Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It can fit right in your palm.

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.

Behold, seeker of the dragon lore, Ebeque of the Pygmy Dragons. When still an egg, the nest of her parents was flooded by rainstorms and the egg cooled out a little in the water. The naturalists who observed the parents and the nest were very surprised that the egg still hatched, although the hatchling seemed severely ill. The illness wore off but the little female ever remained frail and sickly, and the naturalists had expected what happened: Ebeque remained in the second hatchling stage. The hatchling seemed happy enough, though, and was still taken care of by her mother. When her father was ousted by a younger male who wanted to chase her off, her mother would not allow it and hurt her new mate rather than giving up her hatchling. After that he left Ebeque in peace who still is with her mother and enjoys playing with her siblings when there are some, even though she will never grow up like they inevitably do.