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Realization — Description
Dane Heartstrings was the doctor of the small town of WhistlerCrest. He cared for those who needed it, and was well known for his patience and unending kindness. However, even the good doctor could only handle so much. Something had been weighing heavy on his mind, and he knew he wouldn't be able to take it for much longer.

He sat one morning in his office counting the seconds. Something had to be done. He couldn't keep the act up for much long-

BANG

Dane's head swung up to see a slim little figure standing in the doorway. Right on time.

"Hi Dane!" Benny hollered, letting his backpack slide off his shoulders and rest on the floor before swinging the door shut behind him. He cleared the space between them with two skips. "I think my wings have grown! Could you measure them?"

Dane smiled, but there was no joy in his expression. Benny had been coming the same time every week ever since his wings had started growing in to have them measured. At first, they had been growing just fine, but then they started to slow, and eventually stopped growing altogether, still too small to ever fly. Even so, Dane measured them again, and they were the same size they had been for nearly a year now. Dane sighed. It was not very surprising, even if a little sad. Benny had always been runty, barely developing at all as a child, and was far smaller than most if not all of his draken peers.

"Well?" Dane was broken from his thoughts by Benny's inquisitive voice. The little blue draken had perched himself on a table, having moved the plant that had formerly been there to a nearby windowsill. "Are they any bigger?"

"Afraid not, Benny," Dane responded.

"Oh! Oh well, I just gotta have patience and let them grow, just like you always tell me!"

Dane gave him a hollow stare. Even as a child, one of Benny's biggest dreams had been to fly. In fact, this was the reason Dane had gotten so well acquainted with him, since Benny was constantly injured from attempting to fly with various devices of his creation. When his wings started to grow in, Dane had told him to have patience to keep the draken from jumping off a building to test his new nub wings. Later, Dane had told him to have patience because he couldn't bear to tell Benny the truth about his wings.

'Have patience, they'll grow out soon enough!'

'Why don't you try doing some other things in the mean time? I know Oren always needs help at the forge!'

But Benny had been dead set on flying. Dane didn't want to crush his dreams, but he couldn't let the kid keep going like this. Benny would find out one way or another, it'd be best to find out from someone who cared for him.

"Benny..." he began, wincing at the hopeful eyes turned to him.

"Yeah, Dane?"

Dane took a breath, bracing himself. "Benny, it's been a very long time since your wings have grown even a centimeter. A very long time. It might be time to consider that...that they'll never grow out."

There was a long moment of silence. It was actually startling, Benny always liked to chatter. Dane was about to say something else when Benny cut in.

"You know, I kinda already knew, in the back of my head." he said, quietly. He'd slumped down, one clawed hand resting on the opposite arm. His head was angled down and his ears were drooped. His expression seemed almost ashamed. "I just thought if I kept going, kept hoping, they might grow out and I could fly up to the stars."

"Benny," Dane started, but the little blue draken cut him off.

"No, no it's okay. It is what it is. My wings weren't ever meant to fly." he perked up, a smile back on his face, but Dane wasn't fooled. There was a heaviness in that smile that had been absent before. "I'll just have to find something else to do! Don't worry about me, Dane, I'm pretty smart! I'll figure it out."

Benny had already hopped off the table, his backpack resting on his shoulders once more. "I'll do something really cool, just you wait!"

"Okay, well please come back if you need anything. I'm here-" Dane said, but Benny was already out the door, onto whatever else he got up to in the day.

Dane was left alone, and with a very heavy concern. He sat down, resting his head gently on his paw.

He hoped Benny would be okay.

---

hooo boy, poor little guy

+43 EXP to Benny.