Miss Hawk was not a woman to be messed with.
Outwardly, the woman seemed to radiate an eccentric air, but she had a steely jaw and a firm face, and when she smiled, her lips were thin and pressed. With every step she took her tall heels clacked upon the surface of which she was walking, and when her fingers clasped anything her nails seemed to appear longer.
She was an extremely powerful Ymbryne, and was skilled enough to track time. Of course, she cared less about promptness and appearance than Miss Peregrine, a dear friend, did, but she didn't disregard it entirely, either.
While her black clothing, pinned back brown hair and sharp, almost black eyes daunted people around her, and those who did not know her were often afraid, she was a woman who would do anything and everything for the children she dedicated her life to take care of.
While Miss Peregrine kept up the appearance of a teacher rather than a friend or mother, Miss Hawk was much more than a teacher or carer. She nurtured her children, who, in turn, returned affection, and in her small household, the three words 'I love you' were not scarce or untold. Her children grew to be people who were strong, stubborn, calm and skilled, and learned from a young age how to protect themselves.
Miss Hawk never did allow her priorities to wonder. Of course, being a married woman, and a mother herself, it was often believed by other Ymbrynes that the children in her care were not her priority.
"Family is my priority," she would say, without thinking. "My children are as much as a family to me as my husband and son, and I will treat them the same way I would treat any other child. How I raise my children is none of your concern."
Miss Peregrine raised her children with a firm, steady hand, and her household was based upon a foundation of rules, regulations and respect. Her children were treated equally, and for the same crime, would be handed the same punishment, regardless of reason. Their schedule ran like clockwork; sharp and prompt, with no room for spontaneity or frivolity. They were raised the way they would have been when they were young, back in the forties with their families, despite their advancements into a more developed world.
However, Miss Hawk preferred more modern methods. Each year, she created a loop somewhere else, both for safety reasons and for pure curiosity. While she found an appropriate place for the loop, the children would be allowed a substantial amount of money, head into the nearest shopping centre, and purchase more updated clothing, new technology for the house, and decoration for their bedrooms, and once they returned to the loop, they would be educated by their new technology on the advancements of the world since their loop had last been updated.
Their travels allowed them to see the world - they'd lived in Italy, Japan, Wales, France, India, and countless other places. Miss Hawk had even allowed them to live in an Egyptian slum, Manshiet, for a year, when the children expressed the desire to do some good, and bring some advancements, health and help to those who need it, because it allowed them humility and understanding of the awful world they lived in.
Miss Peregrine was perhaps the only woman who understood her methods of caring for the children; while the other woman didn't practice them herself, she was intelligent and empathetic, and treated her with the respect any mother caring for orphaned children deserves.
Their friendship was not a tentative one, nor were they particularly close. Both were allowed their privacy, their secrets, and neither had ever attempted to discipline the other's ward, or discuss the methods of properly raising them.
Instead, they talked of the weather. They talked of the scenery, and their plans, their lives, and the other would listen amicably and with a careful, unbiased ear. Had they been awful communicators or listeners, there might not have been such a strong bond between them, but it had been seventy years since they met, and they understood each other more than the other would ever know or comprehend.
And sitting there, humiliated, together trapped within a cage like the animals they shifted into, there came an unspoken vow between them.
They would do whatever was necessary to ensure their children were safe.