Chapter 5

Chapter Five IN WHICH They Find the Meaning of "Here There Be Dragons" By reflex, Jared looked behind him, but the goblins were no longer there. The griffin landed with a clatter of claws on top of a car, denting it, and immediately began to groom himself like a cat. Simon grinned from Byron's back. Jared turned to Mallory, but she was staring at the cow. It was chained to the ground, lowing softly, eyes wide enough to show the whites. Her udder was

第五章他们找到“这里有龙”的意义由于条件反射，贾里德回头看了看，但半兽人已经不在那里了。 狮鹫的爪子咔嗒一声落在一辆汽车顶上，把它弄凹了，然后立刻开始像猫一样梳理自己。 西蒙从拜伦的背后咧嘴一笑。 贾里德转向马洛里，但她正盯着那头牛。 它被链子拴在地上，轻声地叫着，眼睛睁得很大，可以看到白色的眼睛。 她的乳房是

covered in what appeared to be writhing black snakes jostling for a position at her reddened teats. They blackened the metal sheeting on the ground beneath her like a squirming carpet. After a moment Jared realized the creatures were larger salamanders. "What are those things doing?" Mallory asked. The bloodstained sword hung limply from her hand, and Jared was overwhelmed with the impulse to take it from her and clean it before she'd have a chance to notice. He stepped closer to the cow instead. "Drinking the milk, I think." "Ugh," Simon said, squinting down from Byron's back. "Weird." Several more salamanders were lying in the dirt, their scales dull and their bodies wriggling. They were far larger than the tiny finger-length ones Jared and Mallory had seen in the fire. "They're shedding their skin," Simon said. "What are they?" Jared shook his head. "Fire-resistant salamanders. But they aren't supposed to get big like this. They

她浑身上下都是扭动的黑蛇，它们在她发红的奶头旁争抢一席之地。 他们把她脚下的金属板弄黑了，就像一块蠕动的地毯。 过了一会儿，贾里德意识到这些生物是更大的蝾螈。 “那些东西在干什么？”马洛里问道。 那把沾满鲜血的剑软弱无力地挂在她手里，贾里德一时冲动，想在她注意到之前从她手里拿过来，把剑擦干净。 他反而走近了奶牛。 “我想是喝牛奶吧。” “啊，”西蒙说，从拜伦的背上眯起眼睛。 “奇怪。”又有几条火蜥蜴躺在泥土里，它们的鳞片呆滞，身体在扭动。 它们比贾里德和马洛里在火里看到的那些只有手指那么长，要大得多。 “他们正在蜕皮，”西蒙说。 “它们是什么？”杰瑞德摇了摇头。 “防火蝾螈。 但它们不应该长得这么大。 他们

look almost like..." But he wasn't quite sure what it was they reminded him of. Something nagged at the back of his mind. At that moment Byron darted forward and seized one of the wriggling black creatures in his beak, tossed it into the air, and gulped it down. Then he seized another and another. Greedily he went for an even larger one, as long as Jared's arm, curled up in the sun. It turned and hissed, and suddenly Jared knew what he was looking at. "They're dragons," he said. "They're all dragons." Out of the corner of his eye Jared saw something moving toward them, fast as a whip. He whirled, but the black thing hit him hard in the chest. Falling

看起来几乎像……”但他不太确定它们让他想起了什么。 有件事一直萦绕在他的脑海里。 就在这时，拜伦冲上前，用嘴抓住了一只扭动的黑色生物，把它抛向空中，吞了下去。 然后他又抓了一个又一个。 他贪婪地去抓一个更大的，和杰瑞德的手臂一样长，蜷缩在阳光下。 它转过身，发出嘶嘶声，杰瑞德突然知道他在看什么。 “它们是龙，”他说。 “它们都是龙。”杰瑞德从眼角看到有什么东西向他们移动，速度快得像鞭子。 他转过身来，但那黑色的东西重重地打在他的胸口上。 下降

backward, he only had time to throw his hands up over his face before the thick body of a dragon as long as a couch scrabbled over him. Jared's head struck the ground, and for a moment everything went hazy. "Jared!" Mallory howled. The dragon opened its mouth to show hundreds of teeth, thin as needles. Jared froze. He was too terrified to move. His skin burned where the slick body had touched him. Mallory chopped hard with her sword, catching the dragon's tail. Black blood spurted as the dragon turned toward her. Jared got to his feet, dizzy and shivering. His skin was reddened, and the cut he'd gotten earlier throbbed angrily. "Watch out," he called. "It's poisonous!" "Byron!" Simon yelled, pointing toward the black shape that was hurtling after Mallory. "Byron! Get it!"

他后退了几步，只来得及举起双手遮住脸，就被一条粗壮的龙的身体盖住了。 杰瑞德的头撞到了地上，一时间一切都变得模糊起来。 “贾里德!”马洛里嚎叫起来。龙张开嘴，露出数百颗细如针的牙齿。 贾里德冻结。他吓得动弹不得。 光滑的身体碰过他的地方，他的皮肤灼烧起来。 马洛里用剑猛砍，抓住了龙尾。 恶龙向她转过身来，鲜血喷涌而出。 杰瑞德站了起来，头晕，发抖。 他的皮肤变红了，之前的伤口剧烈地跳动着。 “小心，”他喊道。“这是有毒的!”“拜伦!”西蒙喊道，指着那个在马洛里后面飞奔的黑影。 “拜伦!得到它!”

The griffin swung up into the air with a screech. Jared looked after Byron and Simon desperately. How would Mallory escape the dragon now? She was cutting and thrusting as best as she could, but the dragon was too fast. Its body coiled and leaped like a snake, small forearms clutching and gripping, mouth so wide it seemed like it could swallow her whole. Mallory couldn't last. Jared had to do something. Jared grabbed the nearest thing—a piece of metal— and hurled it at the dragon. The creature spun again and started toward him, lightning fast, jaws open. It hissed.

狮鹫尖叫一声，腾空而起。 贾里德拼命地照顾拜伦和西蒙。 现在马洛里要怎么逃脱恶龙呢？ 她使出浑身解数，猛砍猛刺，但巨龙实在太快了。 它的身体像蛇一样盘绕着，跳着，小前臂紧紧地抓着，嘴巴大得好像要把她整个吞下去。 马洛里坚持不了多久。杰瑞德必须做点什么。 杰瑞德抓起最近的一件东西——一块金属——朝巨龙扔去。 那家伙又转过身来，向他扑来，速度如闪电，张开了嘴巴。 它嘶嘶地叫着。

The dragon coiled around Byron.

龙盘绕着拜伦。