I love this!!
Acceptance -- just had this conversation with my mom, who quotes Ecclesiastes and "accepting one's lot in life" -- but discerning what one's "lot" may be is something I tend to question and fight.

This is stirring:
He’d known it from the first day, but he just prayed he’d get used to it. Acceptance.
....Skinny rose to his feet, carefully rolled the mat and put it way and nodded a curt farewell to the Master. If he hurried he could get to the village before dark.
And this is more than stirring - it's soaring, liberating, glorious!
‘Skinny, get back!’ he heard the Master calling, but he did not turn his head, for that was not his name. He was Riu and he was going to be a goat-herder like his father.
Wow - powerful closing lines - thank you for this!!