Our second world- Book two: War is coming

Chapter 10

~Haren~

He lay on his back staring up at the ceiling of his small room. Which he'd gotten a little more used to after a week of already being at the main base. August lay in the crook of his neck in the form of a  large,  yellow-eyed black wolf. Artemis was sleeping soundly in the bed on the other side of the room and Marylyn had left her room down the hall to sleep next to Haren on his bed.
As always, he was having trouble sleeping. Though having both August and Marylyn by his side helped a little.
"Darling, are you awake?" August whispered in a mental message.
Since Elise had taught both August and Alfheim to use mental messages and change their physical form, they'd both started doing it every chance they got to keep in practice.
"Yes," Haren replied, rolling onto his side to nuzzle his partner.
"Let's take a walk then," August said, jumping off the bed. His wolf form stood at Harens waist.
He carefully crawled over Mary, pulled on his coat, and followed August out into the dimly lit hallway. Although there were multiple fires burning in the base to keep it as warm as possible, it was still cold in the winter with all the snow outside. It had snowed only twice since they'd arrived, but there were a couple inches on the ground.
Passing the empty mess hall, he headed to one of the training grounds outside and sat down on a clear patch of dirt. Not that there was much snow on the training grounds anyway; they were frequently cleared with fire magic or shovels depending on who's job it was on what day.
August sat next to him and Haren pulled him close before hurrying his face in Augusts neck. Breathing in the familiar scent to calm his racing heart. He was anxious and he couldn't figure out why, but it was best to calm himself, whatever the reason before he experienced a panic attack.
"O-oh, sir. I didn't know you were out here," Haren looked up at the sound of Rachels' voice," Are you also doing some late training?"
"No, I'm just—I needed some fresh air."
"Oh. I can uh... go s-somewhere else, then." She said, turning to leave.
"It's fine, you can train here if you want. I don't mind," Haren said, pulling August onto his lap before resting his chin on top of his head.
"Ok. J-just let me know if I'm being too bothersome and you want me to leave." She said.
Haren watched as she retrieved a wooden short-sword from the rack on the fence. Walking to a center point in a sparing circle and began going through the motions of a duel with an invisible enemy. From what he knew about her, she'd been trained with a sword since she was young. Her parents were both ex-military and she wanted to learn how to fight so they taught her much like how Tsukiyama had taught Haren. He enjoyed watching her fight because of how diverse her style was. It was unlike any other he'd ever seen and it looked almost like she was dancing when she dueled. He had to admit she did have some skill, but she was still inexperienced when it came to hands-on practice. After watching for a while, he started to get a little bored.
"Hey Rae," He called to the violet-haired girl who froze mid-swing," Want to go a few rounds with me?"

~Early the next morning~

While his intention was to have only one match with Rachel, they ended up having several long matches that lasted through the night and into the early hours of the morning. By the time they had finished their fifth match or so, a significant amount of early rising on-lookers had accumulated to watch them. Most of which were part of Harens 8:00 a.m class of trainees he was supposed to be teaching. Rachel, coincidentally, ended up in his class along with her squad mates.
When they finished their final match, Haren was surprised to see everyone gathered and waiting.
"Thank you for sparing with me, senpai." Rachel beamed, her face full of energy even after sparing through the night.
"Sure. Anyway, I have a pretty easy lesson for you all today. It's a little game called chess."
There were a few confused murmurs from his students, but they quickly quieted when he cleared his throat to continue," Chess is a strategy game that involves 24 moving prices. Each with a specific movement path across the board and of course, there's a chain of command. Only certain pieces can capture other pieces, and it's a lot like war in the sense that you have to take out the other persons king before your own is taken." He explained as he set out a miniature set of pieces on a board he'd drawn in the dirt," Who wants to go first?"