Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon... except for the tangle of dangerous-looking vines surrounding it...

Now there are even more vines. Perhaps something is happening?

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.

Grasp of death is so named for his vines. They were cursed by Pepper Pebbles for knocking over a stack of Fortune Pebbles, and now have minds of their own, sometimes squishing eggs or nearly choking hatchlings. Grasp of Death is paranoid that the vines will choke him in his sleep. He is kept in a different cave from all the other hatchlings for these reasons.