This hatchling could hardly be considered cute.

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.

No one knows how little Paxil got this way. Nobody will confess to having done it on purpose. It remains possible that it was some kind of accident. Perhaps, when newly hatched, the tiny Black Marrow chick was exposed to a natural source of Time mana—maybe it ate one too many of the minute mice that burrow in the soil beneath the Chrono Xenowyrms' earthen home tunnels. The mice often forage in the gardens, and Paxil was often seen there at night, skittering from one shadow to the next. Or maybe one of the more malicious or insane dragon-mages did it and lied. No one knows for sure, but What Happened To Paxil has become a favorite long-term argument among the sapient dragons of the Breedery. Paxil itself has nothing to say. It either lies around screeching feebly, sleeps in a pile with other hatchlings, or creeps around at night watching adult dragons from hiding. It never speaks and attempts to make telepathic contact transmit only bewildering nonsense that gnaws at one's sanity.