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.

"I can cure anything!" A cheerful, little white hatchling exclaims to the others. "I have a trillion, million medicines!" The adults listen with amusement at their banter, but deep down, they feel sorrow in their hearts for this little hatchling, for they know the truth that he is not ready to hear yet: that he will never be able to be a real white dragon, that he will never be able to heal his fellow clanmates. For the sad truth is that this hatchling was born with a deformity, an incurable disease that is slowly eating away at him, making him weaker by the day. It may take many, many years before he notices that it's harder for him to run, or that he gets tired after chasing the other hatchlings, but it won't take long for him to realize that his weakened body will never grow up. Alas, the little hatchling who dreams of having a "trillion, million medicines" will never have the one cure that he'll need to stop the disease from slowly ravaging him, day by day, year by year.