Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It’s a brilliant blue-green color.

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.

Like her carmine caretaker, Edley has a short string of characters written on her back. The identifying code, she says, lets friendly strangers easily recognize her corpse if she dies in an unfamiliar place (but doesn't get eaten or buried). She plans to write and rewrite this code her entire life, so she carries a pouch with a brush and vial of near-permanent ink around one of her thighs. A nice side effect is that it's likely she'll be spared by those looking for her bright hide since it's marred by black ink.