Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It has large frills on its head.

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.

Essasha is an odd kind of artist: she uses a very powerful gold paint to decorate her own body in intricate, beautiful patterns. When she realized that growing up would destroy all of the images she had so painstakingly crafted upon her scales over the years, Essasha begged Siratha the Blazing Crest, the Ash'del Clan matriarch, to cast upon her a spell that would cease her aging. Her wish was granted. By now, nearly her entire body is covered in her art, a dazzling cascade of gold, green and orange.