Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has a large, shield-like object at the end of its tail that it uses for protection.

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.

Aderes Shields is a guardian through and through and will protect everybody and everything no matter her size, including the hatchlings feeding dish. This strange habit of hers has lead to several accidents already mostly resulting with Aderes' mistress falling over, most often from getting Aderes' tail shield between her legs or sometimes just another hungry hatchling getting into the way of the fight over the feeding dish. Occasionally the brought food then spills all over her mistress and gets licked off by a horde of hungry hatchlings, which seems to amuse Aderes, as she sits proudly next to the mayhem and gives off content huffing sounds.