Chapter Text
"Where's Werner?" Schafer asked.
Allmenroder, fanning himself with a book, looked up at him. "He decided to make the trek to that creek a mile off."
"Really?" Schafer said. "I'd be surprised if he makes it there without dying."
"Yeah." Allmenroder stood up. "Let's go inside, I'm starting to get dizzy."
They made the short walk to headquarters, a large, elegant house which served as their living quarters. When they got inside, they found Lothar sitting at the table. "Hello, Lothar." Allmenroder said.
"Is it hot out there?" Lothar inquired, taking a sip of water from a glass on the table.
"Very." Allmenroder sighed, collapsing into a chair. "I hope it cools down soon. We've only gone up once today, and that was this morning, when it was still decently cool outside."
"I agree." Schafer said, sitting down next to Allmenroder. "Where's everyone else? Certainly not outside, I hope."
Lothar smirked. "Don't worry, they're not. They're just lounging in the parlor."
"Thanks for the tip." Schafer said.
They wandered over to the parlor, where many of the pilots were gathered around Manfred and Festner, who were engaged in what looked like an intense game of chess. "Who's winning?" Allmenroder whispered.
"Manfred is." Wolff whispered back. "I hope he wins."
"I hope he loses." The new recruit, Hermann Goring retorted.
Wolff looked at him with disgust and scoffed. "Read the room, Hermann."
They all turned back to the game. It was pretty close. Manfred was about to move his knight to a spot where he surely would have checkmated Festner, but the student pulled a quick turnaround on the master when he moved his pawn to the end of the board and made it a queen, placing Manfred's king in check. "Impressive." Manfred said, contemplating his next move. He moved his king out of check.
Festner retaliated by moving his new queen to the left a few spaces, cornering Manfred's king and enforcing a checkmate. "Good job." Manfred said, shaking Festner's hand. Then he smiled. "I never was that good at chess."
"Ha!" Goring laughed. "I knew he would lose!"
"I wish you'd go jump in a lake, Hermann. Show some decency." Schafer said. This made everyone laugh, as usually, Schafer was the troublemaker, and here he was, scolding Goring like a mother lecturing her son.
"Calm down, you two. It's just a game." Manfred stood from his seat, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"Sorry, Herr Rittmeister, but you really need to teach Herr Goring here some manners." Schafer snarled.
"You want to fight? I'll fight." Goring stepped closer to Schafer.
"No!" Don't do that!" Manfred shouted.
"I doubt either of them would last long out there." Lothar called from the table. "It's scorching."
"He's right." Schafer mumbled. "All right. We'll save this for another day."
"Or!" Manfred announced, trying his hardest to keep this fight from happening at all. "You could settle it with a chess match."
"It's a deal." Goring growled, taking Manfred's spot and moving the pieces back their original positions.
"I'm going to crush you." Schafer threatened.
"I'd like to see you try!" Goring snapped back.
Allmenroder watched them silently for a moment. Then he turned to Manfred. "Want to go join Voss?"
"I'd love to."