Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals.

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.

Mao and Jette are the best of friends, with each having an intense interest in literature. They often disagree over whose taste is better though, as Mao prefers fiction and thinks nonfiction is boring and dull. He loves to live vicariously through the characters in the lore that he reads, and even writes his own short stories that he wants to have published some day. Mao loves stories with lots of symbolism and hidden meaning, as he finds a pleasurable challenge in interpreting the text. But the warrior inside of him relishes more cliche tales, like valiant dragons who cross mountains and countrysides in order to save their mate from huge, foul-smelling humans. Jette finds all of this quite silly, but they still bond over the joy of reading and helping their fellow hatchlings discover how much fun it can be.