Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It can fit right in your palm.

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.

Escini is a very good sniffer. All day long she runs from place to place, tracking various critters just for the fun of it. She also shows off for her parents, gathering rare herbs for them that can only be found by their very faint scent. Lately Escini has been obsessed with the smells that differently gendered dragons make. A female pygmy's scent is more subtle than a male's, and it can be likened to the sweet musk of a mint dragon. A male's is stronger, and smells like warm white dragon feathers. Escini, who was frozen before she could gender, wished to know what gender she would receive so could play up her smell before she actually grows wings. Unwilling to wait any longer, Escini visited a perceptive vine dragon that was famous for its always-correct gender guesses. The vine said that Escini was going to be a girl and a few days later, Escini became a lovely lady.