So Michael," Rhonda asked. "I'm guessing you were 'speaking' to that human, and you were the one who gave him the notion to put you over here onto our stack?"
"Good guess. I hope none of you are too upset.?"
"Do we look upset?" the Squire asked. "We're not even jostled!"
"We're still standing, are we not?" announced Myron.
"Thanks. It's just that up until very recently my power of suggestion has not been working very well. I dont know why. Maybe I'm getting old."
"How long have you been here?"
"Must be well over a century now, and I've never been able to get anyone to move me"
"Nobody has ever picked you up in all that time, or used you with some other stones, say, around a campfire?"
"Nope, no one has even tossed me into the air."
"Poor you." said the Squire "I'd have thought that somebody would have considered you
interesting enough to have taken you home by now."
"I think its because I'm not quartzy enough. Why do they like sparkly stripy stones, and the pinkish ones so much?"
"They like 'decorative' stones," answered Myron. " People are not looking for structure, durability consistency or hardness any more"
"Well what are we going to do now?" asked Rhonda looking up at Myron for direction.
The four stones tossed some ideas around and decided that, as always, it was probably best to wait. They had several other chances that day to get a passerby to notice them and pick them up, but the opportunities slipped away, partly due to Michael's regained influence in the 'humanipulating' department. He was scheming to find ways to get placed on higher balanced stacks of stones, impromptu structures which he kept trying to influence each new passerby to want to build from the many other stones that were laying around. This effort was jamming the message the other three were sending out. They eventually convinced Michael that it would be best if they could all try to work together.
"What do you suppose all these other rocks are doing here anyway?" asked Rhonda.
There was indeed a lot of random piles of rocks dotted around the area.
"It looks like they were all gathered here by someone for a reason" said Myron. He cleared his throat and spoke to the crowd of rocks "Excuse me, I wonder if you could tell us what it is that you are up to?"
"We've all booked a holiday in Eskdale" the boulder of the rocks replied.
"How on earth do you plan to get there?" asked the Squire.
"By air. In the sky! We all got together and arranged a flight. You'll see."
Sure enough it wasnt long after when the saw several trail workers combing the hillside gathering up all the uasable rocks they could find and stuffing them into large sturdy-looking vinyl cargo bags as they approached. They were stockpiling material and getting it ready to be air lifted to be used to repair a retaining wall along the hiking trail on Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England.
"Can we come along?" asked Michael. He looked sheepishly at the other three."I've never flown before. I think it would be great fun, dont you?"
"It's not going to get us to Stonecroft" objected Myron.
But it was too late. Two humans drew near carrying a big white bag.
"Look at this Gavin" said the first 'trail builder', pointing to the tower of four balanced stones. "Should we leave them here?"
"Toss 'em in the bag, mate. They're speakin' to me." he said, jokingly.
After that, everything happened so fast. The next thing they knew they, and about 50 other rocks who had all been bunched together in the cargo sack, were being air-lifted by a huge roaring army helicopter up over the Cumbrian countryside.
"Wahoooo!" Michael shouted, as he peered over the side of the bag.
" Careful, you're going to fall out ! " blurted the Squire.
