The egg faded away completely; in its place there’s a cute baby dragon. It doesn’t seem to have much substance, though.

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.

Cheap Beer tries to be wary of humans, but cautiousness always loses to curiosity. They do things like build caves out of wood and rocks and put their texts on flat things, including on said caves. One day, before he was old enough to be given a name, the dragon came across a slab of wood next to a gathering area for talkative, noisy humans. He knew that humans were very social creatures, so the painted symbols must've been really important. After a few minutes of carefully copying the largest squiggles and sticks on the board, he ventured inside to see how the people would react. Many of them made loud happy noises and let him sit on a counter, repeating what he had shown them. From then on, the hatchling became known as Cheap Beer and is always welcome in the establishment.