Banjo-Whooie?! (A Banjo-Kazooie Origin story/ IN PROGRESS/ UNDER EDITING 😁)

Threeie

Carefully shifting his weight from his arms to his legs, like he'd done a thousand times, he made it nearly halfway down the tree with no problems. Tooty had gotten herself stuck in trees all the time when she was younger, so to Banjo this was a cakewalk. As much as he yearned to feel the rush of tree-climbing, he kept his pace slow for the sake of the bird on his back.

"Holding up back there?" Banjo asked.

"Yep." Kazooie answered, still anxious. They might be halfway there, but there was still halfway to go.

"Good. Just tell me if I need to sl-" CRRRACK!

The branch snapped.

For a few seconds, or what felt like minutes, the duo plummeted. Kazooie screeched at the top of her lungs and squeezed her eyes shut. Banjo flailed for a moment, not quite sure what was happening yet.

Then his situation finally registered. Fire flooded his chest.

Fueled by white-hot adrenaline, quick as lightning, Banjo clamped back onto the tree and dug his claws in hard. Splinters showered to and fro as Banjo's weight dragged them through the bark, leaving long, deep gashes. Kazooie was shouting all the while, not filtering anything that came out of her mouth. Once they finally slowed to a stop and Banjo regained clarity, he secretly wished Tooty wasn't nearby.

"You really ARE trying to kill me aren't you!?" Kazooie shouted, wide-eyed and shaking. Banjo couldn't really hear her over his heart thumping in his ears. He took deep breaths to try and ease away the adrenaline. She suddenly remembered Banjo, too, had nearly died. "Sorry. I know that wasn't your fault. Please don't drop me the rest of the way."

Banjo, now calm again, responded, "Why on Earth would I do that?"

Kazooie looked genuinely confused. "But...aren't you mad at me?"

"Well, no. Not really." Banjo said casually. "I know that you're in a lot of pain, and people say things they don't mean when they're in pain. So it's alright. Don't worry about it." He gave her a small smile. Kazooie sat in the backpack dumbfounded.

He resumed his trek down the tree, opting to keep to the trunk and ignore the branches all together. "We're almost there! Just a few more feet." Kazooie exhaled a heavy sigh of relief. She'd had enough flying and sky and trees for one day.

"Banjo? Banjo are you alright?" Tooty approached the base of the tree as Banjo did. "Banjo! What was all that screaming about? You scared the daylights out of me! And who's that bird? Why is she in your backpack? And- Oh my gosh, is that your wing?! I have to take a look at it!" Banjo removed the backpack and gently set Kazooie on the ground. Tooty grabbed the first-aid kit laying on the ground from when Banjo emptied his backpack earlier and plopped down in front of Kazooie.

"Woah, woah, Goldie! No touching! Yahh!" The bird winced from yanking her wing back.

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle. I'm only going to look at your wing, that's all." Tooty assured. Kazooie looked skeptical, but she reluctantly moved her injury back towards Tooty. The blonde gingerly lifted Kazooie's injured wing, causing her to suck in her breath sharply.

"Oh wow, that's really bad. It's way worse than I thought... Banjo, I think we need to take her to Bottles."

"What's Bottles?" Kazooie asked.

"You mean who's Bottles. He's our friend." Banjo explained. "He knows his way around machines, so he keeps a lot of them at his home."

She squinted her eyes and huffed. "He sounds like a dork. How's he supposed to help my wing?"

"He has his own X-Ray machine." Tooty replied. "Brand new."

"Tooty thinks he'll be able to take some pictures of your wing to find out exactly what's wrong." Banjo continued.

The young bear gnawed her finger. "The only issue is that we'd have walk allll the way back home. But I think that's better than losing the ability to fly properly."

The very thought made Kazooie shudder. "Let's do whatever works." She decided. "I don't mind staying in this backpack with all your stuff, if that's what we've gotta do."

The Bears smiled. "Great!" Tooty exclaimed. She reached into the First-Aid kit for a long splint and some bandages. "But first, we've got to make sure that your wing doesn't get anymore messed up than it already is. This will make sure it stays still and doesn't try to heal all weird."

Kazooie looked at her bruised, crumpled excuse for a wing and than back at Tooty.
"...This is gonna hurt, isn't it?"

Tooty glanced at Banjo apprehensively, seeing her own expression in his face, then back to Kazooie.

"Sorry..." They lamented.

Kazooie groaned and threw her head back. Today was going to be outstanding.