Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It’s always proudly preening its patches of colorful scales.

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.

This hatchling has a problem with painful hiccups that end in burning burps. At the end of each hiccup, she expels a small burst of blue flame; in this way, she shares her pain with whatever is in front of her.

Hikkerp is essentially immune to attempts to startle her, because so many have been made by those trying to get her to stop hiccupping. She has found that drinking water and holding her breath are much more likely to provide her some relief for her affliction.