Chapter 5

"Dragonriders… of Domino?" Yugi asked slowly, a little confused. A curl of confusion and reassurance flitted through his mind from Yami, the dragon's warm breath blowing against his hair.

Ryou nodded. "Yes. Our dragons spotted yours one night a few weeks ago, and we were going to come to you then, but you'd disappeared. We only now managed to locate you; Kisara saw your dragon earlier today."

Yugi absently scratched at Yami's eye ridge, causing the dragon to purr softly and close his eyes in bliss. "Must have been while he was out hunting…"

Marik nodded. "No doubt. Now then, if you would tell us your name?"

Yugi blinked. "Oh! Sorry, my name is Yugi. And this is Yami." He looked down at Yami, who growled slightly in an affirmative tone. Yugi turned. "And that's my grandfather, Sugoroku."

The elder nodded to the teens and their dragons, by now used to having a rather large creature around. He was a little nervous about having three dragons, but he could handle it.

Ryou smiled gently. "Nice to meet you all."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Can we just go now? We asked what we wanted; we need to get back to the others. Shade's going to attack soon, and we need to be ready."

Marik glared at the other. "And that's exactly why we're here. We need Yugi so we'll have an advantage of being up a dragon. Even though they're both untrained, we can work on that."

Yugi blinked. "Shade?"

"An evil Rider who wants nothing more than to be the leader of all of the Dragonriders. His dragon, we believe, was an egg that was brought straight from Hell itself. Most of our eggs came from Heaven." Ryou told him.

"Okay, I am so lost." Yugi murmured.

All dragons came from Heaven, Yugi. We were a gift to mankind, but most didn't notice we were there, or even qualified for us to hatch for them. There are some eggs that came from Hell, though, eggs of pure evil. We dragons are a part of the war between Heaven and Hell, sent to mankind to help protect him from the forces of evil that may attack at any given time.

Yugi blinked. That wasn't Yami's voice… "Okay, who said that?"

Kisara lowered her head slightly, but Yugi didn't hear anything else out of her. Her voice had been soft and musical, gentle, quite unlike her Rider's. Kaiba smirked slightly. "Kisara likes to project her voice every now and then."

Yugi shrugged. "Well, thanks for the explanation. It helped."

The white dragon nodded her head gracefully, and then grew still once more. Yugi sighed slightly. "Even if I did want to go with you, I can hardly get there on my own. And I can't leave Grandpa here."

The older man scoffed. "Go, my boy. If it's what you want, then go. You don't need to worry about me, I may be an old man, but I can certainly take care of myself."

Yugi chewed his lip. "But how would I get there?" He looked at Yami, and the dragon's crimson eyes met his.

You would ride me, of course.

Yugi shook his head. "No Yami. Not after what happened the first time. I don't think I want to ride again anytime soon."

Marik sighed. "Ah. Bad first experience riding. It happens sometimes. Don't worry, we came prepared for something like that." He turned towards his dragon, and Malik stretched out a leg, letting Marik clamber up his back towards the saddle strapped around his neck. A moment later the teen slid down the golden scales, a large bundle of leather and straps in his hands.

Marik moved forward, bowing slightly to Yami. "If you'll allow me."

Yami considered the human for a moment, and then lifted his large black wing out of the way, stretching out his foreleg and giving Marik the room to strap the temporary saddle on his neck.

Ryou moved forward to help; going to Yami's other side while the dragon watched him with calculating crimson eyes. "It's only a temporary one; we'll get you a proper saddle when we get back home." Ryou explained to Yugi.

"Where is home?" the boy questioned, watching curiously as the two worked to strap the saddle firmly in place on his dragon.

"Far out from Domino. It's an old abandoned factory out in the middle of nowhere. People stopped going there a long time ago, and a forest sprang up around it. I don't think anyone even knows it's there anymore." Kaiba said, his hand running over Kisara's forehead as the dragon butted against his leg.

"Oh…" Yugi murmured.

"There, all done. We'll just have to get you strapped in, and then there's no way you'd fall off of Yami." Marik said, admiring his handiwork. Yami stretched a bit, getting used to the feel, and then settled back down with a slight snort, smoke drifting from his nostrils.

It's not so bad.

Yugi chuckled at that, and then turned back to the others. "What about my things?"

Malik growled softly, turning his head towards his saddle, where a large pack was secured behind it. Marik nodded. "Since the saddle is out of Malik's pack, we can carry whatever you need in there. Malik is one of our biggest, so he can carry most anything."

Yugi nodded. "I don't really have much anyway."

Yami chuckled softly at that. He had carried all of Yugi's things out here the first time, because Sugoroku had taken his things in the car and there hadn't been room. Yugi's belongings were nothing more than two duffel bags of clothes and a few precious items.

Yugi came out of the cabin a moment later with his things, giving them to Marik to put in Malik's pack. The boy then turned to his grandfather, hugging the old man. "Are you sure about this, Grandpa?"

Sugoroku nodded. "Of course I am. You go out there and save the world or something. I'll be fine here. Just make sure you come back to visit, okay?"
Yugi smiled. "Of course I will."

Yami put his large head down, and Sugoroku patted his muzzle fondly. "You take good care of my grandson, you big brute. Or you'll have me to answer to."

Yami purred, affectionately rubbing the tip of his nose against Sugoroku's side, carefully so he wouldn't hurt the elder. I will not let anything harm him, you can count on me.

Yugi moved over to Yami's side, carefully climbing up his dragon's black foreleg and sitting in the saddle. Marik helped him strap his legs in tightly, and then the blond mounted his own dragon. As Yami stood Yugi gulped slightly, not really sure if he was ready for this, but then Bakura, Kisara, and Malik all sprang into the air.

Yami opened his wings excitedly, flinging himself into the air. Yugi yelped slightly, clutching at the spikes along Yami's spine, closing his eyes tightly.

Come on Yugi, don't be afraid. I would never let anything happen to you.

Yami's deep, gentle voice in his mind made him open his eyes, and Yugi gasped in awe at the sight. The world was spread far below them, and he could see the golden scales of Malik flying just to the left of them. Kisara was a gleaming white beacon in the lead, Bakura moving like a storm cloud on Yami's right. The boy looked around excitedly, a wide smile of happiness on his face as they flew.

After some time Yugi looked into the distance to see a large building, surrounded by miles of trees. /That must be the factory that Kaiba was talking about./

Yami followed the others as they descended, and then Yugi gasped as he saw even more dragons, creatures of every color imaginable waiting to greet him. "Wow…"

"Welcome to the Dragonriders!"

Yugi looked over as a girl bounced forward. She had long brown hair that was gathered into a high ponytail, and green sparkling eyes. "My name is Mana. My dragon is the big light purple one over there. Her name is Valkyria."

The dragon had kind green eyes, and she nodded to Yami and Yugi as she watched them. Another dragon was sitting beside her, a large teal colored one with dark eyes. A boy came forward, with eyes that matched the dragon's hide and black hair in a ponytail. "My name's Duke and my dragon is Dice."

Yugi nodded to them. "Nice to meet you."

Marik pointed to a girl with tanned skin similar to his, and ocean blue eyes. "That's my sister, Ishizu. Her dragon is the sandy one there." He gestured to a huge sandy colored dragon with calculating golden eyes. "Odion."

"Well hey, about time we got a cute one in the group."

Yugi looked up in shock to see a blonde woman with pretty violet eyes. She was tall, a cocky smirk on her face. "The name's Mai and my dragon is Harpy." She gestured towards a rather vicious looking maroon colored dragon. Harpy blew smoke from her nostrils.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of you…" Yugi murmured softly. Yami took a step closer to his Rider.

"There's one more, our leader who's got the oldest and biggest dragon. Where in the devil is my brother?.!" Mana exclaimed, shading her eyes and looking up into the sky.

There was a loud thud a moment later, and Yugi turned to look at a large purple, so dark that it was nearly black, dragon with green eyes. A man with brown hair climbed down from his back, and then smiled at the boy. "You must be our new Rider. My name is Mahad, my dragon is Magician. Welcome to our group."

Okay, here's a breakdown of who's got what dragon and what color they are, just to make sure you know. I hope you liked this chapter!

Yugi – Black Yami

Marik – Golden Malik

Ryou – Gray Bakura

Seto – White Kisara

Mai – Maroon Harpy

Duke – Aqua Dice

Ishizu – Sandy Odion

Mana – Purple Valkyria

Mahado – Violet Magician