All of them stood, feet rooted to the ground, looking in horror at the abomination that Obann had become. This was too much for them, two significant battles already draining them of their energy.
"Let's get out of here, run!" Fjord shouts, beckoning the group on as the tentacles of Obann the Punished whip around them. He was right. They had Yasha back, thanks to Caduceus and his well-aimed spell, and in no way could they handle another major battle
Each of them in turn ran back up into the small chamber, braziers still burning in each corner. Once they could sense they were at least somewhat safe, a sigh of relief rippled through all of them, Jester breaking the silence by emitting sobs of happiness and relief.
"Yasha!" She cries, barreling over to the barbarian in question and wrapping her arms around her, bringing her into a tight hug. Her sobs continued as she did so, and after a few moments she could feel gentle hands around her, a sheepish Yasha hesitantly hugging her back.
"We were so worried about you!" Jester continues, her eyes glimmering with tears as she looked up. "We thought Obann was going to get you forever, and then he'd be super powerful, but Caduceus did it, he got you back!" She says, going on one of her typical excited rambles.
Beau watched from the corner of the room, smiling slightly at Jester as she spoke too fast for her brain to keep up. She always seemed to smile when Jester did this, even if she didn’t mean to. Her many eccentricities always seemed to make her happy, even after being beat to shit.
"Th-thank you Jester." Yasha says, gently prying Jester's arms from around her legs. Beau could see Yasha's eyes darting, looking cautiously to the group around her. After all she had done, Yasha knew it was going to take time to build trust between them again.
After a moment, Caleb's tired voice pipes up. "I am going to cast the hut for tonight. I can teleport us all once we have all gotten our rest."
Everyone nods their approval, exhaustion written all over each one of their faces.
Soon after the ritual casting was complete, everyone piled into the dome. It had been quickly decided that it was best to keep a couple people on watch while the rest slept. They had left that mass of tentacles and mouths behind them, but who knew how strong it was or if it stood a chance of escaping up into the room they were currently bedding down in
"So, who's going to keep watch first?" Fjord asks, looking around at them.
"I will." Beau pipes up. The thought of her nearly being killed was enough to confirm that she wasn't going to sleep, no matter how much the group had been through today.
"A-and I will too!" Jester says quickly, raising a hand and flapping it in the air as if she were an excited kid in class who knew the answer the teacher was looking for. Beau's brow arched in response, but she shrugged it off after a moment. She liked spending time with Jester, so she wasn't going to complain. Beau and Jester both sat cross-legged by the edge of the dome, peering out into the dim light emitted by the slowly burning braziers as everyone around them prepared to bed down.
After a few minutes, the rest of the Nein had dozed off around them, Beau and Jester now the only ones awake.
It was silent for a while, until Jester's quiet voice piped up beside her, the blue tiefling's head gently leaning on her arm as the both of them kept watch.
"Beau?"
"Hmm?"
"Is it ok if I ask you something?"
"Of course it is." Beau replies, her voice softening a little. She could hear a tone of nervousness in Jester's voice, and wondered what would make someone as bright as her so scared.
"I was afraid you were going to die today." She says quietly. "And I know you can't really use spells or anything, but…" Jester hesitates, trying to think of how she would ask the question that had been following her around for some time. Beau only gives a knowing sigh in response.
"You wanna ask why I get myself in so much trouble?" Beau asks,, giving Jester a small side-smile and looking to her. She had been asked this question many times before, so knew where this conversation was going.
"Kind of." Jester says earnestly. "I know it's the way that you fight, because you actually have to punch someone to do things, but sometimes I worry for you. You're always putting yourself in harms way for us. I mean, you ran out and saved Fjord when The Laughing Hand nearly got him and I was scared for the both of you then too. I'm afraid I wont always be able to heal you." She says, and Beau now realised what was going on. Jester stops for a moment, trying to contain her running thoughts and think through what she was going to say next. "I guess, what I'm trying to ask is, why?"
The question took Beau back a little bit. She had to stop and think about her answer. She didn’t want to do what she normally did this time, resorting to defensiveness and lying. She valued Jester enough to tell her a bit about herself, and knew that she'd probably be smart enough to tell if she was lying anyway.
"You remember what I said to you on the boat ages ago?" Beau asks, Jester nodding in response.
"It's still true. I admire the fact that, even though your childhood wasn’t perfect, you turned to creativity. I kinda wish I had done the same."
Beau takes a deep breath, trying to center herself.
"I didn’t have the best relationship with my actual family. So I had no clue that meeting you and Fjord, fighting a giant snake, and finding our way to Trostenwald was the way to find a new one."
Jester's eyes brighten a little bit at this, and she smiles as she continues to listen to Beau speak, leaning more heavily into her arm as she did so.
"And I've actually kinda been thinking a little about that before today." She admits. "You have your mum and The Traveler. Caduceus and Fjord have the Wildmother. Yasha has the Stormlord. Caleb and Nott have each other. I don’t really have any meaningful connections with the gods or my family." She says with a shrug of her shoulders. "All I have is you guys. And I want to protect that, even if it means I have to get myself into trouble every now and then."
After a slightly uncomfortable pause, Beau stops talking. She felt as though she had talked far too much and had spilled far too much of her guts. Feeling a slight flush come onto her cheeks, she looks to Jester to see what her reaction to her verbal barfing might be.
"Thank you Beau." She says with a small smile. "But please don't make me worry about you like that ever again." She says with a wry smile, nudging her in the arm.
Beau chuckles, catching herself from being too loud and waking up the sleeping people around her.
"I'll try."
The watch continues, thankfully turning out to be uneventful, and soon enough the both of them took a long rest for themselves.