This hatchling appears to be... dead?

Perhaps not. It seems to be active during the night.

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.

Witch Detective writes ponderous, boring novels about romance among "regular" dragons and vampires. Many critics say the books are almost physically painful to read in and feel like they're written by an adolescent, and they aren't surprised when they find that they're right. However, Witch Detective has a quite large fanbase anyway, perhaps because the most avid readers just like good-looking characters and do a lot of wishful thinking.