Amorak

Sunlight streamed in through the window of the little shack, waking the young man sleeping on the grass bed he had made for himself so long ago. His eyes, bleary with sleep, opened slowly. Yawning and streaching, he rolled out of bed and stood up. Lethargicaly, he pulled his clothes from the wall where the hung and dressed himself in his work attire. His pants, brown with dirt and worn through in places, was all he ever put on. He lived by himself, and as far as he knew, was the only person alive in the world. Leaving his shack, he walked to the lake's edge and proceeded to wade in the salty water until it came up to his sholders. Pushing off the ground and aiming for the island in the center of the vast lake, he began his daily swim. It took him only a short time to swim there, but today, something told him to take it slow. He was hungry, and couldn't wait to get to his crop he grew on the small island. Soon, he was walking up the side of his island and onto the dry earth. He had just stopped to dry off in the sun's warm rays when he saw something laying on the small patch of grass he harvested occasionally for his bed when it rotted. The grass was smashed flat, probably by the thing laying in it. Outraged, he stomped toward the tresspasser, not knowing exactly what he was going to do about it. All he knew was that something was there, and it had destroyed his property. And he was mad.

A Strange New World

Eventually, Elsteba's eyes focused enough to make out the surrounding area. It was, however, still far more dark than her liking. A faint light fell on the land, casting a silverish glow around her. She looked up toward the source of the light, and was delighted to see the stars the had imagined hanging in the sky. There was an odd light in the sky as well. It looked like an arc of dim, pale light. Thinking hard on the Ancient History class, she remembered the light was called the moon, and was worshiped by much of the world. _No wonder! It's so beautiful!_
Elsteba became aware of an odd, ambient-like noise coming from behind her. Turning around, she saw a vast pool of what seemed to be a liquid of some sort. Approaching the edge, she dipped her finger in cautiously. Seeing that no harm came to her from this, she raised her finger to her mouth, hoping the liquid was drinkable. Until now, she hadn't realized how thirsty and hungry she was. A single drop fell from her finger and landed in her mouth. "EWWWWWW!" She shouted. The liquid tasted heavily of salt, which did no good to her parched throat.
Quickly, she scurried back to her landing place and sat, thinking about what had just happened, and fell asleep on the soft earth.
She had dreams of Ancient Earth, and of strange worlds with three moons, liquid mercury lakes, and of her family who she was sure she would never see again.

Where?...And When?

When she regained consciousness, the first thing she discovered was she was laying on a solid surface. This thought alone made her sigh with relief. I'm not falling anymore...

Then she realized it was not like any surface she had ever witnessed before. It was not smooth and cold, like the steel and chrome that had covered most of everything before, but instead was loose and gritty, almost like dry bread, but harder. Much harder. And yet, it was not uncomfortable. It had a certain measure of comfort attached to it that made it almost an enjoyable experience.

She opened her eyes. The surface was dark and mottled and indeed loose - she could pick it up and let it run through her fingers like the sand she used to play with when she was still young enough to play in the primitive sand boxes. She would have been completely confused with the substance if it hadn't reminded her of one of the few times she had paid attention during Ancient History class:

"Back when the world was young, before the Great Birth of Technology, it was covered in strange and primitive functions of life, commonly known as nature. It included such things as plants and animals, the common flora and fauna of your fairy tales which you read in your English classes. Of course, during the Great birth, these were all done away with, such ancient and primitive things, and new more efficient ways were created to continue the Earth's natural processes. The most basic and beneficial change was, of course, the conversion from 'soil'.

"Soil was a dirty loose surface which once covered the whole globe. You couldn't go anywhere on Earth without encountering some of it. It caused many problems, such as being subject to violent upheaval every time it sank beneath the Earth's crust violently, causing earthquakes and the like. That is, now, a thing of the much less recent past. It was replaced with our chrome paneling, which was more easily manufactured, maintained, and altered."

So that was what she was now resting on. Soil. Bizarre, but it doesn't seem to be the dirty annoying substance everyone says it is...