Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It sleeps a lot, but when it’s awake, it’s quite a handful.

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.

Little Nap finds herself in a rather curious position—a Pillow who despises sleeping. Of course, this does not stop her from spending much of her time snoozing, usually bundled up on top of one of her parents. However, upon awakening, she is off like a shot to play with the rest of the hatchlings. Her boundless energy persists until her eyes are drooping shut, and she has a potentially dangerous tendency to fall into a deep sleep without much warning. Her fellow hatchlings have been schooled to look after her when she falls asleep; the young females in particular defend her with great pride and viciousness if they are caught outside of the weyr.

Vulcanica herself always collects Little Nap if this happens, as her parents are generally fast asleep themselves. The old Pebble loves to spoil her, brushing out her cashmere and cleaning her tiny wings before depositing Little back into the care of Cat Nap and Power Nap.