Chapter 2

Chapter Two IN WHICH an Old Friend Returns Stop gawping, snail-heads!" Hogsqueal yelled. "Help me!" He was backed against a chimney, one hand holding his coat closed over a largish object, the other brandishing an empty slingshot menacingly. "Hogsqueal?" Jared grinned at the sight of the hobgoblin, then stopped with a scowl. "What are you doing here?" Simon was holding the griffin back, mostly by standing between him and Hogsqueal and yelling

第二章老朋友回来不要呆呆地看了，蜗牛头们！”Hogsqueal喊道。 “帮帮我!”他背靠着烟囱，一只手捂着大衣挡住一个较大的物体，另一只手威胁地挥舞着一把空弹弓。 “Hogsqueal ?”贾里德一看到妖怪就咧嘴一笑，然后皱起眉头停了下来。 “你在这儿干什么？”西蒙挡住了狮鹫，主要靠的是站在他和霍格squeal之间大喊大叫

loudly. Byron turned his hawk head to the side and blinked, then pawed the ground with his talons as though he were more feline than bird. Jared suspected that Byron thought they were playing a new game. Hogsqueal hesitated, seeing Jared's face. "I didn't know this was your house until the griffin showed up." "You helped catch our mother?" Jared could feel his face growing warm. "Trash our house? Kill Simon's pets?" He took two steps toward Hogsqueal, hands fisting. He'd trusted Hogsqueal. He'd liked him. And the hobgoblin had betrayed them. Jared could barely think with the roaring in his ears. "I didn't kill anything." Hogsqueal opened his coat a little, revealing a marmalade ball of fur. "Kitty!" Simon said, distracted by the sight of the kitten. In that moment Byron lunged past Simon, catching the hobgoblin's arm in his beak. "Aaaaaaahhhhh!" Hogsqueal screamed. The cat yowled, jumping onto the roof. "Byron, no!" Simon yelled. "Drop him!" The griffin shook his head, whipping Hogsqueal

大声。拜伦把他的鹰头转向一边，眨了眨眼睛，然后用爪子刨地，好像他更像一只猫而不是一只鸟。 贾里德怀疑拜伦以为他们在玩新游戏。 霍格斯奎看到杰瑞德的脸，犹豫了一下。 “直到狮鹫出现，我才知道这是你的房子。” “你帮忙抓了我们的妈妈？”贾里德感到自己的脸越来越暖和。 “糟蹋我们的房子？”杀死西蒙的宠物？”他朝霍格squeal走了两步，双手紧握。 他信任霍格squeal。他喜欢他。 妖怪背叛了他们。 耳边的咆哮声让贾里德几乎无法思考。 “我什么也没杀。”Hogsqueal把外套打开了一点，露出了一团果酱似的皮毛。 “猫!”西蒙说，小猫的样子让他分神了。 就在那一刻，拜伦从西蒙身边冲过去，用嘴咬住了妖怪的胳膊。 “Aaaaaaahhhhh !”Hogsqueal尖叫。 那只猫嚎叫着跳上了屋顶。 “拜伦,没有!”西蒙喊道。 “把他!”狮鹫摇了摇头，抽打着霍格squeal

back and forth. The hobgoblin's shouts became louder. "Do something!" Jared called, panicked. Simon stepped up to the griffin and hit him hard on the beak with his hand. "NO!" he shouted. "Oh crap, don't do that!" Mallory said, reaching for the sword at her waist. But instead of attacking, the griffin stopped shaking Hogsqueal and looked at Simon with something like alarm. "Drop him!" Simon repeated, pointing to the slate roof.

来来回回。妖怪的喊声越来越大。 “做点什么!”杰瑞德惊慌失措地打来电话。 西蒙走到狮鹫跟前，用手重重地打了它的嘴。 “不！”他喊道。“哦，糟糕，不要那样做！”马洛里说，伸手去拿腰间的剑。 但狮鹫没有攻击，而是停止了摇晃霍格斯奎，带着一种惊恐的神情看着西蒙。 “把他!”西蒙指着石板屋顶重复了一遍。

"I''m sorry, gobstoppers."

“我很抱歉，gobstoppers。”

Hogsqueal struggled ineffectually, pushing his fingers into Byron's nose slits and trying to bite the feathery neck with his baby teeth. The griffin ignored the hobgoblin but didn't make a move to put him down either. "Be careful," Jared told his brother. "Better he eats Hogsqueal than us." "Noooo! I'm sorry, gobstoppers," Hogsqueal said, still writhing. "I didn't mean it! Honest. Get me out of here! Heeeeeelp!" "Jared," Simon said. "Grab Hogsqueal, okay?" Jared nodded, edging nearer. This close, he could smell the griffin—it had a feral scent, like a cat's fur. Simon put one hand on the top of Byron's beak, the other on the bottom, and started to lever them apart, repeating, "Be a gooooood boy. Yes. Drop the goblin." "Hobgoblin!" Hogsqueal yelped. "Are you crazy?" Mallory hollered at her brother. The griffin turned his head abruptly in her direction, almost knocking Simon sprawling. "Sorry," Mallory said in a much smaller voice.

Hogsqueal徒劳地挣扎着，把他的手指塞进拜伦的鼻子缝里，试图用他的乳牙咬他毛茸茸的脖子。 狮鹫没有理睬那个地精，但也没有采取行动把他打倒。 “小心点，”贾里德告诉他哥哥。 “他吃霍格squeal总比吃我们好。” “他!霍格斯奎说，还在扭动着。 “我不是那个意思！”诚实的。 放我出去！Heeeeeelp !”“杰瑞德，”西蒙说。 “抓住霍格squeal，好吗？”杰瑞德点点头，慢慢靠近。 在这么近的地方，他可以闻到狮鹫的气味——它有一种野性的气味，就像猫的皮毛。 西蒙把一只手放在拜伦的喙上，另一只放在喙下，开始把它们分开，重复着，“做个好孩子。 是。放下那个妖精。”“妖怪!”Hogsqueal叫喊起来。 “你疯了吗？”马洛里朝她哥哥吼道。 狮鹫突然把头转向她的方向，几乎把西蒙撞倒在地。 “对不起。”马洛里压低了声音说。

Jared gripped Hogsqueal around the legs. "Got him." "Hey, yaffner, we're not going to be playing tug-ofwar with my body, right? Right?" Jared just smiled grimly. Simon tried again to push Byron's beak open. "Mallory, come and help me. Grab the bottom of the beak, and I'll get the top." She stepped carefully across the slanted roof. The griffin eyed her nervously. "When I say pull," Simon said, "pull." Together they tried to pry the griffin's jaws apart. Mallory's fingers slid into Byron's mouth as she strained, nearly hanging from the griffin, trying to use her weight against him. Byron struggled and then suddenly gave in, opening his mouth and dropping Hogsqueal's full weight into Jared's arms. Losing his balance, Jared slid backward on the shingles, letting go of Hogsqueal and scrabbling for a handhold. The hobgoblin slid as well, knocking loose the shingle Jared was gripping on to. Jared slipped and grabbed hold of the gutter moments before he would have

杰瑞德抓住霍格尖叫的腿。 “他”。“嘿，亚夫纳，我们不会和我的身体玩拔河游戏吧？” 对吗?”杰瑞德只是冷酷地笑了笑。 西蒙又试着把拜伦的嘴推开。 “马洛里，过来帮帮我。 抓住鸟喙的底部，我来拿鸟喙的顶部。” 她小心翼翼地走过倾斜的屋顶。 狮鹫紧张地看着她。 “我说拉，”西蒙说，“拉。” 他们一起试图撬开狮鹫的下巴。 马洛里的手指滑进了拜伦的嘴里，她几乎挂在狮鹫身上，试图用她的体重来对付他。 拜伦挣扎着，然后突然屈服了，张开嘴，把霍格斯奎的整个身体都扔进了贾里德的怀里。 杰瑞德失去了平衡，向后滑到木板上，放开霍格斯尖叫，拼命想抓个把手。 小妖精也滑了下来，把杰瑞德紧紧抓住的木板撞松了。 贾里德滑倒了，抓住了排水沟