Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals.

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.

Doyle Jr. is a very sickly hatchling. He got softshell as an egg and hatched weak and ill, capable of doing little besides resting with his parents. By the time he gendered, he was so ill that the only way to save him was to freeze him. Although he is no longer in any danger of dying, he is still quite weak and tends to stay with his family at all times. His parents have grown to like having a child that wont grow up, and while Junior plays the dutiful son to this wish, he secretly harbours ambitions of something more.