Chapter Text
They can't find her.
The panic hits the group immediately, the aftermath of the battle they just fought - and won - still overwhelming. For the Ymbrynes, it seems to push them all over the edge. Beyond reason, they start screaming and shouting at each other - all of it collapsing due to one small practicality.
Miss Wren is missing.
The children stand to the side, looking at each other and the older women. Without Ymbryne guidance, they are not sure what to do, and their leaders' apparent lack of self control quickly becomes a concern in itself.
They're almost settled on interrupting, on trying to force some sense into the Ymbrynes whichever way they could, when the shouting stops.
"Everyone spread out! We need to find her!"
Speaking next, Miss Cuckoo's clear cut plan of action seems to have won over whatever the other Ymbrynes had had to say.
"She has to be somewhere here" Miss Blackbird quickly supports her siblings order, turning to look over at the peculiar children. Her two normal eyes are closed, the third one spinning around in circles inside the socket.
If they had been uncertain before, they did not have to be asked again when the decision finally came. Like the rest of the Ymbryne sisters, Miss Peregrine included, they run off into the woods.
She had to be somewhere.
It's all Jacob can think of as he runs, the image of Miss Blackbird's spinning eye haunting him as he looked for any sign of the missing Ymbryne.
RaaaaWWWrrrooooaaaa
It's a unique sound, a combination of moose and bear, and he recognizes it immediately.
Grimbears.
The sounds come with the realization, that while there had been many casualties out in the field, none of them had been one of the gigantic bear creatures. The grimbears, like their mistress, were missing in action.
"Jacob! Did you hear it?" Emma comes from the left out of the woods, catching up with him on the narrow path through the trees.
"The bears have her!" He answers, face grinning. It's a good sign - with the protection of the grimbears, not much could've happened to the Ymbryne.
"This way" She tugs at his arm, pulling him off the path and out into the forest on the opposite side of where she came from. "They're nearby!" She adds, excited as the sounds grow stronger.
But as they come closer, Jacob finds himself slowing down. A pain is blooming at the bottom of his stomach, and he knows what it is for.
"There's a hollow!" He screams as loud as he can, but it is too late.
By the time he has the sense to warn her, Emma has already gotten past the trees and out into the clearing on the other side. Once there, Jacob's scream is joined by her own as she sees the carnage that lies before them. The massive bodies of several grim bears lay spread out across the small space, furr and parts from the animals strewn across the blood-soaked grass. In a corner, the massacred remains of a hollow rest against a tree trunk. It is dead, or thereabout, the pain in Jacob's guts fading rapidly.
It's black tears blend with the purple grimbear blood, and looking closer Jacob can tell it's had its eyes picked apart.
"She might be in bird form!" This time he alerts Emma immediately. She is already half-way across the battle scene, and her skin pale two shades at the news.
"We'll never find a tiny Wren amongst all this!" Emma worries, tripping over an invisible hollow leg and falling straight against one of the grimbear corpses.
Only, it's not a corpse, but a live cub that moans in pain as Emma hits against it. Carefully turning its head, it regards her for a second, before seemingly recognizing her face. Slowly, it moves its legs and paws, unfurling itself to reveal what it was protecting.
Miss Wren is sitting slumped against its gigantic belly, unconscious or perhaps even dead. At that moment, it's hard to tell, her entire body drenched in the blood of the hollow and the grimbears and her eyes shut.
"Oh my god!" Emma rushes towards her, kneeling down by the woman's side. "Nonono" She thinks of the horror on the Ymbrynes faces as they realized their sister had been missing, and she pray that the woman would not be dead.
She didn't know what the other birds would do if she had died.
"How is she?" Jacob is quick to join, abandoning the already dead hollow to help Emma with Miss Wren. Seeing that she was not moving, he bent down to feel for a pulse himself.
Taking a step back, Emma feels grateful as Jacob take control, waiting for him to break the news - whatever they were.
"Jacob? Is she alive?"
He frowns, his fingers getting sticky from the liquids - hollow tears included - that coated her neck, but finally he finds a pulse. It's slow and quiet, but it's there. Miss Wren was alive.
"She got a pulse! She's alive" Jacob jumps back up on his feet, almost screaming as the relief washes over him. "We need to get the other Ymbrynes!"
"Too late" Emma replies, a shaky hand pointing across the clearing.
At the other end, Horace was leading the Ymbrynes out of the woods and straight towards them. Behind the women, the rest of their friends trailed behind.
"Miss Bloom! Mr Portman!" Miss Avocet is the first to speak to them, the old woman walking next to Horace with a small, black bird perched upon her shoulder. The bird had two regular eyes, which had closed, a third eye opened right on it's brow.
Miss Blackbird, now in her bird form.
"How is Balenciaga?" She goes on to ask, worry written out across her normally stoic face. Not even the fact that she accidentally used the woman's first name seemed to faze her, her anxiety overriding all else. "Is she hurt?"
Stepping aside, Jacob shook his head. "I don't know. I can't tell. But she's alive"
Miss Avocet only nods grimly, attempting to approach her unconscious sister to check for herself. However, as she steps forward, the grimbear shifts and a large leg comes down between the two, efficiently blocking anyone from approaching Miss Wren.
The bird on her shoulder starts flapping its wings, but Miss Avocet places a shaking hand over it. "Bonnie, no" She says softly.
Jacob swallows hard. He knows Miss Wren need the attention of her sisters, but his mind has come to a complete stand-still. He can't think anymore - it's all just blank.
"Jacob" Horace whispers, pulling at his arm. "Jacob, it's blind, and it smells hollow. It won't let them near because it thinks they are hollows"
Jacob turning around, staring at the prophetic dreamer, it all suddenly made sense. Jacob's peculiarity was to protect others from hollowgasts - and the grimbear had known. It had let him close, but not the Ymbryne.
"What do I do?" Jacob whispered back, stressed. How would they make a grimbear change its mind?
"Let Miss Blackbird talk to it. She's in bird form, she can talk to him" Horace instructed, lifting his voice. "Miss Blackbird need to tell the grimbear that you can be trusted. That you killed hollows."
Hearing what he said, Miss Avocet glanced over at Miss Peregrine, clearly questioning whether to trust him.
"Do as he says Esmeralda" Miss Peregrine orders, her voice more self-assured than Jacob had heard it in a long time.
Miss Avocet nodded. She lifts the protective hand away from the bird on her shoulder, and allows it to fly over to the bear, landing next to its ear.
For a minute, she sits there and whispers. cawing words that only the grimbear understands. With every sound, it moves a little, eyelids fluttering and nose sniffing the air as it listens.
The rest of them are dead quiet. No one moves, or says a word, too afraid to jepordize the work the bird is doing.
What feels like an eternity later, Miss Blackbird leaves the grimbear's ear, and as she does, he moves his leg back to reveal Miss Wren once more.
As if on cue, the remaining Ymbrynes descend upon her, flocking to their injured bredren. Miss Cuckoo begins to pat her down, looking for injuries, while Miss Avocets kneel down and place her head in her lap. Miss Peregrine is not far behind, stopping only to let the blackbird land on her shoulder before she too comes to look over her sister.
"What do we do now?" Emma ask quietly, looking at the other children uncertainly.
"I don't think they'd want our help" Hugh say slowly.
"Horace can tell us how he knew how to make the grimbear like them" Enoch suggests, staring down at the younger boy. "What did you do?"
Once the subject is brought to their attention, the rest of the group turns to Horace too.
The boy swallowed, clearly nervous to have all the attention put on him. "I had a dream" He admitted quietly. "It was through Jacob's eyes. I could see the hollow goo and hear the grimbear's thoughts"
Now, all eyes turned to Jacob. Unhappy, he pulled a face. "It's true. You're all covered in gunk." He admitted. "There's a dead hollow over there" He pointed across the clearing to where the remains of the monster lay.
"Did...did it say anything about her...surviving?" Olive asks quietly, big green eyes staring at Horace.
"And the poor grimbear!" Claire added, shuddering as the animals let out a pained sound. Biting her quivering lip, she grips onto Olive even tighter. "It sounds so sad"
Horace glanced over at Emma and Jacob, his eyes full of objective fear. "I have no idea!" He insisted, but the veil was paper thin. He knew, and he was not going to say.
"Miss Bronte! Over here, s'il vous plaît!" Miss Cuckoo calls out, calling out for someone to come.
Only, they can't tell who she wants. Jacob casts an eye at Bronwyn, but she seems oblivious, and he's not sure. So they stay where they are, glancing at one another and wondering who will go.
"Miss Bruntley!" Miss Peregrine's voice follows when nothing happens. In Miss Cuckoo's smooth French accent, Bruntley became Bronte . "Come over here, now!" She orders, her voice sharp.
This time, Bronwyn doesn't wait, she runs. Straight for the Ymbrynes - and straight into Miss Cuckoo.
"Go there, mon petite cherie" She says sweetly, directing the girl around her, towards the bear, while she continues over to the rest of them. "Come now children. We've done all we can here. Let's go back" She suggests kindly.
"What about Miss Wren?" Noor questioned, looking back at the scene with trepidation. The gruesome sight makes her stomach flip.
Enoch doesn't have any such hesitations. "I'm not going" He says, crossing his arms and taking a stance. "You can't make me"
The rest of the children gasped, and Miss Cuckoo's eyes narrowed considerably. "Can Miss Blackbird make you?" She asked, her voice loud and clear.
It's the first time Jacob has ever seen Enoch at a loss for words, and it's bad. Underneath the dirt, he thinks he might have gone a bit pale even.
"Yes" Finally, the quiet answer comes out, and Enoch turns to look at his friends. "We're leaving." He tell them, obviously entirely in the hands of Miss Cuckoo.
"But Miss Cuckoo, you still haven't said anything about Miss Wren" Claire protests, peeking out from behind Olive. "Is she okay?"
Miss Cuckoo looks at Claire with doubtful eyes, and the pause that follows is just a little too long to comfort.
"She will be fine"