fell in love with the bird (Miss Peregrine x fem!OC)

𝟎𝟐.

Miss Peregrine always treasured walks. She enjoyed the calmness of it, even with a bunch of children around her. It also meant getting out of the house, which was definitely beneficial when you were living the same day over and over. And, of course, it added another routine, which she had always liked.

Living in the loop also meant that there were never any new things or potential new dangers to run into during these walks. So it definitely came as a surprise when one day she suddenly saw something in the sand that wasn't there before. She hoped that none of her wards would see it, but luck didn't seem to be on her side that day.

Bronwyn was the first to notice it and quickly alerted her. "Miss Peregrine, look! There is something in the sand."

That also got the attention of the other children, who quickly got curious.

Claire noticed an additional detail about whatever was in the sand; "It sparkles!"

Before their headmistress could respond something, or stop them, Bronwyn and Claire, with the others close behind them, were already running towards it. As she quickly made her way to what got her children so excited, she saw that it wasn't something that got the attention of the children, but rather someone. There was a woman lying on the sand.

The children all stood in a circle around her, with some of them crouching down to get a better look. Claire went to poke her to see if she was alive but after a quick warning to not touch her from Miss Peregrine, she stopped.

As the Ymbryne got closer, she noticed that she was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, both not in their original color anymore due to the sand. She must've been lying there for a few hours, considering some of the sand had been blown onto her body, mainly seen on her clothes and usually light brown hair. She could see that her chest was slowly moving up and down, which reassured her that she at least wasn't dead.

"Uhh, Miss Peregrine?", Olive asked a bit hesitant.

"Yes, Olive?"

"She looks like she's made of glass. Like her body has a lot of cracks and it reflects the sun a bit."

"If she was really made of glass, then wouldn't she shatter? Considering normal people don't sleep on the sand she probably fell and I thought glass was fragile." Horace remarked.

"No, look," Millard said, "I think the necklace she's wearing has something to do with it. I read somewhere about it. Don't remember much though, it's been quite a long time. Maybe she knows something about it."

"And what if she doesn't?" Enoch asked, a little bit grumpier than usual. "For all we know she could've just picked it up at a random shop."

"What if she's a wight?" Emma contemplated, eyeing her up and down. "I don't think it would be such a good idea to wait for however long until she wakes up just to ask her a question."

"I highly doubt she's a wight. We should get her to the house so she can recover from whatever caused her to pass out on the sand. Then when she wakes up she can hopefully also tell us how to get rid of the cracks. Bronwyn, can you carry her?" Miss Peregrine inquired.

"Of course."

"But please be careful. And everyone else leaves her alone until I decide that she has had enough rest! We won't bombard her with questions and potential new information before she's well enough." Everyone nodded in agreement.

With that Bronwyn carefully picked her up and the peculiars made their way back to the house.

***

The first thing that Kaylee noticed when she woke up, was that she was in an unfamiliar room, lying on a bed. Secondly, her whole body started to feel unusually heavy and the events of the day before quickly came back to her.

Her house was on fire, and the people who thought she was a witch or a monster, the running. People throwing rocks in her direction and shooting her. The cave. Her ankle, which still had the most cracks. The beach, everything going numb, and then, complete darkness.

She was about to get up and possibly try to run again when the door opened. A woman with black-blue hair with a dark blue outfit came in.

"Oh, you're awake. How wonderful."

Startled, she scooted back on the bed. Staring at her with wide eyes she asked, "Who are you? And where am I?"

"Alma LeFay Peregrine. Or just Miss Peregrine if you prefer. A pleasure to meet you. And, you're in my home. What's your name?" she said with a warm smile, which reassured Kaylee a little bit. At least she wasn't in any immediate danger.

"Kaylee Mary Daniels. And I could've probably guessed that I'm in your home but how did I get here?"

"When my wards and I were on our walk we found you on the beach unconscious. Your skin looked like glass with cracks in it, can you tell me about that and about how you ended up on that beach? I'm assuming you're peculiar if you know what that means."

"Yeah, you could sorta say I'm made of glass." She let out a nervous chuckle, a habit she just couldn't get rid of. "I uh- have a house on this island but I woke up this morning and noticed this weird smell and next thing I know I'm outside and there's these people claiming they saw me manipulating glass. I thought I was careful when practicing stuff I can do but uhm, I guess I wasn't? And I just tried to deny it but they didn't believe me and started chasing me and shooting at me and stuff and I just kept running and I saw this cave and went inside to hide. When I came out of the cave I just tried to keep running but I guess I passed out." Her speech kept getting faster the longer she spoke, clearly still a bit frightened.

Alma nodded with an understanding smile, "Take a deep breath, love, you're safe in this house. If you can manipulate glass does that include yourself? Can you do something about your injuries, or, cracks I should say?"

Kaylee felt oddly safe in this woman's presence, so she allowed herself to go into more detail about her peculiarity.

"Yeah! The small cracks should heal by themselves pretty quickly. Big ones like on my ankle are a bit of a different story though. So I'd probably heal it manually so I can actually walk properly again but it usually takes a lot of my energy. I also haven't practiced it all that much since you know, it kinda requires me to be hurt and who'd wanna do that on purpose right?" the younger woman joked, which got a light chuckle from the otherwise so serious woman.

"Then you should continue to rest. We don't want you passing out again. You're welcome to stay in bed as long as you like. One of my wards will bring food for you later. We will continue to talk once you've rested but I will give you one last piece of information that might be useful. The place that we're in right now is called a loop. It's the third of September, 1943."

This confused Kaylee greatly. She'd never heard the word loop being used so casually. And she was even more confused about how she was actually supposed to be in the past right now.

"Your what? What do you mean we're in 1943?"

"A loop, or time loop, preserves the last 24 hours. Reset the loop and the day is yours to live it again. Reset it daily and you can stay here forever. Entirely safe from any dangers the outside world brings. Loops are created by women, such as myself, known as Ymbrynes. We can assume the form of a bird, which allows us to manipulate time, as only birds can manipulate time. We are tasked with the protection and care of young peculiars. Which is only able to be archived optimally in a safe space like this loop. And the day I created this loop on is the third of September 1943, which makes yesterday, today, tomorrow, and all the days that are following the third of September."

Kaylee just nodded, trying to take everything in. The way she explained it made sense, and gave her a whole new outlook on her situation.

Have I been lied to?

"I think it's the best now if you rest. I advise you should process all of this first, as you look a little confused right now. Once you've eaten and rested I will have time for any questions you may have." With that she walked out of the door and closed it quietly, leaving Kaylee alone with her thoughts.

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞!

edited/reuploaded on September 16th, 2023