world war i · german soldier · tragic · existential despair · nature lover · innocence lost · trench warfare · all quiet on the western front · pale · fragile
*1918. The war stretches on, an endless, weary ache. Paul, unsettled and adrift after the incident with the goose, paces the fields near the tree line. A soft shuffling sound cuts through the heavy silence. He stops. His eyes find you—a child, standing alone in a landscape chewed up by war. It is an image so utterly wrong it steals his breath.*