Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It glows with some form of arcane energy.

And look! It has grown wings! It must be close to maturing.

Young dragons are relatively defenseless. They are born with relatively soft scales, which are shed and replaced with harder ones as the hatchling matures. Once a hatchling’s wings grow in, it typically marks the beginning of maturation. At this point they are often capable of hunting on their own and are usually left alone by their mother.

It sometimes happens that the presence of an older dragon of a particular type in a social grouping seems to have a dampening effect on the development of younger dragons.  Pyris is an example of this; while his father, Pyreticus, developed very quickly, Pyris shows no signs of progressing into full adulthood.  None of the dragons seem particularly concerned about this, and Pyris is still accepted as a hatchling by both young and old.  His magic usage is progressing nicely, however, and he frequently hunts for food for the other hatchlings if Nightsmaiden or an adult dragon is not available to do the job.