A Rebellious Rock

That Round One From Uphill’s day has been eventful so far. Someone just skipped him across a stream from one bank to another.

That Round One From Uphill is a rebellious rock. Most rocks do not like being skipped.

They like staying fixed in their little homes amidst the mud, and try their best not to morph into the near-flat shape ideal for being skipped. That Round One From Uphill grew up with different ambitions. Leaving his fate to human hands, according to him, was a way to see more of the world outside of where the stream takes you.

On that eventful day, a human considered That Round One From Uphill’s flat shape to be ideal for skipping. And luck was on That Round One From Uphill’s side—after eight skips he reached right across the stream.

So his name wasn’t a curse after all—his parents thought naming him That Round One From Uphill would be an antidote to his flatness. Contrary to the rock civilization’s beliefs, names do not determine destiny, thought That Round One From Uphill.

Rocks like to name their offspring names formed of sentences, so that they could be translated into any language. For humans, these names seem very long, but for rocks whose average lifespan is half a million years, they just take a millisecond to pronounce.