The Crimson Claw, Part One
Your eyes opened slowly, you and your companion had just escaped from an extremely bloody battle with a rather large group of Doogan Mutants. Your name is Instan T., and you are a Toad. The companion's name is Goomber, he is a salesman, and you've been his bodyguard slash friend slash partner since you don't even remember.
There were numerous times that things got sticky like today, you had to help Goomber up and help scooping up the pieces. Then when the smoke cleared you both started to put the pieces back together into the fucked up picture that is both of your lives.
Stating you had a headache was a huge fucking understatement. You grabbed a hold of Goomber's hands and helped him up off of the ground. Then you quickly realize that he's much more wounded than you believed, and that he'd need help just to walk. To you, helping your friend was not a burden, it was a neccessity. This is why when he said what he said it shocked the hell out of you.
Goombert: "Instan... I'm not going to make it man. You gotta leave without me, take as much as you can carry, just get to the next town. Please, just make sure you take the Crimson Claw... the next town, talk to Tren T. And I know how you are but, please... don't let me bleed to death. End it right now."
Instan T: "Fuck you, you're going to make it, it's not that far from here..."
Goombert: "It's miles away, and I'm only going to slow you down, Instan..."
Instan T: "God damn it, please, don't make me do this."
Goombert: "Those mutants... didn't really give us a choice of how this was going to end up. But now I can choose, and this is what I want. Don't make me suffer."
So despite the fact that you didn't want to kill your friend, you slowly grabbed the hunting rifle off of your back, made sure it was loaded, and aimed it at Goombert.
Instan T: "I'm sorry."
Goombert: "As am I..."
Then it was over, and you dropped the hunting rifle almost immediately. You feeling intense sadness knew that there was no other choice, it was continue or die, yet again in this burned husk of a world. So you quickly got the backpack off of Goombert's still warm corpse, full of items he was going to sell, including a rather fine painting he had picked up long ago of the son of the blue yoshi carrying his father on the day he died. That story was well known by almost everyone now, but you had no need for such a picture, but it was precious to Goombert, so you kept it in the backpack. Then you found it, you found the Crimson Claw, some old trinket that your friend had found that wouldn't stop talking about being the key of something really, really important. You never believed him, but I guess that's what this whole story is for actually. Finding out the purpose of the Claw, and yet another stepping stone in this post apocalyptic hell. After emptying the backpack a little bit of things that you did not need and would simply weigh you down, you resumed walking after saying goodbye to your friend for the very last time.
You both were traveling to Glitzville, which was founded by the same yoshi that was in that picture carrying his father. Think his name was Attic, but anyways, he was long gone now, and Glitzville had a new leader, who quickly changed it entirely. Not to mention apparently the residents of Glitzville had found yet another stash of Torque, but that was never explained, even today. The stash was of numerous other prototype versions of Toast, the ultimate war machine that Attic had found at the end of his tale. Attic had even made a rather effective military army along with the Toast Clan, but they were simply for defense, a incredibly strong militia force, I would say. But after Attic just disappeared one day and the new leader's claim of Glitzville, they are now an army.
But don't stop walking while you're thinking about such things, as there's howls coming from behind you...
End of The Crimson Claw, Part One
Well looky dere! A new chapter, beginning a new tale? Le gasp!
Anyways, read and review, yadda yadda yadda, and adios.
~TGG333