Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It’s an excellent swimmer, but can also glide through the air for short distances.

It’s gotten much bigger, and can now fly for longer distances. 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.

Some believe that members of this breed can fly via the use of magic. Yet, deep in his pessimistic little heart, Snek carries the heavy weight of knowing that's not true. Wings are required for true flight and, barring that, the best anyone can do is glide. So it is that every time Snek leaps gallantly into the air he flattens his body out, limbs spread wide, looking for all the world like a shiny blue gliding squirrel as he zips from one place to the other... and also soars up and down, in zig zags, in loops, and various other ways that mere gliding alone could never hope to accomplish. Some point this out to the child as proof that his theory is lacking, but he runs off before they can start doing other crazy things like trying to convince him bees follow the laws of aerodynamics.