Is this actually a riddle? I've read it over for quite some time, and still haven't come to a conclusion.
I don't really understand the meaning to something landing in his hands like a feather atop a mossy rock. A feather and moss are both soft, so either he uses a very good skin cream or something landed so softly in his hands that/because ______ ???
I even looked up several definitions to "aback" to see if it had some other sort of cryptic meaning than what was displayed here, which I assume is surprise. I thought about the answer being wind, as it sort of makes sense with the vague symbolism of a feather and the mossy rock landing in someone's hands softly, and the "aback"since it has a reference to a ship's mast and the wind "taking it aback." However that didn't really make sense with it sitting on one's person.
If this is a riddle, it has stumped me.