The forest of Anor Lass is well known for very rich floral growth, consisting of thousands and thousands of different herbs that can be found amongst its trees. Herbalists from all over the realm venture into Anor Lass to collect herbs for their potions and alchemical concoctions. Some of them have built small wooden houses there, in case they need to spend the night to collect some rare night or early morning plants.
Gedion, one of the oldest herbalist in town, witnessed something very unusual one night.
"The Moon was young and the sky was clear so I took the opportunity to collect some fallen leaves of Moonskin tree. With every full moon the tree makes room for new leaves on it and sets free old ones. They are very hard to see during the day and even harder yet during the night. But when the moon is young and not obscured by the clouds, edges of fallen leaves glow shyly and that make them easier to spot. Tea made from those leaves helps you stay awake and if you lose track of the cups you drank, your eyes can adjust to dark much more easily.
I was just picking up the third leaf and suddenly the earth started to tremble. The shakes were getting stronger and the noise scarier. It was coming from the direction of my house, and just as I realized that the treetops were glowing with a faint red hue, out of nowhere, my house was among the treetops. As I saw that, everything stopped immediately - except the red light. I was scared and I wanted to run, but being 71 years old, that was not an option, so I just hid myself in a bush by the road. After some time I heard my horse, so I went back there to see if is it hurt or in trouble.Goddamn horse, bringing me nothing but trouble! When I got back to the house, I saw it high on a big black rock, and some man holding on to his head with one hand and some strange hat and staff in other. When he saw me, he went in my direction and asked me "Is that your house?" Being scared at the moment, I told him that I will let my dog Ando on him if he came any closer, so he stopped right away and said that he means no harm. That was actually quite good because God knows where Ando was at the time. To hell with the dog to, he is no better that that horse. Strange man put his even more stranger hat on his head and introduced himself, but I forgot his name right away. He asked me again if that was my house and I said yes. He started apologizing and apologizing and mumbling something in god knows which language, and then started saying that he got overexcited and that this was an accident and that he will fix everything. After quite a long apology, he said that he will be back before the sky turns blue and that I should wait for him. I said nothing for that whole time and as he turned away, I just saw him disappear in the dark.
Three big crystals rumbled the earth and popped out of it. Very pleasant for the eye and warm when touched, they were the source of the red light. After I finished observing them, I looked up and saw that my house is not on some big black stone but on a giant black hand. The realization made my sight blurry, and the next thing I remember was someone poking me with the stick and asking me if I am allright. And it was him - the man who ruined my house! In my 71 years of life, this was the most unpleasant awakening, and also first time to see my house from way down below. He helped me to get up while mumbling apologies, but then I start yelling that sorry will not fix my house and bring it down from that horrible demon hand. And that was when he showed me my "new" house. The damage done to it was gone and it was looking as it was brand new. The rumbling and quaking must have changed the course of some underground stream because now there was even a spring of fresh water flowing underneath it.To be honest, it looked even better than before, but I could not admit that to this asshole. The only thing that was truly different was that now I had a stairway up to my front door. How in fourteen worlds does that fool think that a 71 years old man can walk that many stairs? So I started yelling on him again, but he just calmly walked to the stairs and started doing something with his staff and a bag of something strange that he unhooked from his belt. After a few moments some dust come out from the bag and started climbing up to the stairs, sinking into the stones on the stairs and giving them a faint glow. He said "There! On these stairs you will never be tired, you will never slip, you will always see where you are going and it will never freeze. Here. Try it!". And try it I did. Honest to all four gods, I never felt more rested while climbing. On the middle way up I turned to ask him what kind of a stone that was but he was already gone and I never saw him again. That was probably good, because who knows where would my house could end up with our next meeting.
To this day people are coming from the city to see my house on the giant hand with its magical stairs. Once a thief tried to steal the stones from the stairs but he could not move them at all. Heh, stupid thief.
One winter passed since that quite unordinary day and the stairs are still here, as you can see, and house still looks brand new. The crystals lost their glow after few full moons, and over time even started losing their red color. Still, they look nice and they are ever warm to the touch. I think that is the complete story of how my house got up in the sky. Now, would you like a cup of tea?"
