Hello everybody! I am back with another story. Thank you Ceil for the idea!
Please tell me what you think!
It was the 3rd of September 1943. Like every day. Miss Peregrine's children were playing in the garden outside while their headmistress had left the island for one of her regular look outs. In those times she gathered news from the outside world and also kept her eyes open for new charges but she was always very careful not to stay away for long. She knew her mischievous charges all too well and she knew what horrible things could happen when she was gone too long. But for now the children were playing more or less peacefully.
Hugh and Millard were playing football while Horace had been persuaded to be the referee. Emma was sitting underneath a large tree reading a book while Olive and Enoch were tending Enoch's dolls that had been destroyed in the last initiated fight. The younger children were having a tea party. They were sitting on a blanket in the grass trying to be as graceful as they possibly could. Right now Claire was pouring invisible tea into the twins' cups. They squawked their thanks and Claire smiled satisfied that everyone was playing along so well. After everyone had their 'tea' Claire turned around to look at the sky.
"Claire, what's wrong?" Bronwyn asked and took a sip from her cup.
"When will Miss P return? She's been gone for a long time now, hasn't she?" Claire answered unable to keep the worry out of her voice.
Simultaneously all children looked into the sky but there was no peregrine falcon to be seen. Suddenly the twins screeched loudly and pointed at a small dot in the sky.
"Miss P!" Claire squealed happily. The older children had become aware of the return of their ymbryne as well. Slowly they stood up using their hands to shield their eyes from the blinding sun as they were watching the bird fly nearer. As the dot in the sky grew bigger and bigger it became clearer that something wasn't right.
"Oh" Olive whispered and grabbed Enoch's hand. Emma quickly made her way over to the younger children. Claire looked at the bird with frightful eyes.
"What is wrong with her?" Claire asked with a small voice. Emma quickly pulled the little girl closer to her. The twins and Bronwyn joined the hug.
The falcon in the sky was obviously having trouble staying in the air. One wing stuck off in a strange angle and was unable to properly support the other wing.
"What is she doing? She's flying right into the tree!" Olive screamed and quickly covered her mouth with her hands.
The blue and black bird crashed right into the tree and fell down like a stone. Enoch sprinted towards the tree and with one last desperate jump he managed to catch the bird in the last second before it hit the ground. At this point the younger children were crying holding onto Emma tightly.
Emma tried to shield the view of the young ones from the sight of Enoch cradling their beloved headmistress in his arms. Carefully he moved the hardly conscious bird in his arms to check her for other injuries apart from the obviously hurt wing. There were several cuts on her body and blood stuck on her beautiful plumage. There were feathers missing from her wings and also there were some of her tailfeathers bend in an unnatural way.
The bird screeched in pain and Enoch stopped moving her and instead held her close. He bent his head until his mouth was near the bird's head and whispered "Shh, everything is going to be alright. We will look after you."
Then he looked at Emma and Olive. "We need to get her into the house and tend to those ugly cuts. To be honest I am not an expert on birds but as she cannot return to her human form until she is a bit better we'll have to do it this way."
Then he quickly marched towards the back door of their beautiful home and the others followed him. As Enoch looked down at the beautiful but hurt bird in his arms he realized for the first time that he was truly carrying their headmistress in his arms and that he as the oldest one was now in charge as long as Miss Peregrine was not able to fulfill her role as their leading figure.
He went into the parlor and carefully placed Miss P on one of many soft pillows and placed the pillow on the table. Even the smallest movements seemed to hurt the ymbryne immensely. Enoch could hear that she tried to suppress the noises that gave away in how much pain she was but the way she flinched gave it away anyway. Enoch sat down on a chair and looked at the bird in a desperate and helpless way.
"Oh, Miss P. How am I going to help you?"