Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Like the egg it hatched from, it is a very shiny gold.

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.

As a gold dragon, this hatchling has every right to be proud of his heritage, inbreeding be hanged! The extra toes and crossed eyes are a bit off-putting at times, but he still knows his sparkly little bottom is worth more than twenty fine-lined common dragons, and thus feels he has quite the right to strut about... if only the whole double vision thing would stop making him run into trees.