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.

The cattle herd that spends the summer grazing the wide Verdant Plateau had an odd little member. Moon Mad Dorkface was found living with the herd, grazing like her bovine companions, and reacting to the dragons that tried to communicate with her as though she was frightened prey.  Finally collected by a group of gentle and very patient Mints, she was tended by the healers who found a moon spell had been cast on the unfortunate hatchling, resulting in her belief that she is a cow.  Working with a counter spell, it has been mostly successful, with the exception of the night of the full moon, when little Maddie runs to the nearest field and spends the moonlit hours mooing at the moon.