Oberon was in one of his moods. Which always meant trouble for Puck. The hobgoblin huffed through the grove in twilight, his harsh breaths a sharp contrast to precise movements. Puck had one thing on his mind: “What has Oberon done now?”
Puck approached the center of the grove, making the signs and steps to avoid the countless traps and curses that awaited those who approached Oberon’s throne unwary. His eyes contained the measured fear of someone dancing with a familiar death, with carefree steps. Golden light from the setting sun struck the reflecting pond beside Oberon’s throne and flashed on a bespeckled gem in the Fairy King’s hand. “What is it, my lord? What have you wrought now?”
“A simple thing, for a simple Puck,” Oberon muttered, his eye staring intently at his servant's foot, staring as it moved toward the ground.
Puck pulled the foot back, going into a bow. Oberon sighed, and returned his eye to the gem.
“It is a simple thing, my simple Puck. I took a stone, and made it think.”
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“The thoughts of a stone are simple, indeed.”
“And so I learned, and so I lost interest.”
“You seemed intent upon the stone as I arrived, my Lord.”
“Of course, good Puck, your astute observation was the same as my own." He paused, seeming to think that explanation enough. After a long moment, he continued, "The thought we shared was that a thinking stone is well and good, yet it is still a stone having the thoughts of a stone.”
“What have you done, my Lord?”
“Well, silly Puck, I thought the thoughts of a King of the Fae, and walked through my mushroom garden, and came to a simple conclusion: a stone that thought the thoughts of a man would be much more interesting than a stone that thought the thoughts of a stone.”
“Indeed, my Lord, it is so, but the thoughts of a man are the thoughts of a man because it is a man, and the thoughts of a stone are the thoughts of a stone because it is a stone.”
“And that, my friendly Puck, is why I had to mar this pretty rock. I have taken what was one, and turned it into ten thousand stones, and together those stones have bound the thoughts of a man.”
"A stone that thinks the thoughts of a man is a thing to behold, indeed.”
Oberon scowled. “Of course, it doesn't think the thoughts of a man, Puck, teaching a stone to think the thoughts of a man, even a stone as magnificent as my stone of stones, would be impossible. I have taken what makes a man’s thoughts, and bound them to the stone.”
“And what do you will?”