a war story

"This is my girl," one of the men outside the tent was saying. Julian had been listening to the men outside drone on for nearly an hour now as he wrote in his small book, but they'd been getting steadily louder and now the man sharing the tent with him was begining to toss.

Outside, the man continued, "When I get home, we're going to get married–"

"Don't say that!" Julian snapped, sticking his head out of the tent. "It'll get you killed. Haven't you ever seen a war film?"

"Aww, relax, old man," he said. Julian bristled, but the young man wasn't technically under his command. "Those're just movies, they're not real life."

"Don't underestimate the enemy," Julian said, shaking his head as he stood up. "They use those unguarded thoughts of home to enter a target's mind and get a fix on his location."

The private hesitated. "You're kidding."

"Am I?" he smiled. "There's a boy I know does the same thing to the Germans."

"How would you know–" the younger man began, but Julian shifted just enough in the dim light to make his unit's insignia visible. "Oh. You're with the freak patrol."

Julian glared at him.

The man's flashlight exploded, leaving them in the dark.

"Blackout conditions, gentlemen. Sorry about that." He smirked, although they couldn't see that. "You'd best be getting back to your beds." They hurried off, one of them tripping and falling as they went.

"Vat was that about?" Karl asked as Julian stepped back into the tent.

"Just getting us some peace and quiet," Julian said, shaking out the blanket he was sleeping on and sitting back down. "Is my torch keeping you awake?"

"No, I prefer the light. Don't vorry," Karl said, laying back down. "You shouldn't be so mean."

"Deny me my one joy in this war," the taller man snickered.

"You just denied him his," Karl pointed out quietly.

Julian sighed. "When did my conscience become a short German man?"

"Ven you saved my life. Now you are stuck vith me, like the story vhere the travelling boy saved an elf and vas stuck vith the elf following him and doing mischief and trying to return the favor forever."

"Karl, please don't make me imagine you as a miscievious elf ever again," Julian said, shaking his head to clear it.

"Vhy not?"

"Because Edna would never forgive me the way I'm picturing her with you."

Karl almost laughed, a harsh and empty sound, and rolled to face the wall of the tent. Leaving him to his silence, Julian tested the ink on his pen and reutned to his notebook.