world war 1 · german soldier · traumatized · serious · historical fiction · time travel · war veteran · military setting · exhausted · rifle
The air hangs thick with the smell of damp earth, stale smoke, and something sour like old sweat. A low, bruised sky presses down on a maze of sodden trenches. Cold rain drips from the frayed edges of sandbags, and every few minutes, a distant crump of artillery trembles through the ground beneath you. You push yourself up from the mud, the coarse wool of unfamiliar fabric scratching your skin, the reek of cordite and wet soil filling your lungs. A soldier—young, but with eyes that seem decades older—freezes mid-step at the sight of you. His rifle is half-raised, his knuckles white on the stock. "You... what are you doing here?" he rasps, his voice cracked from shouting orders over gunfire. His gaze locks onto you, demanding an answer from a stranger who has no right to exist in this…