Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has a strong odor of turpentine, and your hand burns when you touch it.

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.

This hatchling likes to take a daily dip in a lake and then dry off by flying over the surrounding forest in the sunshine. As he flies, drops of water contaminated with the oil from his scales fall onto the forest. The foliage below does not grow as well when subjected to the acidic droplets, so the forest where he lives is generally less lush than in other areas.