Dragons are creatures with nearly unlimited life spans. They can survive for long periods of time, and no one has found a dragon that has died of old age. Adolescence is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling's wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. Once they hit adolescence, hatchlings change quickly, maturing to their full forms in only 2 years.

Dragons don't communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.

Stone dragons have a tough outer covering made of a stone-like material. They eat rocks, using the minerals they contain for nourishment and to keep up their stone outer shell. They rarely move, and are the heaviest of all types of dragons. Although they have wings, indicating flight ability, no one has ever seen a stone dragon flying.

Eyes in Stone is the vigilant, ever-watching sentinel of the Slashclaw clan. Some of the newer hatchlings in the clan can't tell the difference between him and a large, dragon-shaped boulder; however this dragon doesn't seem to mind. He only ever makes contact with his clanmates to give them news of an approaching enemy, and watches over the clan's events with a stonelike callousness that nothing can penetrate. He doesn't even move to eat the rocks he needs; he just gnaws gradually away at the roof of the cave, which seems to be eternally thick. Already three females have tried to tempt him out of this deep, sluggish, waking slumber, but all of them have failed and given up in disgust.