This hatchling could hardly be considered cute.

And look! It has grown wings! At least it isn’t quite as naked-looking anymore.

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.

This poor little creature never ate her vegetables, and look what happened to her—stunted for eternity, doomed to beg for the scraps of her reasonably-sized siblings until the end of time. Granted, a good deal more crushed bone and marrow might have helped her situation considerably, as well, but she was the runt of the lot from the start, and, well . . . there are some disadvantages one can't overcome through sheer nastiness alone.