Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has bright blue eyes, and is as clumsy as any other hatchling, but it never seems to get injured.

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.

Elkin was an outsider hatchling brought in.  He was frozen in age, and thus will never be an adult, but he makes good use of his small size.  He is being trained by Will to be a healer, and he can easily work his way to the good herbs that are in hard to reach places.