Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It must be very shy since it keeps hiding from you.

It’s gotten slightly bigger! 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.

Poor Finaglein is enslaved by her own father- the infamous Pazitor, a cruel, stupid and power-hungry Guardian Dragon who is the alpha male of the Stanca Clan. Finaglein has to do many hard or unpleasant tasks for Pazitor, who just sits back on his butt and laughs at how easily he avoided suffering the challenging or disgusting chores himself. If Fineglein didn't do them, she would suffer terrible consequences. Pazitor has convinced Finaglein's mother that forced labor will teach this small Mint dragon responsibility and discipline, and also make her more useful for the clan, so now there is nobody on Finaglein's side anymore except for a sweet rock dragon named Calcium Carbonate. Finaglein and Calcium Carbonate share their fears and their deep conversations soothe both of them intensely.