I was busy unpacking the rest of my things, when there was a knock at my bedroom door.
"Are you decent?" It was Miss Peregrine.
"Yes, Headmistress, please come in."
She entered and stood at the end of my bed. "Do you like your quarters?"
I smiled. "They're lovely. I thank you, Headmistress. But," I sighed, "You still have not yet told me why I am here."
Miss Peregrine then noticed my camera sitting on the writing desk. She squeaked a happy sound. She walked over and picked it up. She began to examine it. "Miss Stonington, are you a contender of photographic images?" she asked excitedly. She carefully looked through the view finder.
"I am," I replied happily. "That camera is my life."
"I enjoy the art, myself. Come, to the study!" she exclaimed. She set the camera down. I halted unpacking and I followed her down the stairs. "I have quite the collection of photographic albums in the study." I remembered seeing the bookcase of albums in the drawing room. "If you are in ever in-need of a darkroom, please, do not hesitate to ask!" she said pointedly.
I beamed. "You have a darkroom?"
She giggled. "That I do!"
Oh my! How amazing Miss Peregrine was. I was growing fond of her so quickly. I notice that as we made our way through the house that the children were nowhere in sight. I glanced at the clock in the foyer. It read half-past nine pm. Remembering what Horace had said about the curfew, I took it that the children were up in their rooms. I wonder what time Miss Peregrine goes to bed.
The study was the drawing room. I took a seat on the settee. Miss Peregrine limped over to the bookcase and ran her fingers over the bindings of the albums. She was muttering things from different memories. "Oh!" she squeaked when she found the one she was searching for. She joined me on the settee.
"I first must ask you, what is the year?"
I looked puzzled. Had Miss Peregrine been so busy taking care of her Peculiar children that she had forgotten the date?
"Two thousand and fourteen," I said, half-asking.
"My goodness, no!" She chuckled. "It is Nineteen hundred and forty. September third, to be exact."
My jaw fell agape, I could not stop it. How? When I had first gotten on Cairnholm Island and had met Allistar and Father Malone, it had been June 11th, 2014. Now, for no apparent reason, it was September 3rd, 1940. I recognized the date as during World War II.
There's no tomorrow or yesterday, Horace's voice came back to me.
Loop.
"Headmistress?" I asked.
"Yes?"
"If I'm correct, your living in a loop created on September third, nineteen forty. The lot of you live the same day over-and-over again?" I asked.
She nodded. "You are quite intelligent, Miss Stonington."
I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing, what I was experiencing. I had indeed stepped back in time when I traveled through the cairn. I paused. "Does that mean that anyone can find you?" I could only imagine what a stranger would do if they happened to stumbled upon this place.
"Good heavens, no. Only a Peculiar can properly enter loops." She folded her hands and set them on the cover of the album. "Which, Miss Stonington, is one proof that you are indeed peculiar. Perhaps the biggest proof of all, except using your power out in the open, of course."
"What is my power?" I asked quietly.
"That," she said as she shifted her glasses. "Is up to you to find out. You must search deep in your heart. Although you were indeed born peculiar, you must accept it and learn to live this life before your power will emerge."
"But, I do accept it."
"Ah. But you do not accept it enough." She then presumed to open the photo album. She showed me a picture of a bunch of girls standing beside a bird, which was perched on the back of a chair. I recognized one of the girls as a young Miss Peregrine. She looked almost exactly the same, only shorter and not quite as thin as she was now. "Here I am beside a group of fellow ymbrynes." She placed her finger on the bird. "And this is Miss Avocet, my former ymbryne mentor. What a lovely woman she was, so inspiring. I was one of her youngest students," she remarked proudly.
"What exactly is an ymbryne?" I asked. I thought I understood, but I just wanted to make sure.
She cleared her throat. "An ymbryne is a peculiar woman- like myself- who is in charge of the different loops in existence. As the peculiar population increases, so does the demand for ymbrynes. It is our job to locate peculiar children in need of a proper peculiar uprising, create a loop, and conceal our wards away from, well, your world."
"That is why you beckoned me here; I needed to be with my own people."
"Yes. Although, quite regretfully, I must admit that I found you much too late to alter your way of living." She scanned me head-to-toe. "Although you seem to know the proper way already."
I shrugged. "I practically raised myself. I've always felt different from my family. Unfortunately they are the type of human beings who have a difficult time accepting uniqueness."
She closed the album and set it between us on the settee. "Your uniqueness is highly treasured; I want you to always recall that."
Being an ymbryne sounded like a tough job, but Miss Peregrine seemed to perform it flawlessly. Observing her as she tended to her daily duties was rather interesting. "How is one to become an ymbryne?" I asked.
"Ymbrynes are born, not made. That is why our peculiar power is to assume the form of different species of birds."
"Well, surely, you must know if your born a ymbryne, your last name is Peregrine."
She shook her head. "Peregrine is the name my mentor gave me. I was born with the last name LeFay, but after I attended the academy for young ymbrynes and I discovered my alternate form was that of a peregrine falcon, Peregrine became my proper name."
It made utter sense now. I began to yawn loudly. I felt tired.
"I'm afraid that it is time for me to retire, also," said Miss Peregrine. "I would like you to spend the next few days getting familiar with the other children." I arose and bade her goodnight. "Goodnight, Minnette," she said to me as I quietly headed for my room.