With a grunt, he slowly tried to get up.

The creak of moving metal was already common in his ears.

The movement of the gears in his Power Armor going into action as he slowly tried to get up.

At his touch, he heard a noise, a noise difficult to be perceived, however, for his ears trained to hear the smallest detail, he can hear a sound that he had never heard before.

A sound of something that seemed to be tiny and weak because of the easy way it broke.

But it was soft as a feather....

And on his nose, a smell he had never smelled before, a wonderful smell.

It was not the scent of carrion from somebody after being disintegrated by the rays of his weapon, it was not the smell of guts open in the sun for hours, it was not the smell of radioactive earth.

Slowly, as he got up, he looked around, his eyes widened and he gaped under his helmet.

Trees! Real trees! Not one totally destroyed or falling apart by radiation, a real oak tree! Brown and green!

Finally he was on his feet, and managed to look and observe his surroundings, it was wonderful, Grass in his boots and a lake nearby, it was just like the images of pre-war America...

Then the thought hit his head.

I died...?

It was one of the only explanations, in his whole life as a soldier in the Brotherhood of Steel he traveled to almost every corner of America, and he had already lost all hope that there was some life that had not been consumed by radiation.

And here it was, a tree intact, and as its armor said, totally free of radiation.

Slowly he extended his hand to palpate her, to see if it was trully real, to see if everything was not a dream, when he would make contact with the tree.

"STOP! HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE!"

He would immediately freeze, and mentally swear at himself in his head.

While he was enjoying the scenery he completely forgot to form a perimeter and recon the area by hostiles.

This is one of the most important lessons taught to members of the Brotherhood when they were still Squatters, and he completely forgot!

He slowly sighed, and raised his hands in surrender, recognizing the voice as coming from behind his back, he did not therefore recognize the assailant.

"Identify yourself! Or i will fire!"

He recognized, the voice had a deep and mechanical tone, very common to hear when the user wears a power armor helmet, he felt a relief thinking he could be another member of the Brotherhood, but he soon remembered that all factions of the Wasteland Just like the Brotherhood had some kind of Power Armor.

He was silent for a while, hesitating to answer, not knowing who was behind him and whether he would react hostilely to the answer.

With another mental sigh, he answered.

"Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel......"

A long period of silence reigned after he revealed his affiliation and rank to the unknown.

After those long, tense moments, he heard the voice from behind him respond

"A Brotherhood knight? You are stuck here too?"

He would be confused by the question, and would slowly lower his hands and look back, and be surprised.

He was a carrier of the Power Armor T-45, his silver paintwork and his symbol on his Chestplate said it all.

He was a Minutemen.

"Minutemen? Here? And what do you mean 'stuck'....?"

Minutemen seemed to decrease his stance, and on closer inspection, he was not armed, he had bluffed, and he had fallen for it.

Mentally, he facepalmed, twice he did shit, unacceptable, if the Elder saw him, surely he would have already lost his Knight title, if, he had survived the enemy that had caught him off guard.

However the Minutemen were not raiders, they were civilized enough to ask first and shoot later, his types are the ones who can start a dialogue.

Minutemen seemed to find the question amusing by looking at his body language.

"So you fell here recently? Or were you too breezy to notice the fucken' beautiful landscape, metalman?"

He would wrangle his teeth under his helmet, but ignoring the insult, he had a point, slowly looking around, he couldn't deny it.

The landscape was wonderful, on top of a hill, he could observe kilometers of trees, a small river passing by them, but most surprising of all, he saw birds singing.

Birds! He had already read in pre-war books about what their singing was like, and now listening with his own ears, it was magnificent.

"Yes.... I See your point..... Nowhere in America i have ever seen such a beautiful place.... And so preserved as well...."

He would hear a muffled laugh under the Minutemen's helmet as he slowly turned and slowly walked down a dirt path.

"Welcome to heaven then, because there is no fucken way we are in America anymore."

He would slowly return his attention to the Minutemen.

"Were do you think you are goi-....WHAT THE FUCK???"

The Minutemen would stop and look at his Brotherhood counterpart, seeing him paying attention to his back, specifically, the huge fur that came out of the armor.

He would look at him and then his back and give a hushed laugh.

"Strange right? I got these beautiful fuckers when i got here, I never thought something like this would ever happen to me."

The Knight would be completely silent, he couldn't understand what had happened to that soldier, radiation? No, there was not a drop of radiation in this region according to its power armor....

If it was not a mutation, what could it be? A Vault-Tec experiment? HIV? The Enclave?

He couldn't find an answer, slowly sitting on a rock, looking at the floor, not knowing what was going on.

The Minutemen seemed to have noticed this, and slowly walked towards him.

"Look, a lot has changed since i got here, the animals, the fields, heck, even the timezone is fucked up, however, please do NOT shoot me with what i will show you."

He slowly raised his head to look at the Minutemen, not knowing what he was going to show now, according to himself, nothing else would surprise him, what else was going to happen? A Synth Utopia? Unicorns? Chinese?

Minutemen slowly positioned their hands on the sides of the helmet, and with a 'tssss', the helmet came loose, and he revealed his face.

He didn't know how to react, he expected everything but that, a ghoul, supermutant maybe, or even a tree growing on his head....

However, instead, he was faced with the head of what could be described, a bird, fur present all over his face, and a beak.

He rubbed his visors, he couldn't believe what he saw, this action only resulted in another laugh from Minutemen, who looked at the helmet with a sad smile.

"I Know right? I couldn't believe in my fucking self at first when i saw my reflection... I guess that this place changed us more than we could ever tought...."

He continues to look at the other in shock, until he came back to reality and noticed in the combination of words of the companion.

"We....?"

He would then take his eyes off the helmet, and slowly point at his back, and when he followed the other's indicator, he could only bulge his eyes even more.

With great hesitation, he brought his hand to the fur on her back, and touched and caressed it.

He felt, each touch and squeeze, the cold, hard metal material.

And then still not believing what he saw before his own eyes, he with a tug, took out a feather.

He can only let out a loud cry from the huge voltage of pain he felt throughout his body, it looked like he had done an amputation on a non-existent part of his body.

"Woah, woah! Don't do that, dammit!"

He then heard a noise of machinery working that he could easily recognize, it was the noise of someone coming out of a power armor.

Slowly looking he could see the Minutemen in his full body outside the armor, he was the one who could describe himself, a Griffin, a body that could resemble a lion, head and eagle legs.

Now he could see his companion much better, his head was silver with white spots and his body followed the same pattern, he used the colonial style field uniform that was worn by most minutemen, consisting of a baby blue button-up shirt with a tattered jacket with rolled sleeves worn over it with jeans and boots.

He quickly came towards him with a concerned look.

"The Wings are very sensitive, believe me, i know, learned that the hard way, you have to take very good care of them if you don’t want a huge inconvenience in the future."

He then slowly passed his hand over his fur, but this time it was different, with his paws, he passed through different points of the wing, and in response he let out a groan, not in pain, but....

Satisfaction, which surprised and monumentally embarrassed him, making Minutemen unleash a Smirk.

"Good right? That's the spot."

Not wanting to have his honor more tainted, he jerked and slapped his hands away.

"OI! That's enough!"

He was surprised by the aggressive reaction, and pulled away a little with his hands raised as if he surrendered.

"Wow, calm down pal, i just wanted to ease the pain."

He would slowly look at his span, not before casting a threatening look under his helmet.

"I know...."

He would slowly get up and look out over the horizon.

"And i thank you for it.."

And slowly he would look back at the Minutemen.

"However, i think it's time for we to part ways.... Thanks for the assistance civilian."

He would then slowly turn around and start walking towards basically nothing, the Minutemen would be surprised by this, and would quickly walk towards him and pull him by his metal arm.

"Sorry bud... But i can't let ya...."

He would then slowly turn his visor over to the Minutemen.

"Was that a treat?"

The Minutemen would slowly sigh.

"No bud, listen, i am here for more than a month, and I have explored everything around here, and there is not a shred of civilization in these parts.... Trying to explore will not get you anywhere."

The Knight would then turn to face the Minutemen, clearly frustrated in his body language.

"And what do you want me to do? Stay here waiting for a miracle? Waiting for the Brotherhood to come to me? Or that an answer falls from the sky??"

The Minutemen would just make another sigh, this time one of tiredness, and then he would face the Knight again.

"No, I do not believe in miracles, but to go around alone in the unknown, and with a probably new body, and as if you are begging to be killed..."

The Knight would raise an eyebrow at this.

"And you suggest...?"

He then maintaining his neutral expression would continue.

"I Suggest that we stick together, i know you don't trust me, however, i think you would rather have somebody that know the things around here rather then walk blindly around."

The Knight of the Brotherhood would think deeply at the minutemen's suggestion, he could be showing obvious signs of distrust, but he was here for a while, and he had some experiences with what could have happened to him, and he being sincere, was better to be stuck with a sarcastic Minutemen than with a Psycho Raider.

With a grunt, he would face the Minutemen again.

"I.... Find you suggestion reasonable, but make no mistake, betray me, and suffer the consequences."

Minutemen would just laugh at the threat and extend a hand (or paw) for a handshake.

"Deal."

The Knight would then oblige, extending his hand and accepting the handshake.

"Name's Colonel Dean, but just call me Dean, this year's hottest gift for ya, what'cha name?"

The Knight would hesitate until he answered while shaking Dean's hand in the grip.

"Marcus... Knight Marcus..."