Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. Its eyes glow brightly at night, and it enjoys attacking insects and small animals.

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, Aara morne of the Black dragons. He was cast out by his mother on the moment he hatched because he looked strange and not at all like his siblings. It is unknown why sometimes regular black dragons' eggs hatch into this subspecies and why especially inexperienced dragon mothers desert these hatchlings. This hatchling was discovered freezing near the cave entrance by an elvish wanderer who named him and tried to raise him. Obviously, though, he was only successful in keeping him alive as he could not provide the warmth of a dragon parent in a breeding cave. His elvish guardian was killed by a band of humans in a small forest, and ever since then a small dragon has been known to wander around in it and especially guard a certain tree under which the bones of an elf lie.