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.

A dragon with a voice considerably larger than his body, this noisy young hatchling is always demanding attention, barking and whining and rubbing pleadingly against other dragons, people, and even rocks in a desperate bid for affection. Those who indulge him with an affectionate scratch or round of petting soon find the little thing all but attached to their ankles, the tiny creature happily bounding about their legs and always demanding yet more attention with increasingly louder shrieks.