Riley's Story

The Girl From No-Where (Riley's Back story, but with more detail)

Riley grew up in a very small village, within a valley, on a mountain. The town had, at most, 150 people total, all human, including her. She was an only child that lived with her mother and father in a small hut. They were in charge of the livestock and harvesting. She had a relatively good childhood, better than most children of her village. Just like every village there was a story that everyone in the town knew, they told the children that the mountains and caves surrounding the village was haunted. They said that spirits roamed at night and would try to lure children into the mountains to feast on their fear and the warmth of their bodies. Of course most children didn't believe this story but still avoided being out after dark, just in case. The story of the roaming souls was one everyone knew, but Riley didn't listen to their warnings. One night she woke up to a voice, the voice sounded like a whisper but sang with an echo. It sounded eerie but also welcoming. Riley was 8 years old on that night. Only eight years and she was brave enough to go out into the town square with nothing but her pajamas and a small cloak. The sound of her absent-minded steps in the snow and a faint song radiated through the valley. She followed it until she arrived at a cave, maybe a mile away from my village.
The cave was dark at first, the voice became louder and Riley's curiosity grew stronger with every step towards the voice. A few feet into the cave the walls and ceilings became illuminated by little blue crystals. The stalactites and stalagmites reaches towards each other and created a very mysterious formation. The voice became louder with each step, and puddles from the drops of water that fell above formed below Riley's feet. Until finally, she reached a very large empty space completely illuminated by the blue crystals. A pedestal with a closed book resting on top, and a snowflake symbol engraved on the cover awaited Riley in the center. As she approached, the voice stopped. An unsettling silence came upon the cave. The deep stillness seem to make its own sound, but a sound that didn't exist. Suddenly Riley felt an irresistible urge to open the book, and almost unintentionally she reached out and placed her fingers on the cover. As her shivering fingers touched the book and started to opened it, the warmth of someone was present behind her. It felt almost like a cool warmth. She didn't look but still felt whoever it was bend down and whisper into her ear something she couldn't understand. As soon as the whispering stoped Riley looked into to book and instantly after her gaze rested upon the page she saw nothing. Black was the only thing she could see or feel.
What seemed to be instantly after her experience in the cave, she woke up on the ground of town square. Confused, Riley stood up and looked around rapidly. Unconscious that she was breathing heavily she looked down at her hand where a cold sensation pulsated on her palm. As her visible breath began to slow, swallowing hard she picked out a small clear-ish-blue crystal. She examined the now steady beating crystal. As it rests between her fingers it almost feels like it has a connection with her, something unexplainable. She can feel each glowing beat on her fingertips, and almost in a trance she takes it and puts it into her pocket, not breaking eye contact until the cloth breaks her gaze.
A few minutes later she walks around and realized there was no one in the village, everyone was gone; her parents, friends, and neighbors. There was no sign of them at all, not even footprints in the snow...
As she slams open doors and searches for anyone in disbelief and terror, her mind races faster than she can comprehend. Suddenly she stops on the porch of her house. She reaches into her pocket and trows the newly discovered crystal into the snow in rage. Falling to her knees she starts crying into her hands. Minutes pass as the sky and snow seem to stop in their tracks. The valley doesn't move, the the only sound is that of a little girl crying for her village.
Her tears begin to freeze as they hit the ground and roll down her cheeks. Her sobbing slows, and she lowers her hands and stares down at the snow where the crystal had landed. She closes her eyes and tilts her face up to meet with the light of the moon. Her thoughts finally slow and she concentrates on one memory.
She sees her mother looking down at her. Her beautiful blonde hair rapped tight in a bun, and her indistinct wrinkles on her forehead and cheeks from many years of smiling was what Riley loved most about her mom. Her mother crouches down and pats her on the head, "Now Riley, it's okay to cry when you're sad, but you need to remember that living in sadness will do nothing for you. You've got to pick you're head back up and figure out how to make it better." In the memory Riley was sitting on a carpet in front of her very familiar fireplace, Riley's head tilted down towards the carpet in a pouting motions as her very tiny fingers could be seen playin with the loose threads on the carpet. A hand reaches out and places two fingers under her chin and lifts her head up, "And I know that you can do that," her smile almost contagious makes Little Riley try and resist giggling, "So come on, let's go read a story to dad, he's been waiting all day to hear your story." Her mother picked her up and sound her around. As they walked away into another room the memory faded and the voice of Riley's mother resonated through her brain.
Riley's eyes opened and looked at the moon, she thought to her self that she needs to find a way. A few moments pass while staring at the moon, and the world begins to move again. She looked back at the crystal, thinks for a moment, then stands up places it back in her pocket, this time without looking at it, and continues into her house. Riley grabs a few things her mothers dark blue cloak, her fathers brown satchel, and a picture of her and her mother and father. After gathering some more snow gear she leaves her house. Stopping for a moment on the last step of the house she looks out at all of the houses. All of them vacant and abandoned she knew that once she left it would be a ghost town.
Riley began her journey down the mountain the only way she knew. A winter before her father took her down the mountain to trade with a town at the bottom. The trail was steep, icy, and very dangerous, especially for a little girl that just turned eight. Riley was confident in herself and knew exactly where to go, she arrived at the nearby town right when the sun was awaking from it's slumber. Her ankles were hard to bend and her fingers could move about as fast as a turtle can cross a road. Nearly slipping on a few frozen puddles she finally made it into the town.
This town was much bigger than her little village, with many different people varying in race, size, and personalities, all of which she hadn't seen much of before. She went up to a few people on the street and asked if they could help her. Most of them looked at her with an almost discussed look on their faces, then walked away. Her experience with people outside her village wasn't very good up to this point, and she was very confused on why they were treating her that way. Minutes later Riley decided to go into a very lively building that sounded like people were singing and dancing. She walked up to what she hadn't know was a Tavern and peeked through one of the front windows. Her eyes adjusted to the new lighting and saw a group of people singing and dancing on tables. Riley allowed a smile for a moment, then decided to go in and see if someone in there would help her.
She walked in, almost unnoticed, and started to squeeze through people. Riley knew that not everyone was nice so she tried to avoid the people that looked scary. She tried tapping a few people on the back to see if she could ask them if she could help her, but most of the people she wanted help from were drunk out of their minds. Unbeknownst to Riley there was a man watching from a corner, he watched her try talk to men and women, but failed to get anyone's attention. Finally Riley decides to try and ask one of the bigger people that she had deemed as scary when she walked in. The man was probably 3x her size and standing at the bar. Riley walked up to him and hesitated before tapping the back of his leg. The beastly man turned around and looked around before looking down at the little girl. He looked confused and ask her, "What do you want?" His booming voice caused Riley to paused for a moment and think about what she meant to ask, "I'm very sorry Sir but I was wondering if you could help me?" Her high pitched voice seemed to carry further now and more people began to listen to the little girl talking to the giant man. "Why would you think I would help you?" He said chuckling and taking another sip from his tankard.
"Well I thought that you might be able to help me find my village since you're a really big guy." She said shyly trying to get his attention again. She waited a moment for him to finish his drink, then he looked back down at her, "look I don't help people, especially people like you!" Then he turned back around to the bartender and got a refill. A few people surrounding chuckled and went back to their conversations.
Riley stood there a moment once again confused on what he meant by people like you. She squeezed her way back out of the tavern and just continued walking a crossed the street. Focused on what just happened she didn't realize there was a carriage coming and about to hit her. The man driving the cart made a surprised gasp as he reached for the leads and tried to stop the horses. Riley heard his gasp and looked up toward the carriage with fright in her eyes. She couldn't move, and even if she could there wouldn't be enough time to get out of the way. Right before the horses trampled over her a sound appeared behind her then she was lifted into the air. The carriage passed behind her, she looked back and the man in the carriage peeked back to see if she was okay then continued on. Riley floated there for a few moments before being slowly lowers to the ground. As she was being lowered a voice came in the direction of the tavern, "You should be a bit more carful when crossing the road. You were almost road kill." As the man can closer, his hand lowering at the same time she was, she could make out features of this mysterious man. He was tall with longer brown hair, his eyes were green, and he had a very long cloak with many pockets and books strapped around him. She hadn't know at the time but he was a half-elf that had been known around the area as a powerful Wizard.
"Thank you very much Sir, I'll be more careful next time." She said in between worried breaths.
"It wasn't an issue." He paused for a moment and looked at her while she was cleaning some snow off her cloak, "Why were you in the tavern anyway? It's definitely not a place people of your age should be."
Riley paused for a moment and looked up at him, "I'm not exactly sure what a tavern is. I don't think we had one in my village." He looks at her with wonder then kneels down to be eye level with her, "Where is your village?"
"Up in the mountains that way," she points in the direction she came, "and that's exactly why I was asking for help. The people in my village aren't there, my parents and neighbors are all gone I don't know where they went." Riley starts explaining frantically and the half-elf listens. She tells him the stories that the adults told her about the roaming souls that haunt the caves near her village. She told him everything that she could remember; about the singing voice, the cave with glowing crystals, and the mysterious book, everything. The man seems to look at her in disbelief as she finishes her story, "Did this just happen?" He asked.
"Yes, and I was looking for someone that could help me look for everyone." The elf stays still for a moment thinking.
"I have an idea," he finally says, "what if you stay with me tonight, and tomorrow you can show me your village and magic cave. Does that sound good?" Riley thinks for a moment then nods her head in agreement.
The man took her to his house on the other side of town. They were almost there when Riley saw an unfrozen puddle on the path. She saw something strange, she saw herself but it wasn't her. Her reflection showed not a little human girl, but an albino Tiefling. She kneeled down looking in the puddle, her heart skipped as she realized she wasn't the same person. Her hair and skin was white, her eyes were fully black, and from the top of her head were two horn reaching back and up toward the sky. She looked at her reflection in disbelief, she reached up to touch her horns hoping they weren't real... they were. The half-elf man looked at her confused, "Are you alright?" She didn't respond. He walked up to her, bent down and put his hand on her shoulder. He watched her touch her hair an facial features as if she was discovering them for the first time. "Do you look different?" He asked. She nodded. "What's different?" They waited a few moments until she finally accepted her form and spoke, "Everything." She said. The Wizard was surprised and made the conclusion that before the cave she was something different, he didn't know what but he knew that this wasn't her original form.
They didn't speak the rest of the way. Once they got to his house he asked if she had anything to eat, she shook her head and he began putting together some food. After eating and finally falling asleep Riley had a very strange dream. It was a glowing spirit, or what looked to be a spirit. In the dream it didn't move it just floated and emanated a light blue color. The spirit was female and her hair flowed in all directions. The song Riley heard before wandering into the tunnel echoed throughout her mind, until she was woken up by the man asking if she wanted breakfast.
They went to a local restaurant and had a very good breakfast that Riley wasn't used to. The Wizard asked a few more questions about Riley's story and what she was before. She told him she was a human, she said she looked just like any other 8 year old girl but now she's something different and she didn't know why. The Man was very intrigued. Later that day he gathered some of his friends and they traveled up the mountain with a little girl leading the way. When the finally made it to the valley Riley was dumbfounded. The village wasn't there. There was nothing left of her childhood. Nothing she remembered seemed to exist. The man and his crew found nothing but the girls footprint from last night and her body imprint where she had woken up. They eventually made there way back down the mountain and Riley tried to explain it to the man again. He never said he didn't believe her, all he said was that if she wanted she could live with home for a little while. Riley took his offer and over the span of a few weeks Riley found out that the crystal she had allowed her to cast spells, witch she hadn't been able to do before. The Wizard of course was surprised as well, and he decided that he would allow her to stay with him if she let him teach her. She eventually became known and The Girl From No-where, and everyone within the area knew about her mysterious story. Her origins made it difficult for her to make friends, along with her new race that she had to get used to.
The Wizard, by the name of Arlen Omana, taught Riley many spells that he had know. He found out that he had a daughter he never knew he wanted. He later helped her get into a very good wizard collage and after that she left and decided to travel in order to expand her knowledge and maybe find other magic that was like the kind she saw that night on the mountain.
Ever since that night Riley has been hearing voices and been having strange dreams. Her horns have scratches and is chipped in some parts, as if she was trying to cut off her horns. Normally anytime a Tieflings horn fell off it wouldn't grow back, but Riley has tried to cut them off before and every time they grow back. What ever magic did this to her allows her horns to regrow as well.

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Hey! I hope I did okay on my new Character's background. I randomly decided that It'd be cool if I wrote a story about one of my D&D campaign's I'm playing. This was obviously just my characters back ground, I will work on more of the story once we start playing. And I am aware it got a little rushed at the end, I just thought it was dragging on a bit and I felt like I need to speed it up a little.
It will probably be a while before this story is continued/started (since we haven't even started this campaign yet) but I guarantee when it does start it will be very interesting! I wish you all the best! Until next time!

~Author