Overlooked Cosplayer

For context --- We have been playing on and off for several years and had only recently reached level 5 (mostly during school breaks and such). My character (half-elf Druid) had a thing for an NPC (Elf Ranger; hella cliche) that tagged along with the group. There were several small moments really made it feel real, like catching each other when they fell and just overall looking out for one another and fighting one another. There was a moment where they just stopped to awkwardly look into the other's eyes and that was the moment the shipped sailed for everyone.

Flash forward to more recently ---

We are fighting a monstrous fiend that was summoned through a portal by cultist in the city we recently arrived in. NPC had been kidnapped by said cultist and earlier on our wizard (my Druid has a big character thing about respecting and protecting elders) had died/not died cause it was in the Shadowfell. We managed to bring him back and meet the man who was accidentally involved in killing the Wizard's wife. Wizard needed a break from this shit (understandable) and the other guy joins up for a bit cause our barbarian caught WereBear and he is a WereFox due to the people in power testing shit they shouldn't be messing with. So we go to the city to figure out what the hell is going on. The dude who has joined up is a bard. We are all level 5, including him, and his health rolls are absolute shit. He has always had a big thing about keeping his rolls so he just goes with it (20 HP).

Now, Druid is trying to keep her village from dying and she knows it is caused by something with these cultists and the Shadowfell. She has lost the Wizard and her parents (they went missing apparently during the earlier arc). She is not doing well mentally. During the current fight with the monstrous fiend, the bard gets badly injured (two hits and he is at 1 HP). She isn’t really close to him so she dashes over to hopefully heal him in her next turn. Next turn is the Monstrous Fiend. Fiend blast her and the bard. Bard instant dies. Cannot even heal that. Mental state is not looking good for Druid or player. More shit goes down with the WereBear. He transforms and has no control over it. He sees everything as a threat. My druid heals our paladin back up and he blasts the Fiend to death. Whooo. Now, as everyone is weary over the WereBear, my Druid attempts to calm him. It is working, but cannot fully get through to him. He slashes her after the paladin scares him a little. Druid goes down. Paladin immediately retaliates and knocks out the WereBear. We have another player who tried to run (No-face/ Face stealer). She uses my healers kit and saves the Druid. Our Paladin healing words her and she is back on her feet. Everything has gone to shit.  The Face Stealer (FS) binds the WereBear before he wakes up. WereBear breaks his binding and the FS holds person him. Druid stands up against this yelling no more. Paladin has passed out at this point for sucking up all the sins of the Fiend.  FS walks out, annoyed and not wanting to stay for what happens. WereBear transforms back Druid and barbarian have a reunited moment.  Right afterward, a clank of a rock comes from the hole the fiend was summoned from. Druid goes to check it out. Deep inside she sees the NPC join with everyone else who was kidnapped from the city. HAPPY DAY. She spider climbs down to him followed by the Barbarian who has now learned how to control the transformation.  Once she gets to the NPC, he just looks around for the other players and asked where his animal companion is. The animal companion (barn owl) was on the bard who died (he got incinerated). This broke my heart in so many ways. Everyone had completely forgotten. about the companion and our DM tried so hard to separate him from the party for this arch. It hurts so much. But at the same time, this is what makes for a good story. But damn it hurts.