Pyrona frankly desired this strange dragon orphan and the egg that she guarded. Egg which was probably her little sibling or cousin. They must be of old noble ancestry, to resist as that juvenile golden dragon did. Besides, she was so cute! If the baby ion the egg was even half as pretty as her, well, she would break many, many hearts amongst dragonkind later. But that poor young dragon looked extremely confused. And frightened. After all, what normal dragon, especially an orphan, would refuse to be adopted by noble dragons? Pyrona and her like could transform their characteristics slightly in order to make them appear fully noble. Her stellar education would do the rest. And she really wanted two sweet babies at home. Even if one was older than in her expectations. Yet that gave her an idea. If the little one insisted too much, then, Pyrona had a most practical solution.
"You should come with me, my dear," she said soothingly. "You cannot stay here. This hovel is not fit for a dragon. And you cannot look after this poor egg indefinitely. You have courage, but you are not adult, no matter your strength of will."
"I don't care! Leave me alone! Please! I don't want to live amongst dragons! Really! Just let me be!"
Pyrona sighed. This one was pretty but she was not silly. Silly would have been fine. She was downright traumatised or delusional. Well, this meant that her idea had some merit. Without wasting any time, she cast her spell and Karltin felt himself shrink drastically. When the spell finally halted, the egg was half his size and the adult dragon looming over him more than before! His limbs were shorter, like his tails. His claws less developed, as well as his spikes. A hatchling! He was now a golden female dragon hatchling! He was a helpless baby dragon! How could his plan have faltered so much?
"Much better!" purred Pyrona.
The golden dragon was even cuter as a hatchling than before! She would be a delight to coddle and pamper! She'd make a wonderful little one to raise and turn into a lady. She could not wait to start and see the little treasure that the egg contained.