Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. As soon as it hatched it headed to the sea.

And look! It lost its fins and grew wings instead. 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.

Suna no tsubu is the ugly duckling of dragons. She is waiting to grow into a beautiful swan- er, seaworm.

Her name means grain of sand which is what a pearl starts out as.