Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Despite being as black as outer space, it has a few bright patterns on it.

And look! It has grown wings and its scales have gained beautiful patterns. 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.

Behold, seeker of the dragon lore, Mardroem of the Nebula dragons. She appeared with her mother near a mage's tower one day. Both had never been recorded before. Her mother had come there in search for a new mate which was rather dangerous for Mardroem as many males kill hatchlings which are not their own when finding a new mate. This was also the reason she was given her name—the situation could so easily have developed into a nightmare. In this case all went well. The mage, though, observed something irregular about her after her nebula patterns and wings had developed further. Mardroem suddenly stopped growing. Both adult Nebula dragons had become so tame towards the mage that they allowed him to take a sample from the hatchling which revealed the reason for her stop in growth: Mardroem is the offspring of mixed parentage which is considered one of the main reasons for the frozen hatchling syndrome.