Aww... It's a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals.
And look! It's grown its wings! It must be close to maturing.

Young dragons are relatively defenseless. Their scales don't grow in until right before they mature, and they have almost no strength. Once a hatchling's wings grow in, it marks the beginning of maturation. At this point they are usually left alone by their mother and begin to hunt and survive on their own.

Shadow Child was a rebellious hatchling, but had a soft spot for Vine Child, one of its friends who had accidentally frozen himself. Vine Child saw that when Shadow grew up that they would leave him all alone, so in a rage he decided to freeze Shadow. Poor little hatchling.