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.

Spiky was always a small hatchling, who never really much liked the sky. Around when she and the other hatchlings in her group grew wings, their group was attacked by zombie dragons, who decimated everything in their path. They brutally attacked everyone in her group, leaving Spiky unconscious, and also leaving her wings, and her heart, torn to shreds. Seeking shelter, she hid inside a hollowed out tree, where Relix Rubyclaw found her, taking her in and raising her with care. In the end, her wings were too damaged from the zombies to ever fly again, and she found out that her group still lived on. On the day that Relix took her in, she vowed to be a protector of her new-found group. She is now a great warrior, taunting the enemy from the ground, taking them by surprise with her sharp tongue and quick wits. She fights with long teeth, sharp claws, and whatever magic she can muster, on the ground, forever scarred, forever broken, forever flightless.