Digs

Once upon a time, there was a pebble.
The pebble did not remember where it came from, but it did know where it was at the moment. It was lodged  between the toes of King Louis XIV, because the king had decided to wear his very fashionable open-top high heels to a garden party. There have been very few instances in history where a monarch and a pebble agree, but that day both the pebble and the king wished to be elsewhere. At the moment, the king was greeting one of the prominent and particularly foppish members of his court. This particular fellow stood at a galling 6'1”, forcing the king to keep his shoes on, for he would have endured a thousand pebbles before he consented to stand lower than such a simpering fool. Indeed, at the moment he rather wished to be a pebble himself, and slip his shoes off unnoticed. The pebble on the other hand, was reflecting that he would much rather be greeting boring courtiers than sitting in the dark between someone's toes, even those of a very famous monarch. King or not, toes never smelled very nice, and these were especially poor specimens, tortured from years of being forced into uncomfortable heels.
At length, the pebble heard the king excuse himself and walk very quickly to the nearest chamber pot, which was set around the corner of a hedge. He grunted and snorted as he reached around his billowing skirts to reach his foot, and tugged awkwardly at the shoe. The pebble felt the stiff fabric compress and snag on the royal bunions. The king swore softly and peeked around the edge of the hedge. At a gesture, an attendant came swiftly and bowed low.
“M'Lord?”
Louis XIV cleared his throat and drew himself up to his full height, wincing as the pebble dug deeper.
“My shoe is bothering me. Remove it.”
The attendant was well-trained, and only inwardly did he smirk as he thought of the laugh he and the chamber maid would have later.
The pebble felt a cool breeze, and sighed with relief as he was turned over onto the ground.
“Insolent thing,” the king muttered as he wriggled his way back into the shoe.
The pebble did not care for the opinions of the king, for it is very hard to lower the self-esteem of a pebble. It lay in the dirt and enjoyed the feel of fresh open air and the diffused light of the overcast sky.