Within the midst of the ruins of a past age a small round brick poised uneasily on the edge of a pillar. It was rough to the touch, grey and cold to look at. It fell deep into the dark pit it surrounded. Echoing as it fell hitting the sides of the pit, deeper and deeper it fell until, after an eternity it finally made a splash. The brick swam deep under the ground away from all light, past the unspeakable prehistoric fish that made the depths their home. The brick hit the subterranean ocean floor silently and blocked the small red gas vent of the ocean. The ground groaned under its new strain. With a great whoosh the brick was hurled upwards towards one of the dense underground walls. Crack. It blasted clean through the wall into a large natural cave. The water splashed through the new crevice, filling every square inch it could find. Before the hour was up the underground sea was but a shadow of its former self and the natural cave, a labyrinth of water and tunnels.
Out of the dark caves swam a man. A man who had never seen the light of the moon or the sun, a man who had lived his whole life underground eating what he could forage from the caves. Bugs, weeds, whatever he could get his hands on he would eat but now he had been forced from his home and someone had to pay. Up and up he went till he surfaced and saw the vast rocky climb to the surface world. He returned to his flooded abyss with little trouble and hauled out the brick that had caused the dilemma.
After he removed the brick he examined it. The brick fascinated him. In all of his life under the earth he couldn’t recall a more beautiful stone. It’s shape was irregular and there were grooves within it.