This hatchling appears to be... dead?

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.

All the living dragons of Yggijo's clan cringe to see this curled little corpse, dry and crackling in the corner of the cave amongst the bodies of cold-skinned vampires. Its sire nuzzles it now and then, as though waiting for it to spring to undead life, but the others know it never will. They sometimes look from the hatchling's body to their human caretaker, as if to ask why it's still here, why they can't bury it with the broken shells, but Yggijo can't articulate an answer for them without pain tearing through her chest. She keeps Treffend Wahl to remind her of the choice she made—the choice she can never take back.