It wasn't long into Pearl's attempts at easing Mala's pain when her mother showed up in all her... intimidating beauty. Since she was still new to teaching these kids, she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting all the parents yet. And Pearl was sure if she'd seen Mala's mother, she would have remembered her. The amazonian woman towered over anyone the fencing instructor had ever seen before and she was built like a truck. There was something perfectly imperfect about her and as much as her existing seemed to undermine everything Pearl understood about society and the world, she found herself almost drawn to the woman instantly.<br/><br/>With a brief pinkish hue to her cheeks, Pearl stood slowly after Mala went to her mother for comfort and gave an awkward cough. "Ah... U-Uhm, you must be... Mala's mother?" Her voice was hesitant at first and meek.<i>"What happened?"</i>When her voice bellowed out, Pearl tried to ignore the shiver up her spine as she slipped into instructor mode. "They were practicing their techniques in some one on one duels and one of the boys hit her below the belt..." She turned to the boy in question with a stern glare, "<i>something</i>I've taught everyone to avoid." Her crimson gaze went back to Mala and her mother, almost having to strain her neck just to look at the tall brute, so her eyes fell on Mala instead, buried in her mother's side. "It was an unfortunate mistake, but I have things covered. Still, if you'd like to take Mala out of class early today, I was just going to have her ice it and sit on the bench until she felt better."<br/><br/><i>"Which little brat am I eating alive today?"</i>Pearl's eyes grew wide in shock. She was always a direct and serious sort of person, so for a split moment, she took the woman's words for what they were, rather than some run-on intimidation like they really were. "Aaah! T-There will be<i>NO</i>eating of my students today!" The hair rose on the back of her neck and she appeared a bit ruffled by the statement, but a moment later, she was calming herself and seemed irritatingly poised once more. Pearl placed a hand on Mala's mother's arm and started patting, but took it away after she realized how sweaty the woman was from her workout. The fencing instructor couldn't stand muck and grime, but she managed to keep the displeased look off of her expression knowing this sort of thing was normal for people that were not her. She sighed and pressed her hands together, looking up at the mother with that eerie red gaze again. "Please do not worry about the child who caused this, I've already set in place counter measures to teach him what he did was wrong and to correct his behavior so...<i>don't eat them.</i>" The last bit of her sentence went from reassurance to a stern demand. It didn't matter to the instructor that the woman before her was much bigger than her, it was still her classroom and she had the say on how things went. The woman before her could only have control over what she wanted her daughter to do.<br/><br/>Speaking of, Pearl knelt down to Mala's height and smiled. Although the girl was clearly taking on the gargantuan traits of her mother, Pearl was still quite tall herself with legs for miles, so trying to match the height of her students wasn't a difficult task. "Mala..." she whispered, her voice soothing once more as she gently reached a hand out to her. The touch never made contact, though, as she felt her mother was clearly one of those overprotective types, for whatever reason. So instead, her hand stayed hovered in the air as an invitation rather than an invasion. "I would really love if you stayed with us for the remainder of the practice. I could show you some really neat moves ahead of schedule. The rest of the kids were going to learn them next week, but I'll give you a head start. What do you say?" Her smile was soft and inviting and she just hoped the child would feel safe in her classroom once more.