Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It perfectly depicts autumn weather.

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 dragon was born at night, and his first sight upon poking his head out of his mottled shell was of the sky; stretching endlessly overhead, with all the stars winking like a thousand jewels.

From that moment, he was in love with the air; he would constantly lunge off of small outcrops and hills, trying to fly. Of course, he got no results until his wings first appeared, and even then it was a good week before he could so much as glide.

But even being able to fly was not enough; he wanted to be able to soar higher, to dive faster, to be so at peace with the air that the stars and wind would tell him all their secrets. So he begged a mated pair-a gray and a skywing who had once been held in captivity-to teach him the ways of the sky. The friendly dragons agreed, and he's learning fast.

He has a major crush on Whisperwill, but don't tell her that!