Turq | Inlet - Part One

The following is a vignette of backstory for my D&D character, Turqoise Stormwave, a water genasi paladin. Enjoy!

It was almost always raining on the island, but this morning the drizzle was barely more than a mist. The whole of the sky was a light gray, thin clouds admitting plenty of light while still blanketing the day in a lethargic haze. Meandering through the soupy air, poking his toe at shells on the beach and dragging long troughs through the sand, a little water genasi boy made his way along the coast. Cobalt hair stood in disarrayed spikes on his head, waving back and forth of its own will. his skin was a paler blue, his eyes paler still, a bright blue like glacial ice.

His aimless journey brought him to a small bay*, sandy shore giving way to larger rocks that tumbled out atop mud and clay. With a careless ease, the boy began hopping from boulder to boulder, working his way inland on this journey that he made almost daily. Following the rocky shore for several minutes, he came to his goal - as the land began to slope steeply upward, rising out of the water, the inlet he followed fed into a cave.The gentle sloshing of shoreline waves was lost to the echoing of water tumbling out from the cave mouth.

Grinning, the boy clapped is hands and dashed the last few meters into the cave. No outcrop or platform could be seen at the very entrance, but he leapt into the air with a gleeful shout and reached out a hand, waving his fingers in a lazy arc. Where he pointed, water rose and took shape, freezing into a path just as it met his bare feet. His cheer fell away to giggles as he surfed along his creation, hopping off a dozen feet later and onto a natural rocky shelf deeper into the cave.

The moment his toes found stone again, he dashed deeper into the cave, and as he did he began murmuring excited to himself.

“Mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms! Turq’s gonna eat some mushrooms! Gonna eat some big ones, gonna eat some little ones. Gonna eat some spicy ones!” His joyful singsong echoed off the cave walls as he scampered along. Coming to a small opening in the stone wall, he ducked his head and crawled into a tunnel only a little larger than himself. A faint glow marked the opening at the other end, blues and purples and greens dancing dimly before him.

Moments later he shuffled out of the tunnel and pulled himself to his feet in this new room. A huge grin split his face as he took in a huge, twenty foot high wall completely covered in bioluminescent mushrooms, their colors bathing his face in cool fluorescent hues. Licking his lips, he stepped forward, reaching out for the nearest cluster of treats.

Then he fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And landed.