The hand that came into view was a hand and it came into view. Repetition is good for emphasis. What came around the corner was a young female human dressed in rags and carrying a basket, the source of the humming. She saw the rock and was attracted to it somehow. It's not like the shininess of the rock's exposed parts caught her eye but—wow, that sounds wrong—the rock itself. It was in a shady spot beneath the tree, surrounded by roots.

There was no reason for the rock to stick out. In fact, within the same area, there was probably dozens of stones just like the rock. Why choose the rock over them? Is this the rock's chance to progress the storyline towards somewhere meaningful? Or a means to the end? Doesn't matter, because it's just a rock.

The girl picked up the rock and tossed it into the basket she hung onto it. What else did you expect? In the basket, there was a pile of stones that the rock got trapped between. The rock was stuck between itself and a hard place. However, this meant that the rock was just another stone in the eyes of this youth. Nothing special.

She continued to hum while walking through the forest, weaving back and forth at random and sometimes she stopped humming for no reason. This explained why it was so hard to trace her in the past. More stones and random objects got tossed into the basket, such as colorful mushrooms and pine combs. They slowly enveloped the rock, blocking its view of everything, even if the only thing it could see before was the sky from the basket. Not that it mattered much to a rock.