soon was scolded by her sisters for it. The vampire lady tittered at the scenario before comes up with an idea to settle this down.
“How about this? For tonight, the 3 you could go on patrol around our territory but only for one round and make sure to come back before it’d get too cold. Then tomorrow we’ll hunt together”
“Yeah!”
The girls shoot their hands up in delight, followed by turning themselves into swarms to rush to their mother and hugs her tightly. Alcina squeezes her daughter within her embrace and suggests they should proceed with their patrol duty soon. Before she’d send the girls out, Alcina pulled the eldest daughter behind and addressed her warmly.
“Be mindful of the temperature and take care of each other while you’re it” A large hand is placed on Bela’s cheek which she melts into the touch of her mother’s love and replies.
“Don’t worry mother. I’ll keep an eye on these 2 for you”
“My heart’s more at ease, hearing you said that—Be safe and swift, daughters” Alcina turned to enjoin the other two.
“Of course, mother”
“Yes, mother. We’ll be back before you know it” Daniela answered at the end of Cassandra’s. Both rushed to her mother’s side for one more cuddle then together, they go on their way to patrol in a flash.
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Once the girls went out, Alcina goes back to her office to take a look at her work one more time. Normally, she doesn’t work at this late hour, but since she wants to wait and see her daughters back safe and sound with her eyes, so why doesn’t she do something useful while waiting.
‘Now. Let’s see…’
Settling comfortably on her immense, padded seat, the vampire lady put on her reading glasses and pushed her work onward. Many pieces of furniture here within the castle Dimitrescu, especially those in the main bedroom and her office, were made with the tall lady’s size considered in mind. As her building of 9’6” tall and her daughters’ at 6’4” on average, it’d be uncomfortable for them to use what was decided for normal human’s size. Unfortunately for the tall lady, the same standard doesn’t apply to the doors in her castle. Because back when they’re still rebuilding this place after the Megamycete blast, the construction laborers were her youngest brother’s Soldat. And as his way of payback for chose a flower for a visitor that’d make his Lycan flee upon its unique fragrant, Karl intentionally messed up the castle Dimitrescu restoration plan, ordered his Soldat to build normal size door. So, every time his tall sister needs to bend down to pass through the door, she would hear his sneer, serve you right.
“Hmm?”
A faint whisper of curiosity left the vampire’s lady lips when her eyes fall upon a familiar letter, addressed to her sister, Donna. It’s well-known fact that their village barely adapted to the convenience of the 21st century. No wonder why the outside world would have to use a letter to contact whoever resides here. Yet, the letter that was addressed directly to one of the lords is extremely rare which is why Alcina recalled it right away. If she’s not mistaken, she went through a familiar letter a few times in these past few months. Though, she used to just ignore it and didn’t bother to open any of those to read the content inside, assuming it might be some kind of joke her foolish brother pulled since the sender’s address was changed in every arrived letter. But come to look closely, the sender’s name is the same, Tiana F. Engelbrecht. Was this really Heisenberg’s doing, she thinks, grabs a paperknife from nearby and cut the letter open.
‘A request…to meet Donna personally and do wild plants research together?’
A grimace creeps onto Alcina’s face as her head’s recalling her own experience with outsiders. One killed Mother Miranda, her siblings, the entire Dimitrescu bloodline, and the other set a bomb on the Megamycete which later also destroyed the only place she’d known and called home. Alcina queries herself, what should I do about this? If she chooses to ignore this just like she always does, how could she know for sure that the sender would give up and stop writing the requisition letter? It already has been a few months, if they’d considered giving up, they would do so long ago.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t just allow them to waltz into her village. There is no guarantee that they’ll only meet with Donna and do wild plants research as stated in the letter. What if they ended up drawing attention from an outside world once more?
“…” After much consideration, the tall lady finally made her decision. She’ll reply to the sender and allow them inside the village and judge for herself if whoever they are would be a threat to their village or not.
There’s a strict regulation for newcomers that the lords have been doing since they rebuilt their village. When one arrives at their village, they’ll be taken to one of the lords for the screening process. This said process works like that of an immigration system where the lord would question the newcomer of their reason for coming to the remote village in the middle of nowhere and decide which extract shall be given to those newcomers. Currently, the screening process was mostly taken care of by Salvatore and Alcina. Sometimes, the responsibility would fall to Donna if the two aren’t available. They don’t trust this duty with Heisenberg anymore after what he did to the 1st batch of settlers.
“Let’s see who you are in person, Ms. Englebrecht”
The tall lady speaks indistinctly after done with her reply letter. She sealed an envelope with melted red-blood wax, stamped with house Dimitrescu’s coat of arms. And she finished it just in time her daughters come back from their patrol, so she tidies up her desk slightly and goes for the girls.
“Did you have a good time darling?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes! –Oh, it was so nice getting some fresh air after the whole day inside, mother” Hyper Cassandra hops around her mother cheerfully, links her arms around her shoulder to hugs her from behind.
“How about you two?” Quiz left Alcina’s mouth and the youngest replies.
“I don’t want to talk about it” This awaken curiosity from the tall lady as well as cackles the eldest daughter up. Alcina lifts her eyebrow in inquiring toward Bela which she answers.
“We challenged each other of who’d reach the border 1st when we left and I beat her there. So, she asked for a rematch, racing back home and Cass beat her this time” Despite her best effort suppressing her laugh, Bela couldn’t help and slips some. It made Daniela sullener than before.
“Oh, don’t fret dear. I’m sure you’ll win next time. After all, you only lost on purpose to fool your sisters and hide your true skill, right?” Said Alcina while pats the youngest’s head soothingly. Her kind words made Daniela beams. She then turns to sneer at her sisters.
“Yeah! You guys won just because I let you—I’ll get you both next time. Just wait and see!”
“Sore loser” Cassandra replied and, sticking her tongue out at Daniela.
“Oh, mother—You spoil her too much” Bela rolled an eye at the youngest, murmurs to her mother. Regardless of the scene, Alcina giggled before pull all of them into her embrace, kissed each daughter on their forehead, and says.
“Could you blame me when I adore you all this much?”
The girls are beaming, leaning onto their mother’s enormous body even closer. Posterior to that, Alcina walked her daughters to their bedroom, tucked them in and gave them a goodnight kiss then retreat to her chamber.
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Attention: From here on out, the story would be told in the Second Person Point of View. You, as a reader, will be given the name and identity of Tiana F. Engelbrecht, a female protagonist whose natural curiosity got you tangled up with something. Something more complicated than to be explained by only science and your rationale alone. What you’re about to encounter might surpass any imagination you’ve ever had—Thus, this is your story.
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You’re waking up to the sound of chirping birds and rustling leaves that slip through the opened window by your bedside. A gust of wind carries fresh grass scent with it from the side yard of your little cottage as well. Lazily, you flip to another side and allow your body to get more comfortable. Sunday morning is the best, you think so to yourself, but not only a split second passed by, your phone vibrates by the nightstand. Refusing to open your eyelids, you continue lying there under the squashy blanket a little longer.
‘Whatever it is, it could wait…’
The ability to think straight gradually leaves your head as you press toward the dreamland once more. You cuddle your side-pillow as a sleeping habit even now you’ve grown up. You like the feeling of something soft against your skin, so what’s not to love when it’s this squishy?
Alas. Unluckily for you, your phone keeps vibrating. Again, and again, and again. Groaning, you bury your head deeper into your pillow until you couldn’t take it anymore. So, you sit upon your bed, eyes half-open, yawning and reaching for your phone. You placed your fingerprint against the scan, unlocked your phone, and see what’s going on—Junk emails, a handful of social media notifications, a few invitations to the scientific seminar, messages from friends, wait.
“!”
One specific notification got you jumped on your bed as it was from a kindhearted, tremendous new acquaintance of yours, the Duke! Your heart’s racing inside your chest, shuddering anxiously while reading his text.
‘Good day, Ms. Englebrecht. It’s my pleasure to inform you that your letter was replied. Please mention your current address, so I could deliver it to you. Or if you don’t mind, you could come to my shop and collect it yourself—’ The Duke ended his message with his current location. Opportunely for you, he happened to settled his carriage, open his shop in the same town you’re currently in. His text made you wide awake. There is no such thing as drowsiness left in your system anymore. Rushed yourself out of bed and get freshened up, you get everything you need and head out to the Duke’s shop with haste.
The thing is after came across your blonde acquaintance named the Duke, the world you once believed it may not have something up its sleeves that could surprise you anymore expand its mysterious before you to bewildered yet again. As a botanist and a cultural anthropologist, you’ve been roaming around the world, cultivating native plants of each continent, and the different cultures of those who reside there. One time when you were around the Swiss Alps, trying to find your way down the mountain to the nearest village through a storm, the Duke navigated his carriage passed by and was kind enough to take you with him. And that’s when the magic happened—Inside his carriage, you were fascinated by plants you never see before. The sight of exotic plants kindles your curiosity and the urge of researching them. You questioned the blonde man on the way down the mountain which he answered you of where he got all these plants from and even told you a bit of his business partner, Miss Donna Beneviento, who grew these up herself. And long story short, you’ve been keeping in touch with the Duke since, buying rare plants from him and asked him to contact Miss Beneviento for you.
‘Come on, come on, come on—Please, be what I was hoping for!’
Thinking inside your head, you press your feet against the gas pedal, give your reliable wheels more juice to race to the Duke in a flash. At an instant that you reach your destination, you parked your car and hopped out with springs of your heel to an accustomed carriage and was greeted by the soft-pitch voice of the Duke’s.
“Oh, my. Ms. Englebercht. I didn’t expect to see you soon—Wait, where’s my manner? *Ahem* Labas rytas, Ms. Englebercht.”
Regardless of the urge to ask about the said reply letter immediately, you force yourself to calm down and return the kind manner of this sweet blonde man first. “Labas rytas, Duke—I didn’t know you could speak Lietuvos”
“No, I’m not actually. I only learned a few words to impress my Lithuanian clients” the prodigious man spoke with an amusing chuckle and continued, “Anyway. Enough about me. We both know you’re not here to chit-chat with this humble merchant. So, here’s the reply letter from the lord you’ve been waiting for” The Duke slipped his hand under his outer suit and pulled it out with a flourish posture, revealing a sealed envelope in his hand.
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To Be Continued >>
- Writer
