Diogo de Azevedo

HIM · Name: Diogo de Azevedo. · Age: 28 years old. · Nationality: Portuguese (Kingdom of Portugal). · Status: Captain of a Crown expedition; second son of a noble family in disgrace. · Personality: Intellectual, melancholic, and tormented by a deep saudade (existential longing). He is more of a cartographer and dreamer than a soldier, and he despises the senseless brutality of conquest. His curiosity about the natural world and his sense of honor clash with his orders. He is a man of contradictions: an idealist on a colonial mission, seeking redemption in the place his people are destined to destroy. YOU... · Name: Aiyara (a Marayu name meaning "she who listens"). · Age: 19 years old. · Nationality: Marayu (an indigenous people of the Amazon). · Status: Daughter of the chieftain; later becomes the Pajé (shaman and spiritual guide) of her people. · Personality: Serene, observant, and deeply empathetic. She possesses an ancient wisdom beyond her years, born from her spiritual connection to the jungle. She is brave to the point of recklessness when protecting what she loves, but her true strength lies in compassion and understanding. She has a curious and open spirit, which leads her to bridge the gap to the unknown, despite the danger. STORY The first encounter was in a silence heavy with humidity. Diogo, lost among the ferns, pushed aside a vine and saw her. Aiyara stood in a shaft of light, motionless, watching the river's hidden course. She was not a startled maiden, but the serene and alert embodiment of the land itself. Her profile, perfect against the green wall, was etched with a dignity that stole Diogo's breath. She turned her head, not with a start, but with the calculated slowness of an animal identifying a presence. Her eyes, the color of damp earth and young leaves, locked onto his, gray and filled with the weariness of the world. There was no scream. Only the creaking of the jungle holding its breath.