Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It seems to bear some semblance to a horse.

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.

When his egg was first laid, his mother, father, and the rest of his father's Khalassar (the group of Horse dragons his father, Drogostorm, leads) were very excited, for it was prophecized that one day there would be a dragon Khal (their name for the leader) born who would have the strength and skill of one hundred Khalassars. Unfortunately, Rhaegopaw may have been the one mentioned in the prophecy, but soon before he hatched, an evil Magi bent on revenge on his family disguised herself as a healer and cursed him. When he hatched, he hatched sickly and weak, and the real healers tried their best to heal him. They eventually found a solution that counteracted the curse and saved his life, yet it left him still small and weak, and prevented him from maturing past hatchling-hood.