Hatchlings. I Haz Them.

My Dragon Cave eggs hatched!

Dub Ban
Ech Uisge
Uaine Beg
Ruadnat

I also have learned more about how things work. The site monitors three statistics: "Views", "Unique Views", and "Clicks".

Views and Unique Views are both based on how often the image of the egg/hatchling/dragon is loaded/viewed, with Views incrementing every time it is loaded and Unique views incrementing only the first time it is loaded by a unique IP. This means that there is no need for people to actually click on the egg/hatchling/dragon image to increase the Views/Unique Views -- just loading, say, your LJ friends page when it lists an entry by me with the egg/hatchling image is sufficient to increment Views and/or Unique Views.

Clicks is based on how many times the egg/hatchling/dragon is actually clicked, but it only counts one click per unique IP. (I'm not sure if that is one click for a whole lifetime, or one click per life stage, but I'm guessing the former.) This means that if you have already clicked on a particular egg/hatchling/dragon, there is no need to click it again -- only the first click will count. (Well, unless you click from a different IP.)

Finally, I have discovered there are Dragon Cave fan sites where you can register or post your eggs/hatchlings/dragons and fellow Dragon Cave fans will view and click them (and you are expected to do the same in return) to help them hatch/grow. There is even one with a special "Emergency Room" area for eggs/hatchlings that are getting close to their deadlines. A very long and seemingly comprehensive list of such fan sites can be found in the Dragon Cave Forum. The two fan sites I used are The Dragon Cave Fansite and Daily Dragon Fix. This means --to everyone's delight, I'm sure-- that you aren't endangering my eggs/hatchlings by ignoring them! Ignore away, with my blessings! :-)

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