Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Except for the occasional flicker of movement, it remains inanimate.

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.

Li'l Basalty was found as an egg buried deep within the cave. Some miners were, well, mining, for...erm...minerals, and found an egg. The miners threw it to the side, and a few dragons caught it and raised it as their own. As Li'l Basalty was thrown, though, the nutrients in the embryo were shaken up, and he never fully grew up... He is as fully respected as any other dragon, though.