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.

Jesse was one of the last vampire eggs ever abandoned, and as such, was coveted by many. When she was picked up, with much excitement, by her human, poor Jesse was plagued with horrific soft shell and would have died within minutes. The human woman's quick thinking and tender care coaxed the vampire out of its shell as a healthy hatchling. Due to this experience, Jesse is very fearful of being left behind, and rarely leaves the presence of her human. This caused the human to craft a special spell so Jesse could withstand sunlight, a spell that unfortunately does not work on adult vampires. Although the vampire hatchling adores her human, and tolerates the other dragons that said human has raised, Jesse openly loathes all other creatures.