Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has brightly colored fins on its back.

And look! It has grown larger fins! 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.

This hatchling was forced out of its egg prematurely.

When Selris was discovered by Flora Wildrose, she was lying amidst the shattered remnants of her eggshell.  Whatever had happened to her egg had clearly forced Selris to hatch too early, and she remained weak for some time after being brought back to Dragonhaven Island, despite the best efforts of Miss Wisteria and the other hatchling caretakers, and for the sake of her health, Norivan eventually decided to freeze her.  Because of her early hatchling trauma, Selris remains feral and nearly unapproachable, and even Polyantha's best efforts have failed to socialize her.