They were perched, ready to roll further down the hill towards the group of wallers, when they heard a voice call out for them to 'weight'. They were surprised to discover that they had been followed by an odd shaped rock, neither square shaped nor spherical, but strangely triangular. He was as short of breath as he was in stature. They noticed that he wasn't 'dressed' well either. There were some chip marks and patches of unevenness where he had obviously had some rough breaks. His faces were worn and tired looking.
"I hope I didn't give you two a fright." he said, leaning towards them awkwardly.
"Not at all" They both replied politely.
"Ah good" he sighed and added "You see, when I saw you two roll by, I thought to myself, there go a couple of rocks who wouldn't mind being 'put upon' by a common rock such as myself."
"We too, are merely common rocks." answered the Squire, who was grateful for the opportunity to stop and talk. "We don't mind being put upon, do we Rhonda?"
"Not at all." she said.
"You know," the triangle-shaped stone went on, "We rocks have to stick together. There are plenty of enemies out there."
" Too true." They both replied. It was the only thing either of them could think to say, though Rhonda was starting to worry just how cracked the old stone actually was.
" I shudder to think about it sometimes. All those unpleasant lichen sapping our strength, the mangling mobs of moss smothering our faces, the infernal freeze thaw cycles that are so upsetting, the constant rubs and abrasions, and well... how does Slatespear put it ? Ah yes, - the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." he stopped and thought a moment.." I myself have been slung from a sling on more than one occasion and suffered great misfortune at the hands of some would-be David."
"Really," said the Squire in disbelief.
"We have mostly had good dealings with humans" said Rhonda."We kept one for years on our property in Ambleside. He wasn't a very good gardener so we never saw him that much. He stayed in his house and kept to himself mostly."
"I'll admit " added the Squire "they do move annoyingly fast and are pretty 'shallow' as a species, and they make a lot of noise - but you get used to it"
"Occasionally you find one or two with enough patience that you can teach them a thing or two about building a good stone wall" added Rhonda " but most of them don't get it."
To be continued...
