"Brother Shartol? There is no easy way to say this, but, there was an accident. A wagon wheel broke, and the load fell onto Grotian, crushing him." The senior monk continued talking, but Shartol wasn't really listening anymore.
Grotian had traveled to the monastery to visit with his son, and to remember Farria, Shartol's mother and his wife, on the 5th anniversary of her death.
As he had been for the past few days, Shartol found himself remembering details of his past. The normal things, like getting in trouble and being disciplined by his parents or arguing with them because they wouldn't let him do what he wanted, or time spent playing together, singing together, holding each other, and simply celebrating being. Shartol also remembered, again, the fight he had with Grotian which ended with him leaving Falcon's Hollow behind, going to seek out his own future, his own path. Every boy thinks he knows everything by 13, and Shartol had been no exception.
The Monks of the Extended Hand monastery had found him, starving and weak from exposure, near the roadway. They brought the young teenager in and started healing him, and started teaching him as a way to heal more than just his body. Shartol had been actively studying at the monastery for 3 years before he finally wrote his parents and let them know that he was alive and doing well. The eventual return post informed him of Farria's death two years earlier.
This visit had been the first reunion of father and son since the boy ran away from home. The timing and justification for the reunion kept things subdued, but the two spent time together, some of which was crying in each other's arms.
There were traces of tears in Shartol's eyes, and his voice cracked. "He should be cremated, so that I can carry him home and bury him with my mother. I'll have to get help finding her grave from someone there." As he made that realization, the young man lost the fight, and the tears began streaming down his face.
Two weeks later, he was in Falcon's Hollow, standing over his parents' shared grave, Wondering what Irori could possibly have in mind for him next.