So proud of myself right now.
So waaay back long ago (over a year irl but it's only been like a couple months MAYBE in D&D time bc D&D time is slow af) my players fought some owlbears. My players don't immediately jump to violence but these poor creatures, who were escaped lab experiments and thus the only owlbears in existence, were too angry and full of pain for the druid to reason with, and so they were killed. Even though this was pretty much a mercy killing, I still decided to put an egg in the owlbear nest when they found it, to make them feel bad.
Spouse's character is a young tiefling going Through It and is pretty much just a raw nerve of emotion at all times. Her name is Liliana and not only did she feel so bad she saved the egg, but she KEPT the egg. Despite the party's main quest giver being a high positioned wizard who has shown interest in magical creatures and is about 10,000x more prepared to care for this only-one-in-existence owlbear egg.
So Liliana has been carrying this thing around like a third boob to keep it warm and protecting it with her life, casting guidance on it every 6 second whenever she's not doing something else because she wants little Sebastian (the egg) to grow up Big and Strong. (Spouse named it Sebastian, but I started calling it Li'l Sebastian and Spouse, not being a Parks and Rec fan, did not get the joke and it caught on.)
Spouse has expended many turns and spell slots in combat to keep it safe. Did an entire combat once where a hag grabbed the egg, turned invisible, and hid at the bottom of a pond!! And they still rescued the fucking thing crazy fast. This isn't a Sprinkles situation, where the party forgets the animal companion is even there -- Sebastian is ALWAYS mentioned, taken care of, and protected. Fucking Togepi fucker.
Additionally, Spouse is great at keeping Liliana out of danger. I have sworn that I will get that egg!! She'll get hit and it's going to break!!! >:3 But actually I can never fucking get her. She stays in the back, the creatures are too show, she is ALWAYS somehow out of harm's way even during ambushes, and fool that I was I let her spend her feat to get Misty Step. They VERY FEW times I've actually managed to fucking hit her I've rolled to see if it hits/hurts the egg, but nothing lasting has ever come of it.
Leliana got hit MULTIPLE times, I'm still not entirely sure why. Additionally, Spouse CRITICALLY FAILED his post-battle check to see if the egg was damaged! And then, AND THEN, Liliana didn't heal it before their long rest!! Other times Liliana would use a heal whenever maybe the egg maybe got hit, just to be safe, but this time she didn't!!
It was my time to shine. See, I had already decided that this was the morning where the players would wake up to the egg hatching. But since it was set up so perfectly that Sebastian could have gotten hurt and not healed at all for the very first time, and I've been clear about my vendetta against this egg, I was able to make Spouse/Liliana think that waking up to Sebastian's shell falling apart was because she failed him, and it was glorious.
It only lasted until the druid looked at it, obviously, and it was very satisfying.
And now she has to protect an owlbear cub instead of just an egg, which is so much harder. ʕ ͡° ᴥ ͡° ʔ
