Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. This large hatchling is well-protected by its thick, scaly hide. It is pushy and aggressive toward other dragons.

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.

Shackleton knows that when she grows too big for the humans' house, she will be left "outside" to survive on her own, but that is okay because they told her she will be big and strong and be just fine. Until then, she happily lives in the house and moves and carries things when the humans ask. Also, she tries not to eat things she isn't supposed to eat, but that's super-duper-pooper hard when everything looks like food. Apparently, the woven wall twigs aren't food, the stuff in jars above the fireplace isn't food, the hay roof isn't food, and the lumps in the pots under the bed aren't food. Shackleton still sniffs and licks the not-food when the humans are outside, and they don't seem to notice, so that's good. She doesn't really understand why they go outside on most days, but they return home much later looking tired and sometimes complain about things that happened while they were outside. Outside must be a bad place, and when Shackleton gets big, she'll teach it a lesson.