Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has bright blue eyes, and is as clumsy as any other hatchling, but it never seems to get injured.

And look! It has grown wings! 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.

At the time of Joy's birth, it was the rule in Tjekan Caverns that each dragon pair could keep only six of their eggs; additional eggs were required to be given up for adoption. (This rule was intended to keep more powerful dragons from monopolizing breeding, since the law of the land demanded no more than five eggs and four hatchlings be in any cave at any given time.) Improbably, some time after Joy's egg had been given up for adoption, her parents happened to meet her as a hatchling in the Cave of Abandonment! They immediately brought her home with them, and the Dragon Council determined that she could stay in Tjekan Caverns as long as she agreed to be frozen in hatchling form to make way for other families. Both the law of the land and the rule of the cave have since been relaxed, but Joy remains very happy in her permanent hatchling form, and the entire clan feels blessed to have her back.