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.

Gold dragons are the ones most often killed by humans, who consider their scales to be extremely valuable. These golden scales grant them a high level of protection, similar to armor, and they use this to their advantage in battle.

Knowing that she was secretly slated for execution, Sweetblossum knew full well that the trainers were selling off or killing any new females that matured as there was simply too many in the cave.

To survive, Sweetblossum knew she had to prove that she was useful and fast before her scales grew in.

Taking a page from Rune Strider, another small hatchling that often snuck into the war mount's camp to watch, she braved the other hot-tempered adult males' jeers as she stepped up to the line for training. Learning was certainly not easy under these conditions, but her scales grew in and she still showed up every day for training. Impressed by the young dragon's gusto, the trainers christened her with a less girly nickname, SB, and were more than happy to finally have an armored gold on the team after failing to train her mother. She is now a fully grown adult that proudly serves under War's brigade wing.