Aww... it’s a cute baby... dragon? Actually, you’re not really sure what it is; it doesn’t seem to have any eyes.

And look! It has grown larger! 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.

According to his father, Gwerlum was named after a big spider who ate light and whose current whereabouts are unknown. His dear dad tells him a lot of things, and because he's absentminded and known to fib and fabricate, Gwerlum usually doesn't know whether the more interesting things he's learned are real or just stories. He doesn't know what kind of dragon he is, and the other young dragons he knows are so different from him that some of them have said he must not be a dragon at all, maybe some kind of half-baked creature from the abyss. Despite Gwerlum's wish to make friends with others, many any are uneasy around him, and the neighbor kingcrowne, golden wyvern, and arcana are terrified of him and have said some mean things about him. He suspects he would be a target for bullying if his adoptive family didn't consist of black marrows, tri-horn wyverns, and a xenowyrm.