1 A Spell Returns

CITY IN THE CLOUDS

云中之城

CHAPTER One A Spell Returns School was over for the day. Eric Hinkle and his two best friends, Neal and Julie, climbed onto the bus home. "It's been two whole weeks since we've been to youknow-where," Julie whispered as they squeezed into a seat together. Eric smiled. Of course he knew where. Droon, the totally secret and magical world of adventure that they had found under his basement. "It's so strange," Eric said when the bus started up. "We have all these amazing new friends and we can't even talk

第一章一个咒语回来了学校放学了。 Eric Hinkle和他最好的两个朋友Neal和Julie一起爬上了回家的公交车。 “我们已经整整两个星期没去那个你知道的地方了。”朱莉低声说，两人挤进了一个座位。 Eric笑了。他当然知道在哪儿。 德鲁恩，他们在他的地下室里发现的完全神秘而神奇的冒险世界。 “这太奇怪了，”埃里克在公共汽车启动时说。 “我们有了这么多很棒的新朋友，我们甚至都不能说话

about them." "Enemies, too, don't forget," Neal added. That was true. Since their first adventure in Droon, they had met Galen Longbeard, an old and powerful wizard, and his spidery helper, Max. Khan, king of the pillow-shaped purple Lumpies, had helped them, too. But their special friend was Princess Keeah, a junior wizard who was trying to keep the wicked Lord Sparr and his red-faced Ninns from taking over her world. "I wonder what Keeah is up to," Eric said. "I'm itching to go back." "And I'm just itching!" Neal groaned, bending over suddenly to scratch his legs. "In fact, I've been doing weird stuff all day. Not to mention the tiny little voices I keep hearing…" That's when it happened. Pop! "Whoa!" Eric gasped, looking under the seat. "Look at that!" He pointed at Neal's sneaker. Neal bent down. His shoelaces stretched and broke, one after another. The toe burst open and something brown and shiny popped out. "Neal," said Julie, "what's with your sneaker? Is that the stuffing coming out?" Eric gasped. "No, that's his foot coming out!"

关于他们的。”“敌人也一样，别忘了，”尼尔补充道。 这是真的。自从他们第一次在德鲁恩冒险以来，他们遇到了盖伦·长胡子，一个年老而强大的巫师，还有他的蜘蛛助手麦克斯。 可汗，枕头形状的紫色肿块的国王，也帮助了他们。 但他们特别的朋友是姬娅公主，一个年轻的巫师，她试图阻止邪恶的斯帕尔勋爵和他的红脸Ninns占领她的世界。 “我想知道Keeah在做什么，”Eric说。 “我很想回去。”“我就是痒！”尼尔呻吟着，突然弯下腰搔腿。 “事实上，我一整天都在做一些奇怪的事情。 更不用说我一直听到的那些微小的声音……”事情就发生在那时。 流行!“哇!”埃里克喘着气，往座位下面看。 “看那个！”他指着尼尔的运动鞋。 尼尔弯下腰。他的鞋带一根接一根地拉断了。 脚趾头裂开了，一个棕色的亮晶晶的东西蹦了出来。 “尼尔，”朱莉说，“你的运动鞋怎么了？ 那是馅料出来的吗？”埃里克气喘吁吁地说。 “不，那是他的脚出来了！”

"That's not my foot," said Neal. "It looks like a bug… a bug…. Wait. That is my foot! I've got a bug foot! Oh, no! I'm a bug again!"

“那不是我的脚，”尼尔说。 “它看起来像一只虫子……一只虫子.... 等待。那是我的脚！我有虫脚！哦,不!我又变成虫子了！”

The other kids on the bus turned and laughed.

公共汽车上的其他孩子转过身来笑了。

Julie dropped her backpack over Neal's shoe before anyone saw it. "Holy cow!" Eric whispered. "I know what's going on! Neal, brace yourself. It's back." Neal frowned. "What's back?" "The bug spell," he said. "What?" Neal moaned. "I thought that spell was over!" "It looks like it just came back," said Julie. On their last adventure in Droon, a magic spell had gone wrong and accidently Neal had been turned into a bug. A baby bug, with a hard brown shell, six legs, and feelers on his head that curled and twitched. And now it was happening again. Errr! The bus stopped, and the doors swung open. "There's only one place to go," Eric said, grabbing Neal and pulling him off the bus. "To my basement. Hurry. We need to go back to Droon." Together, they ran across the yard to Eric's house. "The spell's not finished somehow," Julie said, frowning. "But don't worry, Neal. Droon is the most magical place ever. We'll find the cure." "This is not going to last forever," Eric added. "Forever?" Neal squealed. "Yikes!" They hurried to the side door and opened it. Eric put his finger to his lips. "Nobody can see you like this, Neal." He

朱莉趁没人看见，把背包扔在尼尔的鞋子上。 “圣牛!”Eric低声说。 “我知道是怎么回事！”尼尔，打起精神。 这是回来了。”Neal皱起了眉头。“什么回来了?”“臭虫咒语，”他说。 “什么?”Neal呻吟。“我以为那个咒语已经结束了！”朱莉说：“看起来它刚刚回来。” 在他们最后一次在德鲁恩的冒险中，一个魔咒出了问题，尼尔意外地变成了一只虫子。 一只小虫子，长着坚硬的棕色外壳，六条腿，头上的触角卷曲、抽搐。 现在这一切又发生了。 哦!公共汽车停了下来，车门打开了。 “只有一个地方可以去，”埃里克说着，抓住尼尔，把他拉下了公交车。 “去我的地下室。快点。我们得回到德鲁恩。” 他们一起穿过院子跑向埃里克的家。 “不知怎么的，咒语还没念完。”朱莉皱着眉头说。 “不过别担心，尼尔。德鲁恩是世界上最神奇的地方。 我们会找到解药的。”“这种情况不会永远持续下去，”埃里克补充道。 “永远?”Neal叫苦不迭。“呀! !”他们急忙走到侧门，打开了门。 埃里克把手指放在嘴唇上。 “没人能看到你这样，尼尔。” 他