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 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.
Born with black scales in a family where only silver-hued children were allowed to carry on the line, this young male spent much of his childhood plotting his revenge on his shinier siblings. In time, he struck upon a most brilliant idea; he'd freeze all the little buggers in hatchling form, thus ensuring that there was no one but himself to carry on the family tree!
...Unfortunately for him, however, the spell backfired and froze him instead. Stupid magic.