5 The Vanishing Tower

CHAPTER Five The Vanishing Tower "Oww!" Neal whined, cupping his hands over his face. Then he stared at the empty space in front of him. "Wait. I bumped into… nothing?" Eric stood next to Neal and put his hands out. "No, there's something here. Something hard." "Hard?" Neal grumbled. "Tell me about it." "It's over here, too," Julie said as she walked to the other side of the clearing. Eric went around the other way. "It's round. It must be some kind of—whoa!"

第五章消失的塔“哇！”尼尔呜咽着，用手捂着脸。 然后他盯着面前的空白处。 ”等。我撞到了……什么都没有？”埃里克站在尼尔旁边，伸出双手。 “不，这里有东西。 硬的东西。”“硬?”Neal咕哝道。 “告诉我吧。”“它也在这里，”朱莉边说边走到空地的另一边。 埃里克转到另一边去了。 “这是圆的。它一定是某种——哇！”

As the three of them stood there, a giant tower shimmered into view. A wooden tower. In fact, it was a tree. But when they touched it, the bark was as hard as stone. "Hmm," Julie said, biting her lip. "This tree has petrified. It turned to stone because it's so old. We learned about petrified trees at camp." "I don't remember that," said Neal. "You were too busy eating snacks," Julie said. "All that hiking made me hungry," Neal said. "Guys!" Eric interrupted. "Can you please—" "Who dares approach the tower of Galen Longbeard!" cried a voice above them. They all looked up and gasped. Crawling slowly down the side of the tower was a large spider with eight long arms and legs. Only it wasn't an ordinary spider. It had a big, round face with large eyes and a pug nose. And bright orange hair. Neal nudged Julie. "I sure don't remember anything like him at camp," he whispered. "You aren't Ninns!" the creature squeaked. "Uh, that's true," Julie said. "Very true." "In fact, the Ninns are after us," Eric said. "And we have a message from Princess Keeah."

当他们三人站在那里时，一座巨大的塔楼映入眼帘。 木塔。事实上，它是一棵树。 但当他们触摸它时，树皮像石头一样坚硬。 “嗯，”朱莉咬着嘴唇说。 “这棵树已经石化了。它变成了石头，因为它太古老了。 我们在营地学到了石化树。” “我不记得了，”尼尔说。 “你忙着吃零食，”朱莉说。 “徒步旅行让我很饿，”尼尔说。 “男人!”埃里克打断。“谁敢走近长胡子盖伦的高塔！”一个声音在他们上方喊道。 他们都抬起头来，倒吸了一口气。 一只长着八只长长的胳膊和腿的大蜘蛛正慢慢地从塔的一侧爬下来。 只不过它不是一只普通的蜘蛛。 它有一张又大又圆的脸，大大的眼睛和一个巴哥鼻子。 还有亮橙色的头发。尼尔推了推朱莉。 “我确实不记得夏令营里有像他这样的人，”他低声说。 “你们不是小鬼！” “嗯，那是真的，”朱莉说。 “非常正确。”“事实上，Ninns在追我们，”Eric说。 “我们有基娅公主的口信。”

"From the princess?" said the spider. "Then come inside quickly!" Ploink! A door-sized section of the stony bark swung open. "I'm Max, a spider troll," he said, jumping into the tree ahead of them. "We must go to the top!"

“从公主那儿？”蜘蛛说。 “那就快进来！”Ploink !一扇门大小的石质树皮打开了。 “我是麦克斯，一个蜘蛛怪。”他说着跳到他们前面的树上。 “我们必须爬到山顶！”

The three friends piled into the tree.

三个朋友挤到树上。

Together, they crawled up a winding passage and into a large, round room. The room was cluttered beyond belief. "Looks like your basement, Eric," Neal said. Old leather books were stacked up everywhere. Hundreds of tiny colored bottles were collecting dust on deep wooden shelves. A big, ancient mirror leaned against one wall. And in the center of everything stood a man. He was tall and thin and very old. He wore a long blue robe and a high cone-shaped hat. His white beard hung down to his belt. "Behold!" cried Max. "Galen Longbeard, first wizard of Droon! He's more than five hundred years old." The old man coughed. "Yes, well, welcome to my tower," he said. Then he stroked his beard. "By the way, did anyone see Leep on the way up? Leep is my pilka." "Uh, what's a pilka, sir?" Julie asked. Galen cleared his throat. "Well, it's a… it has a… it goes like…" He waved his arms about, trying to describe the lost thing. "Oh, never mind. Leep will turn up somewhere. Now, what brings three Upper Worlders to my tower?" Eric told Galen what had happened in the forest. "Here is Keeah's message." Eric handed the paper to Galen. "It doesn't make sense to us."

他们一起爬上一条蜿蜒的通道，进入一间又大又圆的房间。 房间里乱得令人难以置信。 “看起来像你的地下室，埃里克，”尼尔说。 旧皮书到处堆放着。 几百个彩色的小瓶子在深深的木架子上积满了灰尘。 一面古老的大镜子靠在墙上。 在这一切的中心站着一个人。 他又高又瘦，年纪很大了。 他穿着一件蓝色长袍，戴着一顶高高的锥形帽子。 他的白胡子垂到腰带上。 “看！”麦克斯叫道。“长胡子盖伦，德鲁恩第一个巫师！”他已经五百多岁了。” 老人咳嗽起来。“是的，好吧，欢迎来到我的塔楼，”他说。 然后他抚摸着自己的胡子。 “顺便问一下，有人看见利普了吗？” 睡觉是我的皮卡。”“呃，什么是pilka，先生？”朱莉问。 盖伦清了清嗓子。“嗯，这是一个……它有一个……它是这样的……”他挥舞着手臂，试图描述这个丢失的东西。 “哦，没关系。睡眠会在某处出现。 现在，是什么风把三个上层世界的人吹到我的塔里来了？”埃里克把森林里发生的事告诉了盖伦。 “这是基娅的留言。” 埃里克把纸递给盖伦。 “这对我们来说没有意义。”

The wizard frowned. "Nor to me. Hmm…" "I was thinking," Julie said, looking at the message again. "Maybe it's code. So if the Ninns captured us, they wouldn't understand it." Galen laughed. "Princess Keeah knows that the Ninns are quite simple. Brains like walnuts. You might even say they are backward." "Backward?" Neal said. "That's it! I bet Keeah's message is written backward. My sister tries that all the time. But she can't trick me!" Neal scribbled out the message again, reversing the order of the letters from front to back. "So…" he said" 'Thginot Dekcatta Eb Lliw Frodnefroz' becomes 'Zorfendorf Will Be Attacked Tonight.' Does that make sense?" Galen's eyes flashed suddenly. "Zorfendorf Castle! Lord Sparr plans to attack it tonight. I must warn King Zello immediately!" Before another word was spoken, a blue mist rose around the wizard. Sparks of light streaked through it. Then he mumbled strange sounds. "Kolo… bembo… zoot!" An instant later— zamm! He wasn't there! "Whoa!" Eric gasped. "Where did he

巫师皱起眉头。“对我来说也不是。 “我在想，”朱莉说，又看了看留言。 “也许这是代码。所以如果ninn抓住了我们，他们不会理解的。” 盖伦笑了。“姬娅公主知道尼宁人很简单。 大脑像核桃。你甚至可以说他们很落后。” “落后?”Neal说。“就是它!我打赌Keeah的留言写反了。 我妹妹总是这么做。 但她骗不了我！”尼尔把字母从前到后的顺序倒过来，又草草地写了一遍。 “所以……”他说，“‘Thginot Dekcatta Eb Lliw Frodnefroz’变成了‘Zorfendorf今晚将被攻击’。”这说得通吗？”盖伦的眼睛突然放光。 “Zorfendorf城堡!斯帕尔大人计划今晚进攻。 我必须立即警告泽洛国王！”没等他再说话，一层蓝雾在巫师周围升起。 一粒粒的光穿过它。 然后他咕哝着奇怪的声音。 “科洛……本博……祖特！”过了一会儿——赞！他不在那儿！“哇!”埃里克气喘吁吁地说。 “他在哪儿？”