"...and then it stomped on the guys head and mashed it into pudding!" Teddy said in a quiet voice as he handed Wilhelm some chopped apples. 
    
    "Teddy I'm tired of hearing about your damn horse!" Wilhelm said to his friend. 
   
    "I... that horse is crazy Willy!" Teddy leaned in conspiratorially, "I'm afraid he's gonna kill me!" he whispered. 

    "That horse loves you more than your own mother," Willy replied, stirring the cauldron, "all things considered you should count yourself lucky."
 
     "Doesn't love me more than your mother," Teddy smiled as he stuck his head over the cauldron and took a big whiff, "It smells good Willy, when you get home you can add an inn to your dad's bakery!"
 
    "If we get home you mean," Willy said thoughtfully. The boys stopped talking when Corporal Heine walked by and waved. They waved back but the Corporal was gone before he saw it. Teddy took advantage of the moment to grab an apple and walk over to the Sarge. He sat down on the stool and took a bite. 
 
    After a few moments he spoke up in a quiet voice. "Sarge," he whispered, not looking up, "....I killed two men, sir." He said it quickly, like he was confessing to his dad and was afraid of how much trouble he was going to be in. He took another bite of his apple and chewed for a moment. "My horse killed like, three, or five, I don't know, he's loony, but he saved my life." Teddy glanced up and caught Sergeant Hecht's eye. 

    "Then you should thank him," Hect said, still casually enjoying his own apple and looking straight back into Teddy's eye. Then he stopped and his face became very serious, "I killed someone too Teddy, this is war, this is what we have to do." He pointed in the direction of the graves where the people who lived in the house were buried, "because if we don't, then we're telling them that that's okay, and it's not okay, is it Teddy?" Teddy shook his head slowly in the negative, "I don't think so either." The Sergeant turned to look out the window and took another big bite of his apple. 

    "Thank you Sarge," Teddy said, then he quickly got up, grabbed another apple and shoved it in his inner coat pocket before heading out the door towards the stables. He patted his friend Willy on the shoulder on his way out. 

    The yard was a bustle of activity, people were shuffling the wounded around and tending the horses. Teddy walked up to a particular cot that had a pretty young blond friend of his he wanted to check on. "Well hi there," he said in his coolest sounding voice, Anja was mostly covered up so he couldn't see how badly she was hurt, but she looked really tired, and a pang of worry hit his belly like a bucket of ice water. "Ar.. are you okay?" he said in sincere concern, "I heard you were one of the first through the line and took a canon to the face? That's pretty bad ass if I don't say so my... OOF!" Suddenly his horse Sir Briggs nuzzled him so affectionately that it knocked him to the ground! The horse was whinnying happily and prancing a bit. Then he tried to stick his hungry maw into Teddy's jacket. Laughing, Teddy said, "Hold on, hold on you crazy old horse, I'll get it for you," he pulled the fresh apple from his pocket, "take it before you kill me too," he said, smiling. As Teddy got to his feet he looked over and saw that Anja had started softly chuckling too.