That's good. She's decidedly sincere.

I don't like that no one takes me seriously and if I couldn't talk that'd be awful. But I could still invent things and go somewhere where there weren't any people to bother me if they hurt too much to be around.

Kobolds don't do very well alone.

He hugs her. Oh. In the Outer Lands we didn't either, but this is Valinor and it's safe here.

Nod. I'm not sure that's the same thing. I need to be safe, but I need to not be lonely, too. I'm not sure loneliness can kill me by itself but it feels like it.

I'm lonely a lot and for me it's not nearly as bad as being dead but I guess people are different.

The kobold's hug gets slightly more emphatic. Well, I might be able to do something about that.

People are just yell-y and hard to be around.

What do they yell about?

Me doing things wrong. Me being difficult. Me being mean. I don't know.

Well, you haven't been mean to me, she asserts. Do you know how to do the things they say you're doing wrong the way they want you to do them?

Some of them but I don't want to. Some of them I really can't.

Nod, hug. Yelling at someone for not knowing how to do things is silly and wrong and I should Speak to them about that. The ones you don't want to, why don't you want to?

Makes me feel sad or trapped. Or like I shouldn't exist.

Yikes.

Those are good reasons. What kinds of things are they asking you to do, that make you feel like that? If you want to tell me; it's okay if you don't.

Sit still. Stay in the palace. Don't run off.

'Don't run off' I can understand - you should have someone with you if you might run into something dangerous. But asking you not to go places at all sounds pretty awful to me, do you know why they're doing that?

My father gets scared I'll get hurt even though this is Valinor and there's nothing dangerous.

That wouldn't be an okay thing to do even if there were dangerous things. My world has plenty of dangerous things but we wouldn't let someone hatch an egg in the first place if we thought they were going to treat a kid like that. You can't protect someone from maybe getting hurt by doing something that's going to hurt them for sure.

Yeah. But he's really sad. With my mom dying and everything. And he's the King so everyone listens to him.

There has to be some way for people to let a chief know when they're doing things wrong, she scowls a bit, or you get problems like this. Well, I can tell them, maybe that will help.

He cuddles her. Yes, I think so. They don't listen to me because I'm a kid.

Her scowl takes on an incredulous tone. How are they supposed to know what you need, if you learn about each other by talking and they don't listen to you? That doesn't make sense.

They think they know better than me because they're big and I'm small.

Continued incredulousness. They know more, sure, but there are still things you know and they don't. Especially things about yourself, especially if they aren't listening to you.

She thinks to herself for a few seconds and then shakes her head.

You really don't have Speakers here, do you. Because, like... it's not just that this is the kind of problem a Speaker would be asked to solve, it's that people would realize it's a problem because it's the kind of problem a Speaker would solve, I think.

Well. You have a Speaker now. Hug.