Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It’s rather plain looking, though.

And look! It has grown wings, and bright markings have developed all over its body.

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.

As Gebet grew up, a terrible disaster happened in the sea from which his father's parents hailed, coating their native atoll in a sheen of black oil and slowly choking out the life of the island. He is haunted by the event as though he lived through it, and often wakes up from nightmares and dashes to the pond, bathing frantically to rid his scales of imaginary crude. After these nightmares he often refuses to look at his father, whose wings, he says, look "dipped in poison." His parents are disturbed and heartbroken by this, especially since it seems to have stunted his growth, but when they try to soothe him, he shakes his head violently. "So much has died," he says. "So much is still dying."