Button made by the lovely Jyxxie!

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[A red Fae dragon wanders up to you and butts your knee with his muzzle. He stares at you with a longing look in his eyes.]

When he was young, everyone thought he was just a late bloomer. He was small, always lagging behind his nestmates in size. When it was just size, though, everything was still fine, of course it was fine. Most nests had a runt. His siblings never treated him any differently, though he took tumbles and scrapes a little harder than the rest of them.

But then the rest learned to speak. Flare didn't. Even mama and dada evaded him. While his sister was praised for annunciating Lightbringer, Flare had yet to utter even the smallest squeak. No sound would ever escape his throat. His parents didn't want to believe it, taking him to healers, and springs, and...the prognosis was the same every time. Sorry. He just can't do it. Born without.

Flare's never missed speaking, because he can't miss something he's never experienced. He wished he could scream, though, as his family withdrew, stopped playing with him outside, stopped treating him like the rest. One sound could express his constant irritation with the world and impatience with others quite well. If he could just figure out how to say I'm just like you, though, that would be enough. It would have to be.

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