A/N: Oh, if only folks knew what strange ideas lurk amongst my writing folders. I'd been processing this one for some time and I think it's worth pursuing. In case you didn't know, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, and since I'm sure there are some fantasy freaks that are going to point out the similarities, YES, this is quite a bit like the Dragonriders of Pern. I don't own that, either, and no specific characters or names from that story will be involved.

Roar of Thunder

Chapter 1

Yugi smiled as he read his friend's spidery handwriting; it had been good to finally hear from Jounouchi. It seemed that he and Hiroto were being kept quite busy, but of course, training for the Defense Guard wasn't supposed to be easy. According to him the food left much to be desired, but otherwise he didn't have much to complain about. Jounouchi had wanted to join the Guard since he was very young. Yugi knew, as he had listened to Jounouchi's many speeches about how he was going to be the greatest guard that had ever lived.

Yugi's smile faded a bit. He rather missed the days of Jounouchi and Hiroto knocking at his window early in the morning and whisking him off to play at being the greatest guards of all time. By the end of the day it had usually dissolved into an argument over which of them was better at what, but that was all forgotten by dinnertime.

The week before Yugi had also gotten a letter from Anzu. She had told Yugi, in much neater handwriting, all about the fantastic people she was meeting and the important things she was learning at the Naoru Academy of Healers. Yugi remembered that she had also come along to play with them when they were young. She had always insisted on being one of the brave guards along with Jounouchi and Hiroto, which had unfortunately left Yugi with the "damsel in distress" role the majority of the time. It was only later that Anzu had decided she wanted to be a healer, and now she was fulfilling her dream.

Of course Yugi was happy for her. He was happy for all of them. It was just that… well, without any of them around, Yugi was left with no one.

"Yugi!"

No one his age, anyway.

"Yugi! If you don't hurry up, we're going to be late!"

"I'm coming, Grandpa!" Yugi stuck the letter in a nearby drawer, grabbed his cloak and hurried out of his room. The day's events were something that he did not want to miss.

His grandfather had all of his needed parchment, quills and ink packed up and ready to go. "Here, Yugi, carry this for me," he said, handing Yugi several rolls of parchment.

"Are you really going to need this much?" Yugi asked.

"It's always better to have too much than too little," he replied. "Right, then, off we go!"

The two hurried out into the street and a few twists and turns later were heading down the crowded main boulevard of the city. Looking around, Yugi could see that nearly everyone was heading in the same direction as he and his grandfather, and with good reason. Today and the next three days held one of the most celebrated events of the year.

Today, the dragon eggs would start to hatch.

Excitement surged through Yugi's chest, banishing any thoughts of loneliness. He had always loved dragons and all that was associated with them. He had read every book about them that he could get his hands on and as soon as spring came would count down the days until the hatching. When he and his friends had dreamed of what they would be when they grew up, with no inhibitions holding back his imagination, Yugi had dreamed of being a dragon rider.

Unfortunately, as Yugi had learned in what he had read about dragons and becoming a dragon rider, he realized his doing so was rather impossible. As they approached the citadel where all the dragons and dragon riders of the city lived, Yugi looked up to see an enormous relief carved into the side of the cliff. A great dragon was reared back on its haunches, mouth open and teeth bared in a silent roar. A bearded rider, garbed in ancient armor, wielded a sword against an unseen foe. That was Gorou Ryujo, one of the very first humans to bond with and ride a dragon. All successive dragon riders had been, and still were, somehow related to the Ryujo line. Only they had ever bonded with dragons, and Yugi was not one of them. His ancestors had been on the other end of the continent when the first dragon riders lived, anyways, so for him dragon riding was only a dream.

When he had first found out, Yugi had been angry; he wanted to know why others were allowed to bond with dragons just because they happened to be born to the right person. As it turned out, no one really knew why. The bond between a human and a dragon was supposedly predestined, something that could not be altered. A dragon egg would only hatch if the human it was destined for was near. If it did not make that vital mental connection with its human in its first few minutes of life, then… it would die.

Yugi looked up at the citadel as they approached its gates. The citadel was built along the side of a natural cliff and it was a monumental stone structure that nearly made one tumble over backwards if one tried to look up at it. It had to be big to house such large creatures. It was at the highest point of the city; if Yugi turned around he looked down on all the houses and winding streets that spread around for several miles. Along the cliff Yugi could see gaping holes of the eyrie where the full-grown dragons and their riders resided. Every so often one would see a dragon with a human perched on top fly in or out of the high landings. In front of the fortress a massive green pasture spread out until it met the opposite cliff, and there were herds of livestock that were provided for the dragons to hunt.

Yugi sighed. Even if he couldn't be a dragon rider, at least becoming a scribe, like his grandfather, would ensure that he would always be able to attend the hatchings. A scribe was always needed to record the event.

They entered through the massive gates and into the even more massive courtyard. There were a few other scribes attending the event; it was thought that having more than one scribe record the same event would ensure greater accuracy.

"Ah, Yoshiro! Good to see you!" Yugi's grandfather began greeting the other scribes, most of them good friends of his. Yugi just tuned out the conversation as he noticed a dragon and rider preparing to take off from one of the lower landings. It was a silver dragon. They were not very large, but rather were known for their speed. Most racing dragons were silver, but some were also fighters. As the dragon spread its wings, Yugi could see black splotches along its left wing, indication of an injury. It must have seen battle at one point. Then, the rider mounted and the dragon suddenly dropped from the landing. It plummeted toward the ground for a moment, then spread its wings and soared over the citadel towards the pasture. Yugi was so enthralled by the sight that he only caught the end of Yoshiro's sentence.

"…dragon they haven't seen in hundreds of years!" Yugi turned around so fast he almost dropped the scrolls of parchment.

"They say that it's a dark egg with splotches of gold on it!"

"Gold splotches? What kind of dragon has an egg with gold on it?"

"No one knows! The egg's supposedly been in the incubation vault for so long that nobody knows where it came from. It surprised the hell out of them when it finally showed signs of readiness. The Ryujochi Council thinks it might be one of a kind now, a dragon that hasn't been seen since the War of the Wolves, or even farther back!"

Yugi gaped openly. This day was just getting better and better. Not only was it a dragon hatching, but he got to see a dragon that hadn't been around for nearly a thousand years? He couldn't wait to tell Jounouchi about this. Yugi vaguely wondered who would be the lucky one to be bonded to such a dragon, but just then the crowd was ushered towards the hatching grounds for the opening ceremony.

Yugi followed his grandfather through courtyard and into a large cylindrical building that was nestled against the side of the cliff. Stained glass windows showed many images of Gorou Ryujo and other famed dragon riders with their dragons. Through the doors Yugi could see the circle of sand in the center of the room where the ready dragon eggs were waiting. Heat rose from underneath the sandy surface, warming the entire room and, most importantly, the eggs. Beyond the sandy grounds sat several members of the Ryujochi Council, and even farther beyond was a thick metal door protected by a dozen or more guards. That was the incubation vault, where all of the eggs that were not yet ready were kept.

The first thing that Yugi heard as he entered the room was the low rumble of the heartbeats of each dragon. That was one of the signs of readiness; the dragon's heartbeat would become quite audible, and the noise nearly made the ground beneath him shake. There were almost two hundred eggs sitting there, after all.

As Yugi sat down next to his grandfather with the other scribes, he looked over the eggs. One could usually tell by the shell what kind of dragon it would be. That one with the rust-colored splotches would be a spotted dragon, and the one with the black and red swirls would be some variety of plated dragon. The greenish one was probably a horned broadstripe, and the one with the bronze shine to it was most likely a broadback. There was a whole cluster of bluish-gray eggs that would eventually become fire chargers.

Then, Yugi saw the egg Yoshiro had been talking about. It was all black, but in the morning sunlight Yugi could see that it had a bright golden luster. Yugi had never seen an egg like it; he could only imagine what the dragon would look like. Eventually the crowd was hushed, some of the officials stood and talked and the first of those eligible to bond were brought in. Yugi carefully snuck some of the extra parchment and a quill for himself and began sketching out the first of the baby dragons as they stumbled onto the sand.

The reactions of the youth that were brought in were always interesting to watch. Some would start laughing and jumping around with their dragon in their arms; others would start crying hysterically. Some just sat and stared at the little creature in their lap. One poor boy made connection and then promptly fainted, his new dragon nosing at his limp human in confusion.

By the end of the day Yugi had filled a whole page with sketches of the dragons that had hatched. As the hatching for that day concluded, Yugi looked wistfully over at the strange black egg. He had rather been hoping that it would hatch that day, but there were three more days of hatching to go.

A/N: Intrigue? Maybe? Review, please.