This hatchling appears to be... dead?

Perhaps not. It seems to be active during the night.

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.

Persephone's eyes are always closed, for the darkness of the tunnels she walks can be navigated by instinct alone. Silent and hidden, ignored by those foolish enough to regard her as no threat, she wanders far while her mind stays close. It was long a mystery in the cave why dying dragons would have such a look, a look of absolute horror that haunts any witness' every night. Few come back from the brink of death, but those who do speak of eyes, the dark eyes, weighing them down into the blackness. At first this was thought to be just hallucinations of a mind fighting for survival, but the similarity and repetition of the visions led an investigation to be carried out. It took months of desperate searching before they finally gave up the witch-hunt, at a dead end. It was a year, almost to the day after it ended when the book was found, explaining the eyes belong to the Siren of the Dead, a lone dragon who brought the departed to the other side.