This hatchling appears to be... dead?

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.

Vampire bites to an egg usually have one of two outcomes; the egg dies sometimes, unable to withstand the corrosive venom, while hardier dragons survive the vampiric transition. There are less-known results, though, things seldom spoken of. A taboo, of sorts.

They call them darklings; the forsaken, the half-turned, the eggs that were made undead before the hatchling they harbored had a chance to live. They're a fortuitously uncommon thing; eggs that were turned by the bite, but failed to have enough venom injected to animate the baby inside. It's a rarity amongst an already seclusive breed, and for that, little is known about the hatchlings like Jhaece. They lie in this state indefinitely, not quite dead but never waking.