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A meek, shrinking yeesan, Gelvnoh has long considered themself to be fairly unremarkable.
Maybe, at one time, that was true.
They were born to the Lost Families (who do not call themselves lost, but do call themselves families), a cluster of small communities living in caves just off the true Void. The Lost Families live a simple existence of farming, scavenging, and the occasional hunt. Basic crafts such as embroidery and pottery are common hobbies.
In their home family, living the same life of hard work and embroidery as everyone else, Gelvnoh was pretty unremarkable. You couldn't have picked them out of a crowd, unless perhaps you had learned to recognise the vibrant make-up they like to wear.
The highlight of Gelvnoh's week used to be trading away some new embroidery or freshly-picked highgrass for used tea-leaves. These leaves, crushed, boiled, and now devoid of their sweet flavour, glow in the dark. And they make an excellent pigment.
In the caves, it shows up excellently, and what started as high-visibility wear soon became a popular fashion.
And, well, Gelvnoh is a slave to fashion.
When they decided to leave the caves, rings around the tail were the height of fashion. One would show one's individuality with differing thickness and quantity of rings. Gelvnoh noted that everyone chose to vary the thickness in some way, and so they decided to stand out by painting rings in relatively uniform thickness.
They still wear their make-up this way. They have no idea what the fashions are like in the caves now. Now they truly stand out: Make-up is not a fashion at all in the part of the world they've found themself in.
Throughout the caves the families call home, rivers trickle down the cave walls. Follow any one rivulet and it will met another, and those will meet again, higher and higher always meeting until eventually they meet at a waterfall.
A huge gush of water falling from on high down a narrow hole in the roof of the cave.
It's well-known to be an exit. It's rarely used. Life in the caves may be hard work, but they're fairly safe. Stories of the surface are exciting, but that excitement comes with the promise of danger.
Few are willing to face that danger for the sake of excitement.
Gelvnoh did not have the strength to climb the waterfall. Not at first. Most who try don't, and they usually give up after discovering just how difficult it truly is.
Gelvnoh would no doubt like to pretend it was sheer strength of will, or determination, or spite, or at the very least they'd take stubbornness.
The truth of it is, it was just boredom.
They started to go out with hunting parties for something new to do. They lay awake in terror the day before they were due to set out, imagining all the ways they could meet their end, regretting again and again agreeing to go.
And then it came time to hunt, and they picked up their weapons and their chalk and their rope and they marched with the others out of the safety of the family caves, and they had so much fun.
Fear comes before and after danger, Gelvnoh discovered, but at the moment danger is actually present, fear is no-where to be found. But what fun is to be found in those moments!
A few days after each hunt, they would try the waterfall again. Just to see how high they could get. Just for the fun of the climb. And then their arms would get tired and they'd let themself down as quickly as they could without dropping all the way, and they'd go to bed.
It had become a new hobby, a private hobby. The strength they built waterfall-climbing made them a better hunter, and the excitement they got from hunting made them think about climbing again.
Gelvnoh forgot that the waterfall led to the river, which led to the surface. Climbing the waterfall wasn't a way out for them any more, it was a joy in and of itself.
So when they ran out of rock to climb and found it harder to push against the flow of water, they swam up with all their strength and they were sure they felt something pushing them from below...
And their face broke the water, and they saw the sky, and Gelvnoh realised they'd left the caves.
They didn't look back.
