Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It’s hard to see it in the dark, except for the glowing eyes.

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.

Exceptionalism has a natural talent in magic that the other young spirit wards lack. He would say he was blessed with this ability. Among the adolescents, he's the one who almost always knows which spell to use in a given situation and likes to butt heads with the white dragon in the group regarding who gets to do the healing when someone is injured. The old dragons say that Exceptionalism is special and different and occasionally prod him to test his skills. While the elders never meant to imply he's superior to anyone, more and more often he behaves as if he is and should be treated differently, and he feels he has a personal mission to transform the world once he's a little older.