It’s an undead baby dragon, produced by a failed magical spell. It probably would be cute if it weren’t partially decayed.

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.

After being abandoned for reasons unknown, this hatchling thought for sure that it was doomed to death. And it was partially right—after being seemingly rescued from its abandonment by a stranger, the young hatchling waited patiently for its wings to grow in and for its frills to bloom with this new chance at life!

...But that never happened. Rather, it grew weaker and weaker, and this hatchling began to wonder why it had been forgotten about and ignored yet another time.

After waiting and waiting, knowing what was to come, the young dragon died.

But what happened after was nothing but a blur to this hatchling; it had been granted life again, but at a terrible price: any physical resemblance to its past self had vanished, replaced by a horrific image of a decaying young dragon's body, serving as a painful reminder of the circumstances of its death.

Perhaps it would've been better, for the hatchling's sake, if it had never been revived.