Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It’s kind of shaky on its feet and enjoys playing in puddles.

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.

Hippo Gelato is a lively little hatchie, and loves to bound around and jump on things. That's how he came to be frozen. Jumping onto an ice dragon is not something to be recommended. Ghiaccolo wasn't very pleased at the time—but was very sorry for Hippo when he saw what had happened to him, and hurried over to Golden Vesuvius to try and see if he could be thawed—but to no avail.

Hippo doesn't mind that much. He always did have a very positive attitude, and while very blue himself, never actually feels blue ! He is rather more careful now, though, and spends most of the time in the water as a good waterhorse should. He worked a long time to get his rather splendid Mohican haircut to stand up so well, and uses the goo from his feet as a gel to keep it as he likes it.