The Life of Maud Pie

by DrakeyC

Maud Meets Boulder

It was a dark and stormy night. Little did a certain taciturn rock farmer know that her life was about to change forever.

“Verily, this storm shall ruin the morrow’s harvest.” Ingeous Rock shook his head. “Mine wife, accompany me into the winds. We must batten down the tarp to protect the crop, lest a month’s work be wasted."

“Aye, husband.” Cloudy Quartz stepped away from the fireplace. “Maud, see to the dinner for your sisters.”

“Yes, mother.”

As her two parents headed outside, Maud rose from the table. Three sets of young eyes followed her as she moved to the fireplace and took hold of the ladle her mother had left. She spooned more water from the nearby bucket into the pot over the fire. When there was enough, she reached over to the bucket of rocks for the soup. She reached in, withdrew several, and dropped them into the pot. She grabbed another hoofful and moved to drop them when something caught her eye.

Maud dumped the rocks on the floor and stared at one of them.

“Maud?” a voice called from the table. “Everything okay?”

Maud was staring at one particular rock in the pile she had dropped.

It was round with soft edges, enough to be handled comfortably, yet with enough of a flat surface to not roll about. Its color was a light grey shade, bright enough to stand out against the dirt yet not so colorful as to demand notice. It was small enough to hold in her hoof, but as she picked it up again it still had enough weight to it that its presence was noticeable.

As she examined it more closely, Maud noticed it was a sedimentary rock. When she peered close enough she could see layers upon layers of sediment, going back untold years. Dirt and other crushed rocks and perhaps even some petrified plant matter made up the composition. Yet when Maud dropped the rock to the floor it held together in spite of the many layers that made it up.

A rock like this did not just come out of the ground like some common pebble. This was a formation that had been many years in the making. An ancient river must have run through this land long ago. Somewhere, centuries even, that river had worn away the rock around it enough to dig out a piece of rock, carefully wore it down into a small, round, flat stone, and then deposited it on a bank to be buried under foreign layers of fine sediment.

Until now, long after the river was gone, a particular rock farmer dug it up with intent to use it for soup.

Maud realized with silent awe that she was looking at the most fascinating, beautiful, perfectly formed rock she could possibly imagine.

She picked it up and put it in a pocket on her frock.

“I think I’ll call you Boulder.”

Comments

[Fruity Treeze]

"Wow. What a surprisingly suspenseful and compelling story. I totally get what she sees in him now."

Seriously though, this is so not suspenseful it's actually interesting. So unfunny it's funny. How do you do this? Teach me your secrets...

[WannaFlugelHorn]

Ooooooh. That was soooooo cuuuuuuuttte!

[Stoneificaunt]

And so a Boulder is born.

[PresentPerfect]

That should be "Mine wife" or "Wife mine". <.< Definitely not "thine".