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.

Zei's story can be summed up in a single sentence: a good dragon in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

While he wasn't affected by Creorluna directly, he could easily be seen as the latest of their victims.

In truth, you could easily pin some of the blame for his condition on his gullibility. He should have enough common sense to realize that slipping off in the middle of the night with a vicious vampire to a secluded location was a bad idea.

Still, this does not merit the torture that night bore witness to. Vexra strung him up by his hind legs and carved him up. He nearly bled out before Zalexia managed to come to his rescue.

Much of the damage was unfixable. They were lucky to save his life. Ultimately, he had to be frozen to allow his body enough energy to heal.

Still, there are all too many side effects to his new condition. The tendons in his wings were shredded beyond repair, flopping uselessly upon his back and often getting in his way.