Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has long toes, and likes to wander around on lily pads.

And look! Its toes have grown longer and developed webbing! 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.

Lily Marlene is a martyr. When almost grown, she volunteered to be abandoned when the cave was offered a magma egg at a time when there were four hatchlings growing up. As she already had a name, this was not possible, so she insisted on being frozen for the good of the cave. She is much loved by all the family, and the others visit her daily to pay homage to her self-sacrifice. Except Flaming Evil of course; he is the exception to all NICE things that happen among the clan.