NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed a cosmic cloud next to M17 that is shaped like a flying dragon. Though appearances deceive, stars are forming in this dark cloud about as fast as in the neighboring, dazzling M17 nebula, which is illuminated by giant stars. But no similar stellar behemoths have yet emerged in this dark cloud (dubbed M17 SWex) to set the dragon's dusty innards aglow. The strange absence of bright stars in this star forming cloud speaks to the mysteries surrounding the birth of the heftiest stars in the universe.