"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of Orzie Fraggle."
Everyone was gathered in the Great Hall as the funeral was in session. The whole mood was depressing, to say the least, even Boober didn't like it. He stole a glance at Jessa, who had a sympathetic expression on her face, before facing forward. Some fraggles that had known Orzie came up and gave their eulogies. Some were short and simple; others were longwinded yet heartfelt. Luckily, the body was out of sight inside a coffin. After everyone finished, the Fraggle council released the coffin containing Orzie into the pond, much to Jessa's shock and disgust.
"Ew, in the pond?!" She whispered.
Boober leaned in closer to whisper to her.
"Now you know why I hate swimming in there."
"No kidding," Jessa whispered back.
The coffin eventually floated away to a connecting river that led to the Cave of the Afterlife. No living fraggle had ever gone in there, though it was impossible since they weren't dead yet. Once the coffin was out of sight, the council carried on with other issues needing to be addressed.
"Since we lost Orzie to a bloodwraithe, according to Jessa Fraggle, the Terrible Tunnel will officially be off limits. A large boulder will be put in front of the entrance to keep anything from coming into Fraggle Rock and keeping the fraggles out of there."
Boober gasped in horror at this news, as did Red, Gobo, Wembley, and Mokey. The other fraggles, however, roared in agreement.
"Hold on!" Jessa piped up, catching Boober by surprise and getting everyone's attention. "What is putting a boulder in front of the Terrible Tunnel going to accomplish? Those bloodwraithes are gone. I killed them."
"All of them?" an old fraggle asked.
"Yes, all of them. That's how I got this scar."
Jessa raised her bandaged arm to prove her point.
"I got clawed by one of them while I was in their nest, slaughtering every single one."
"How can one fraggle kill thousands of bloodwraithes?!"
"See this sword?" Jessa asked while holding it up. "It can do many things, one of them being the ability to send a sonic wave of death to an entire species. That's how I was able to wipe them all out."
Jessa sat back down before the council had a chance to reply.
"Even so, that tunnel is still getting blocked off. Nothing but terrible things have emerged from there."
"But you can't do that!"
"Meeting adjourned! The Terrible Tunnel will be closed off for good as of tomorrow."
Everyone was dismissed soon after, but Jessa remained in shock.
"I'm sorry, Jessa," Gobo apologized sympathetically.
"I'm homeless."
"Not if I can help it," Red declared. "That boulder can't weigh more than a radish."
"It won't do any good, Red," Boober told her.
"I bet you had a really nice place, didn't you," Wembley asked.
"Not really," Jessa answered him. "I was living in a decrepit old tent. It's not much, but it was all I had. Now it's gone."
Boober hugged Jessa from behind, though it didn't make her feel any better.
"We can decorate the hole you've been sleeping in, Jessa," Mokey offered. "We'll make it nice it homey."
"I can't even think about that right now," Jessa griped before getting up and walking away, prompting Boober to let go and watch her sadly.
Jessa had wandered off to the gorg's garden, pissed off about the boulder thing. Now she had no choice but to remain here in Fraggle Rock. While that wasn't such a bad thing to happen, it also meant that Jessa was going to have to be twice as careful about hiding her shazzle genes.
"If this ban is permanent, I'll have to tell them at some point," she lamented to herself.
But Jessa didn't want to. Not after she and Boober started getting close. Given his pessimism overall, Jessa figured that he would be the least accepting of her being a hybrid. She couldn't bear that thought as she sighed.
"This sucks."
Jessa then heard the door to the castle open and raised her head to see Junior and Pa walk outside.
"Now son," Pa began as Jessa half listened. "Your ma and I are going into town for a bit, so we need you to watch the castle."
Jessa was out of sight in the Nirvana tree so the gorgs wouldn't see her. She had her sword at least, but in a hypothetical situation where she didn't have it, Jessa wouldn't be able to use her powers to fend off the gorgs if they tried thumping her or anyone else. Jessa then held out her palm, her eyes glowing yellow as she sent a breeze flowing across the garden. It blew past the gorgs, though they thought it was the regular wind.
"I can do that," Junior answered with such loyalty.
"Make sure nobody storms into the castle, and make sure no fraggles go into our garden."
"Yes, Pa."
Pa began to walk back inside when he stopped halfway.
"Oh, and Junior?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't get too rough in the garden like you did the last time."
"I won't, Pa."
"Because your mother was very upset about her crops almost getting destroyed."
This triggered the memory of Sidebottom for Jessa and she blushed.
"I'll try not to break anything," Junior told his father.
"Good. We'll be back shortly."
Pa left after that, leaving Junior by himself in the garden. He began to march around and hum, which Jessa rolled her eyes at before teleporting out of the tree and to the stream she lied about being on that rainy day. It was located on the other side of the rock, giving Jessa plenty of privacy to water bend. She held out her hand again, her eyes glowing blue this time as a stream of water began to rise and take the form of a star. It remained like that while Jessa turned some extra droplets into butterflies. The water butterflies flew around her while she morphed the star into a heart, then a flower. Oddly enough, this seemed to placate her. Upon seeing the water flower, the aquatic butterflies flew towards it and landed on it. Jessa chuckled and let the butterflies turn back into regular water, though she still played around with the flower, morphing it into a bridge so she could cross it. Jessa got up and walked on it, her boots squishing against the water along the way. After reaching the other side of the creek, Jessa walked back to where she was before turning the water bridge into mist and encasing herself inside a mist cocoon as it spun around her body. The cold water soothed her as she closed her eyes and felt her hair flow from the force of the mist. Jessa wanted to remain inside her spinning mist cocoon for a long time, but hearing Junior nearby forced her to stop. The blue in Jessa's eyes disappeared once the water returned to the stream. She then summoned a wind cocoon to dry herself off. After the wind cocoon disappeared, Jessa was about to earth bend when she heard Junior yell in excitement.
"Fwaggle!"
Jessa braced herself for dealing with the gorg, but to her surprise, she wasn't his target. She watched Junior reach into the rock to grab whoever decided to peek out. It was at that moment when she heard Boober scream.
"Oh no you don't," Jessa said before taking out her sword and sending a ray of energy passed Junior, and it turned around and hit his backside.
"Ow!" He shouted while jumping away from the rock. "That stung."
He then went to investigate around the garden to see who did it, allowing Jessa to come to the rock and check on Boober.
"What are you doing here?" She asked him.
"I was looking for you, Jessa. You ran off after the meeting."
"Can you blame me?"
"...No."
Boober would be devastated if he lost his home too. No place to do laundry or cook.
"I can't imagine not having a place for all my stuff. Nothing to shelter all my clean laundry when it's drying, or to keep all the ingredients I use in my meals dry..."
"Not having anywhere to sleep."
"Then you get sore from sleeping on the ground."
Jessa walked back to the entrance to see if Junior was gone.
"You're not going back out there, are you?" He asked her.
"Why not?"
"Uh, because there's gorgs out there."
"Two of them left. Only one is out there."
"Jessa, you'll get thumped."
"No," Jessa began while turning to face Boober. "The gorg will answer to my sword if he interferers."
Jessa was about to go back out there when Boober grabbed her uninjured arm.
"Jessa, don't!"
"Boober, let go!"
"I don't want you out there while you have a big scar on your arm. Or any other time."
"I'm not a child Boober! You can't stop me from going wherever I please."
Startled by her outburst, Boober went silent and released her arm just as Jessa started to regret her tone.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I have no reason to take my anger out on you."
"No, I shouldn't have been so restrictive."
Jessa leaned back against the rock and slumped to the ground.
"I guess that's what happens when you lose your only residence. You turn into a bitch."
Boober then sat down beside her and leaned his head on her shoulder.
"You're not a bitch, Jessa."
Jessa only huffed in response, but Boober remained by her side.
"Today's just been a rotten day," Boober continued while caressing her bicep. "Somebody died and you got hurt and became homeless."
"Rotten indeed."
"I'm just glad you didn't end up like Orzie."
Jessa then rested her head on top of Boober's head, which made his baloobius glow.
"No amount of time could ever be enough to grieve over your death."
Jessa felt her anger subside and hugged Boober as he sighed.
"I would feel the same way if it happened to you," she admitted.
Boober melted into Jessa before hugging her tightly. She smiled and felt her tail wagging. It was a sweet moment until Jessa's stomach growled.
"I never did eat breakfast."
"It's too late for breakfast. But I can make lunch."
Boober smiled invitingly and Jessa smiled back, taking his hand and walking back to the kitchen with him.
Jessa had finished her food, thinking about how to keep her powers a secret when Red found her.
"Jessa, come here. I want to show you something."
"What is it?"
"Follow me and I'll show you," Red said while dragging Jessa behind her.
"Is it another Doozer construction?" Jessa inquired casually.
"Nope."
"A flying pig?"
"Nope."
"Okay, a... zombie?"
"No!"
"Alright," Jessa replied while chuckling. "I'll stop."
The girls walked into Red and Mokey's room, the boys in there as well.
"Since you're going to be here in Fraggle Rock for a while, Jessa, we decided to spruce you're hole up a little bit," Red told her.
Jessa looked at her hole, now decorated with flowersand faerie lights. There was even a little nook with some books inside it, and Boober had put clean sheets on her bed.
"We made it all pretty for you," Mokey gleamed.
"I drew a picture for you to hang on your wall," Wembley said while handing her a picture of a dragon.
Jessa tookit and smiled.
"You also have nice clean sheets fresh from the laundry," Boober added.
"And I put some of my old books in there for you to read," Gobo said after Boober.
"And Mokey picked the flowers to hang around your hole," Red chimed in.
"I didn't know what flowers you liked, so I picked azaleas and marigolds," Mokey added.
"The marigolds will keep insects away," Boober interjected.
Jessa took another good look at her hole and grinned.
"I don't what to say."
"You don't have to say anything, Jessa," Boober said to her while holding her non-bandaged arm.
"Looks like you're stuck with us for a while," Gobo said to Jessa.
"I just hope Red and Mokey can stand having me as their roommate for this long."
This made everyone laugh, even Boober as he let go of Jessa's arm and hugged her behind.
"I doubt that's going to be a problem," Red replied when the laughter died down.
"Well, either way, my hole looks a lot better than it did when I first spent the night here."
"I'll take that as a sign that you like it," Boober murmured.
"I do," Jessa murmured back.