From Legion to Legend

Chapter 1: Blood On The Mojave Sand

Minerva woke to the bright light of the Mojave sun peering through a window she did not know. She sat up quickly, but quickly regretted the motion. Just as she was about to puke,on herself, a bucket was placed in her lap, taking the vomit sparing her bed clothes.

"Easy there girl, you been out for a couple of days now." She turned her blue eyes upon the man, he was elderly and dressed much like a farmer. On the bedside table laid some needles, string and bloody bandaging; he must have patched her up. Everything was fuzzy, she could recall distant things, but the last two weeks came in fuzzy.

Suddenly, the man spoke, "I'm Doc Mitchell, I've been fixing you up here at my home. You were shot in the head." She looked down into the bucket confused and disgusted, she suddenly released herself again vomiting for several moments before the Doctor spoke again. "How about your name? Can you tell me your name?"

She turned to meet his eyes and smiled softly and coughed a bit, her throat dry to which he chuckled himself and handed her, a canteen with a fox face carved into the old metal. It was hers, a gift from the past, she knew it well and took it happily chugging down what water was left inside.

Finally,with the water finished and sense of clarity found she spoke, her voice rolled out in a smooth, almost sophisticated way, however, the words were not. "I'm Minerva, courier for the fucking Mojave Express, aka the people who give you packages that get you shot."

The old man stared for a moment, but then laughed heartily. "How could someone with such an angel voice have such a foul mouth?" he kept laughing and honestly, it made Minerva feel more at peace that she could hear someone laugh, she hadn't heard that much growing up. She looked down a goofy smile on her face, when suddenly a mirror was put into her lap where she found her blue eyes and pale skin staring back at her.

"Now, I take pride in my needlework, but you better tell me if I left anything out of place." She examined her face and head equally, her hair was still long and red, she said a silent thanks for that, she had a new scar on the top left part of her forehead but it was no worse than the one under her right eye, from training when she was fourteen, nor was it more noticeable than the "X" shaped one under her bottom lip from a punch she'd taken.

"Well, no reason to keep you in bed anymore, let's get you on your feet." Was the next thing she heard before she was hoisted to her feet. "Why don't you walk on over to the vigor tester and I'll check your vitals."

After some testing and questioning, the Doc finally sent Minerva on her way with a new vault suit, pip-boy, and the few belonging she had, he encouraged her to stop in and see Sunny Smiles down at the saloon.

Sunny helped Minerva get back on her feet with a gun and even showed her some good survival tricks. At the end of the day they stood in the graveyard where Minerva has been shot. The blood was still there in the sand. It was a faded red now, it turned her stomach. She could feel the threat of vomit, but forced herself to hold it in.

Sunny just rubbed the back of her head and looked at the courier, she didn't know what to say, she was friendly but not always the best at comforting. Thankfully, Minerva spoke for her. "Who shot me? And Where the fuck did they go?"

Sunny was caught off guard and looked at the redheaded woman in shock. Her eyes looked like lightening, and hands clenched into white knuckled fists. "Whoa there Minerva, let's calm down and go have a drink and Trudy and I will fill you in on what we know about the men who tried to kill you."

Reluctantly, Minerva walked her boots back into the prospector saloon. Just in time to hear Ms. Trudy kicking a nasty looking man out of her bar. He was dark skinned, mixed maybe,with dark hair and ugly eyes. "Your whole town is gonna pay for this Trudy!" He yelled back as he walked out the door.