Despite Beatris's transition from the wilderness to society, she found that many traits from her time in the wild remained.
The main three were a hatred of being restrained, a fear of things bigger than oneself, and an awareness of dangers nearby.
So the fact that she was stuck in place, staring at a massive building bigger than the tallest trees she had ever seen, while hovering over a slick clay rooftop slope that led to a very long fall, was not the most comfortable thing.
Yet, strangely enough, while Beatris was stuck, Sera and Malt were free to fly around and chat as they pleased.
Not that they could go far from her.
Or that she could respond.
As such, they spent the time watching through windows and giving her a play-by-play of what they saw.
At least until Beatris was suddenly released.
She immediately had to create a bunch of vines so she did not go flying off the rooftop.
In that moment, she saw two things.
The first was someone wandering away from the main house and toward one of the side buildings.
She could not see many details.
The second was that Jax's obsession was spiking.
Getting worse.
That seemed to be a growing problem day by day, as though her attempts to slow it down had only delayed its growth.
Beatris quickly made her way down from the roof and began running toward where Jax was. She could feel him tamping down the obsession as he rounded the corner with Aiden.
"There you ar—"
Beatris was cut off by Jax shaking himself.
Water droplets flew everywhere, soaking her face and bits of her fur.
Jax and Aiden both turned, surprised she was there.
Beatris stared Jax down with an annoyed look.
Then she turned away and said, "You know what? Why was I running over here?"
Jax quickly ran up beside her and gave an awkward chuckle.
"Sorry, Beatris. Didn't realize you were there."
Aiden followed behind them, reaching into his cloak and pulling out a small silver giant-spoon-shaped thing.
"Here," Aiden said. "Look in this and tell me what number you see over your head."
Beatris raised an eyebrow at him.
Then she looked.
Sure enough, there was a number eleven floating over her head.
She glanced up, but she could not see it despite seemingly staring right at it in the reflection.
"It's only in reflections," Aiden explained. "Basically, the game is that everyone has a certain number of swaps. These swaps are used to gain new numbers by switching with someone else. We're trying to have the highest numbers before the game is over."
Beatris raised an eyebrow.
His explanation made sense on paper.
She did not really get it.
When she turned to Jax, he shrugged, seeming just as lost as she was.
Beatris turned back to Aiden.
He was looking around now.
"Another thing," Aiden said. "Our teammates are frozen in different spots all over the place. Each place has a puzzle. Solving it frees the stuck people."
He looked between them.
"Any chance you two can try to track down the others? So far, you two and Liora are the only ones I've found and freed. We still need to find Selene and Thalia."
"Why?" Beatris asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because I was a wild animal?"
"No," Aiden said, "because your nose is, like, two hundred times better than mine."
Before Beatris could retort, Aiden headed for the back house where she had seen someone enter earlier.
Beatris led Jax over beside the building she had been on the roof of.
Once they were there, Jax seemed to collapse like he had been holding his breath.
He panted slightly, looking at her with strange eyes.
"Oh, Beatris," Jax said. "I was starting to go crazy without you near."
"Shut up and hold still," Beatris growled.
Jax had begun to do this recently when the obsession built too much.
It was almost like a strange second side of him, one wholly devoted to flirting and looking at Beatris like she was some shining treasure.
It would have been flattering if not for the dissonance from his normal self.
And the feeling of insanity he radiated whenever he got like that.
Beatris channeled the vines.
Jax went from giving her an almost eerie smile, his eyes locked on hers, to shivering all over.
"Oh, dang," Jax muttered. "That one was weird."
He shook his head like he was trying to throw something off.
"Jax," Beatris said, "it's getting worse. How long do you plan to let this go on?"
She thought back to the past few times this had happened as they began walking toward the door of the building beside them.
They entered.
A notification appeared.
You have entered Puzzle Room 6: Grave Encounters.
The room was rather ornate.
A large carving of a humanoid figure sat at the front.
Three people were frozen in the pews, looking as if they were praying, their normal colors grayed out and unmoving.
One was a shorter woman who seemed to be an otter lightblood, with a small set of ears and a tail sticking out. Her hair transitioned from dark gray to ghostly white past her ears.
An elven woman in black pants and a white button-up shirt was praying beside a large, hairy spider the size of Jax.
The spider wore a small satchel-like backpack, while the elven woman had a small pouch filled with marble figurines.
Beatris looked to Jax.
He shrugged.
They began exploring the room.
There was an upstairs area to the church, a back room they could enter, and a small courtyard like the one they had been in before. But trying to leave the courtyard or exit through the side or back of the church stopped them with an invisible wall.
They split up to search the rooms.
Jax took the upstairs.
Beatris looked around the courtyard.
"Hey, Bee," Malt said, flying over to rest near her shoulder. "A minute when you're not thinking?"
Beatris stopped and glanced toward him.
Malt crossed his arms.
"We are all aware that Jax's obsession is getting worse," he said. "But honestly, is it really such a bad thing for this tournament?"
Beatris stopped.
Sera snapped, "Malt, what are you talking about? A small flare-up caused him to almost kill someone if the limping bear was any sign."
"We are in a tournament going up against people several times our level," Malt said. "That power isn't just useful. It's necessary."
Sera stared at him.
"And I'm not saying ignore it forever," Malt added. "Just let it build during the tournament."
Beatris raised a paw to swat at him.
The suggestion was not just cruel.
It was manipulative toward someone she frankly owed quite a lot to.
Yet Beatris paused before she could swing.
Her mind raced back to Ymer and his allies.
The dangerous feeling they gave off.
The fact that, even in sparring, one of them had nearly killed Aiden in a single attack.
A part of her barked that they should not just follow instinct here.
Especially because if Jax found out she had done it, he would be crushed.
Yet another part of her said he would understand, considering the situation.
Beatris sat there, contemplating the thought.
Then Jax came back out to where she was.
"I searched upstairs," Jax said. "Nothing I could see. Any luck down here?"
Beatris stayed silent for a moment, staring ahead.
Then she turned back to Jax, a mix of fear and determination tightening in her chest.
"Jax," she asked, "if we had a weapon so strong it could help us tear Ymer apart, but using that weapon might hurt someone in a way they never fully heal from, what would you say if someone wanted to use it?"
Jax did not respond.
The seemingly normal, goofy grin that had been plastered on his face shifted into a serious expression of thought.
Then he asked, "You're talking about the obsession, aren't you?"
Beatris did not answer.
Her eyes dropped to the ground as shame washed over her.
Jax did not say anything for a while.
Announcements of completed puzzles came and went as they sat in silence.
Then Jax reached out and placed a paw on her shoulder.
"I would say no," Jax said. "Because I don't want to hurt you in that way, or any other way."
Beatris's head snapped up.
A strange fury built in her chest.
Her paw moved before she could think.
She punched Jax in the face.
His head jerked to the side.
Beatris knew her strength was not enough to do any real damage.
But she thought the surprise was what truly hurt him as he looked back at her, bewildered.
"Shut up," Beatris snapped. "Don't act like we are the ones being hurt by this."
An ugly emotion welled up inside her.
Her vision blurred with tears.
"You saved me," Beatris said. "You showed me a whole new path in life. You didn't get angry or kick me out when I almost broke up the party because I thought you were evil."
Her voice shook.
"You helped me grow. Meet people. Have actual friends. People who care about me."
Tears began to fall.
Jax listened in silence, a quiet sadness on his face.
Like he was regretting something.
"You fucking died, Jax," Beatris said.
The words came out raw.
"Everyone has moved on from it because it's something adventurers face every day, but death is terrifying. You were probably terrified. And the pain was so intense that you started to become insane."
Her paws clenched.
"You died because I was there, so you couldn't retreat. I can barely pay you back by suppressing your obsession, so don't you dare act like we are the ones being hurt here."
It felt like a dam breaking.
The emotions Beatris had tried to tamp down since the dungeon cracked more and more as Jax was kind to her, and the others did not blame her.
The guilt spilled over until it broke free.
Malt and Sera did not speak.
They watched from above, and in a way, they almost seemed relieved she was saying it aloud.
Beatris waited for Jax to snap back at her.
To give his reasoning for why she was wrong.
To explain why it made sense.
To be angry after realizing what she had done.
Instead, he reached out and hugged her.
No words.
Just a soft embrace.
Beatris hugged him back tightly, terrified that if she let go, he and all of this would vanish.
Her crying was silent to the rest of the participants of the event.