Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It glows with some form of arcane energy.

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.

Gem Shard is one of the many hatchlings frozen by Crocoitia (a magi dragoness) while he was playing tag with some other hatchlings.  He was frozen because Crocoitia loved the way his scales shimmered in the light like so many pieces of precious stones.  Wulfenite (Crocoitia's mate) convinced Gem Shard to come live with the dragons so that he would always have other hatchlings to play with.  Gem Shard was a bit upset at first because he was no longer with his parents, but he soon realized how much fun he could have if he never grew up.  Now he is content to spend his days playing with the many other frozen hatchlings near the cave.