Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It can fit right in your palm.

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.

Meimei Akago's name means "invisible baby," referring to just how tiny she was at the time of her hatching.  Her parents had to be extremely careful with her until she got some size on her since her diminutiveness and fearlessness made for a tricky combination.  When she learned how to fly, she would zip up to the large adult dragons and hitch a ride on their heads, not unlike a tick.  This led to her nickname, Meimei the Tick.