Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon... except for the tangle of dangerous-looking vines surrounding it...

Now there are even more vines. Perhaps something is happening?

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.

Once upon a midnight dreary, a dragon's egg was planted within the soil of the Gardens of the Dead. The tainted soil warped this egg as it began to hatch, and the hatching was never quite able to leave the soil. It began to take in nutrients like a plant, though there was no sun for photosynthesis. Instead, it began to hunt. Unable to venture far from its burrow, the tiny but ferocious creature became known as the Viridian of Hades, even though it is bound to his little garden of death.