Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals.

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.

When she hatched, her parents thought they were going insane and hallucinating. Surely their baby girl couldn't be some malformed creature the likes of which they had never seen before! She certainly didn't look like the other Black hatchlings. And soon she even stopped growing, confirming their suspicion that something must have happened to her. But if they had asked her, she would have told them not to worry; just because she's different doesn't mean she's bad.