Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It always seems to be hungry.

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 was minding its own business—looking for something to eat—when she spotted something small and blue dart past it.  A hawk was chasing it, and Niliact likes the taste of birds, so she snapped her head forward and ate the hawk in one big gulp.

The small blue thing was a nilia pygmy dragon that was very grateful to have been rescued from the hawk.  He flew back to Niliact and thanked her.  The large hatchling grunted and kept foraging for food.  The little dragon, however, gave his undying loyalty to his savior from that moment on.

Now Niliact is subject to constant attention from the small creature.  He likes to play games with her, such as land on her nose, cry telepathically "Tag! You're IT!" and dart back into the trees.  Luckily for the little flier, she does not eat sentient creatures—though sometimes she contemplates whether an annoying nilia pygmy dragon would be nicer in her belly than on her back.