Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It looks very sick, as though it wasn’t very well looked after...

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 was forced out of its egg prematurely.

Masha was delivered to her owner's caves as a hatchling in a wooden crate, hissing weakly at the other dragons through the air holes. The scrollkeeper had been expecting a healthy hatchling, and paid well for her, but instead received a sickly little dragon that tried to bite them at feeding time. With care and attention from her scrollkeeper and Yukari (a magically gifted Silver Tinsel dragon), though, she was able to open up and start trusting, and grew strong enough to be able to follow at her scrollkeeper's heels, proudly fluffing up her tiny wings and not being afraid to bite anyone who underestimates her. Yukari cast a spell to keep her small, as her health would certainly fail her further if she grew to her full size, and Masha is perfectly satisfied to stay what she calls 'fun-sized'.