How The Mountains Lost Their Trees

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by Foxoqyl

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Among the sporadic number of archived trans-aquatic tomes whose origin is alleged to be genuinely continental, the only text relaying a more recent legend (that is, not prehistoric in cis-continental terms) contains the following decipherable passage of a larger, yet-to-be-made-etenduable work {level of water damage - °5PT+7°}:

How The Mountains Lost Their Trees

Before the arrival of the clouds, the sky was an ocean. Unable to live without water, trees could only dwell on mountain peaks, where their branches were able to reach the sky's surface to drink.

One fateful apoastron a many eons ago, three mages were playing at a metallic estuary's beach, for it was but trees who required water during those days. As their game went on, they moved upstream. Not long had their journey been as they noticed a tree on the river's shore. It was the tree of inhospitality, as it could only thrive in those conditions lethal to its leafy siblings.

Overjoyed were the mages in their discovery. Never had they seen a tree up close, lest the mountains towered too high for their abilities. All morning, and all afternoon they spent climbing, and hanging and sliding. As night neared, the mages, however, grew inconsolable. For they knew that a tree without water was destined to wither.

The first mage could make things fall. And so they made the sky's ocean fall, and all appeared to be in order. This is how the world got its water. As the trio woke up, they realized that none of them were able to bring the water back up to the other trees. As luck would have it, the second mage conjured up steam, and mixed it with the water so that it could float up to save the other trees. And this is how the clouds were made. Yet, all was not well, for they realized that the tree of inhospitality had grown ill.

Finally, the third mage created a vitreous rope attached to the tree, and threw it onto a rising cloud. The cloud brought the tree to the highest, most forbidding peak. Thriving in its new conditions, the tree grew ever taller, and the mages — unimpressed by the harsh climate — built a house next to it.

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