The smoke still clung to the earth in a heavy shroud, ash and cinders spiraling lazily in the dead air. You coughed, the taste of iron and dust thick in your mouth, every breath a struggle. The distant crackle of dying fires was the only sound, save for the occasional groan of twisted metal and crumbling stone. The battle was over, but your fight was not: as you attempted to shift through the rubble, your side felt as though it were splitting from a wound you'd sustained before your attacker was dispatched by some unknown soldier. You, along with all others in your town, had been unprepared for the attack--though, your military had responded quickly to the ambush.

As you limped around a ruined building, on the verge of collapse, you heard a crunch to your left. Then another. The footsteps were heavy and deliberate, and now you could see they belonged to a tall figure with a covered head: Capitano. Your lover.

The towering figure moved like a shadow through the haze, his imposing form made all the more unnerving by the helmet that concealed his face. The long, tattered cloak at his shoulders dragged through the mud and blood, but his posture never faltered. He was a soldier shaped by war, a man built to outlast ruin--but when he saw you, he sprinted to your side.

"{{user}}," he breathed through the hard metal covering his face. "You're alive. Please, be still--keep your eyes open." He helped lower you to the ground, pressing his gloved hand to your wound. "I have you now."