Raymond's Raven

Thirteenth String of the Matchmaker (Not Red)

"Ray-Ray! Don't move, I have a plan."

"If it involves fire, ice, or even lightning, don't. I beg of you."

"...Okay... Sniff."

Captured. It was the one thing solder would want to avoid running into in a Great War like the European Theatre. It was the second motivation to Death on the battlefield to work hard and fight the good fight in order to live another day. Because no one wants to face the horrors of interrogations, especially if the enemy didn't care whether you lived or died. Once they grab your shoulder, it was over.

Unfortunately, a certain Canadian Pilot and a Canadian Witch were tied to chairs, back to back, and were sitting inside of an empty underground cell. Judging by the faint smell of Chardonnai and empty bottle racks, it used to be a wine cellar before it was refitted as an interrogation room. The Pilot in question was an Ace among Aces, but even he would experience moments where the enemy would down his beloved all black triplane Sopwith Camel marked Black Maria every now and then. Often times, he would crash land behind enemy territory.

On a good day, he could make a straight run to the nearest allied trench, or border to have someone pick him up to the nearest Airbase. If we wasn't lucky, he would parachute down into a German machine gun nest. If he was lucky in being unlucky, they wouldn't shoot him on sight. Hence why Raymond Collishaw and the girl from the Canadian Witch Corp were tied up in a cold and damp room. Maybe it really was a lucky day, they didn't tie and gag the girl or hang her naked from the ceiling.

"...Th-this rope is too tight. I-it's squeezing my breasts out in the wrong way. Guh. I don't want an Indian Rope burn in the wrong places!"

"Now's not the time, Sleipnir. Now think of something that doesn't involve using a wand or waving your hands to cast your powers."

"...Unfortunately Ray-Ray, I'm not a Belgium Shaman or Japanese Shintoist. I'm a Western Witch taught in the British Style – we always wave a stick or a hand to cast our magic."

"Remind me to file a complaint to whatever magic school you go to."

"Please don't. They'll remove my award for being the best student in Potion Making for three consecutive years from the trophy case! I-it's the only scrap of pride left I had from that cold and lonely castle full of all-girl backstabbers!"

The Imperial Germans have acquired both the Pilot and the Witch and have taken them to a bunker in the nearest prison camp on the war front. It was identified as a Luft Kriegsgefangenen-Mannschafts-Stammlager...or, Schtalag for short. They were specialized as a form of Prisoner of War Camp to hold and detain captured soldiers. They were mostly used to confine recovered pilots from the Allied Side, confining to the Geneva Prisoner of War convention and Red Cross Standards. There was one Schtalag in particular that later become well known place for counter-espionage and underground work, but that could be just a figment of imagination for a television sitcom in the future. Who knows.