12 The Green Death

12. THE GREEN DEATH It is one thing to approach a primeval nightmare when you are part of a crowd of four hundred people. It is quite another to do so on your own. Hiccup had to force himself to put one foot in front of the other. Stoick offered to send a guard of his finest soldiers, but Hiccup preferred to go alone. 'Less chance of anybody doing anything Heroic and stupid,' he said. Although this is the part of the story that the bards tend to focus on as the bit where Hiccup was particularly Heroic, I do not agree. It is a lot easier to be brave when you know you have no alternative. Hiccup knew in his heart of hearts that the Monster intended to kill them all anyway. So he didn't have a lot to lose. Nonetheless, he was sweating as he peered over the edge of the cliff. There, below him, was the impossibly large Dragon, filling up the beach. It appeared to be asleep. But an eerie singing was coming from the direction of its belly. The song went something like this:

12. 当你置身于四百人的人群中时，接近原始的噩梦是一回事。 你自己做这件事完全是另一回事。 小嗝嗝不得不强迫自己把一只脚放在另一只脚前面。 斯托伊克提出派一支由他最精锐的士兵组成的卫队去，但小嗝嗝宁愿一个人去。 他说：“人们做傻事的机会更少了。” 虽然吟游诗人倾向于把故事的这一部分作为Hiccup特别英勇的部分，但我不同意。 当你知道自己别无选择的时候，勇敢起来会容易得多。 小嗝嗝从内心深处知道，怪物无论如何都要把他们都杀了。 所以他不会有太多损失。 尽管如此，当他从悬崖边缘往外看时，他还是满头大汗。 在他下面，是那条大得令人难以置信的巨龙，它占据了整个海滩。 它似乎睡着了。但是从它肚子的方向传来一种怪异的歌声。 歌是这样唱的：

'Watch me, Great Destroyer, as I settle down to lunch, Killer whales are tasty 'cos they've got a lot of crunch. Great white sharks are scrumptious, but here's a little tip: Those teeny weeny pointy teeth can give a nasty nip…' How odd, thought Hiccup, he can sing with his mouth shut. Hiccup nearly jumped clear out of his leggings when the Dragon opened both his crocodile eyes and spoke directly to him 'Why so odd?' said the Dragon, who appeared to be amused. 'A dragon with his eyes shut is not necessarily asleep, so it follows that a dragon with his mouth shut is not necessarily singing. All is not what it seems. That noise that you hear is not me at all. THAT, my Hero, is the sound of a singing supper.' 'A singing supper?' echoed Hiccup, quickly remembering that you should never, ever, look into the eyes of a large, malevolent Dragon like this one.

看着我，伟大的毁灭者，当我坐下吃午饭时，虎鲸很好吃，因为它们有很多嘎吱声。 大白鲨很美味，但这里有一个小提示：那些细小的尖牙可以咬得很厉害……”小嗝嗝想，真奇怪，他可以闭着嘴唱歌。 小嗝嗝差点从紧身裤里跳出来，这时恶龙张开了两只鳄鱼眼，直接对他说：“为什么这么奇怪？龙说，似乎被逗乐了。 龙闭着眼睛不一定是在睡觉，所以龙闭着嘴也不一定是在唱歌。 并非一切都像看上去的那样。你听到的声音根本不是我的。 我的英雄，那是晚餐的歌声。“唱歌的晚餐？”小嗝嗝附和道，他很快就记起，你永远、永远都不应该去看像这样一条又大又恶毒的恶龙的眼睛。

He fixed his gaze firmly on one of the Dragon's talons instead. This was a mistake, as Hiccup suddenly realised that the Dragon was holding a herd of pathetically bleating sheep captive under one massive claw. He pretended to allow one of them to escape, let the poor animal practically reach the safety of the rocks, then picked it up by its wool with a delicate pincer movement and tossed it way, way up into the air. This was a trick Hiccup had often done himself, but with blackberries. Now the Dragon threw back his great head and the woolly speck fell down into the terrible jaws, which closed behind it with a mighty crash. There was a horrible sound of crunching as he chewed and swallowed the unfortunate sheep. The Dragon saw Hiccup watching him in fascinated horror and he brought his ridiculously enormous head down closer to the boy. Hiccup nearly

他把目光牢牢地盯在龙的一只爪子上。 这是一个错误，因为嗝嗝突然意识到龙的一个巨大的爪子抓住了一群可怜地咩咩叫的羊。 他假装让其中一只逃走，让这可怜的动物几乎到达安全的岩石，然后用灵巧的钳子动作抓住它的毛，把它扔到空中。 这是小嗝嗝自己经常玩的把戏，不过他用的是黑莓。 现在恶龙把它的大头向后一仰，那毛茸茸的斑点掉进了它可怕的大嘴里，在它身后砰的一声合上了。 当他咀嚼并吞下那只不幸的羊时，发出了可怕的嘎吱声。 龙看见嗝嗝正惊恐地看着他，便把大得可笑的脑袋凑近了男孩。 打嗝近

passed out as his offensive Dragon-breath poured out in a disgusting, yellow-green vapour. It was the stench of DEATH itself– a deep, head-spinning stench of decaying matter; of rotting haddock heads and sweating whale; of long-dead shark and despairing souls. The revolting steam curled its way around the boy in repellent coils and wormed its way up into his nose until he coughed and spluttered. 'Some people say you should de-bone a sheep before you eat it,' sneered the Dragon confidentially, 'but I think it adds just a nice crunch to what would otherwise be a bit of a soggy meal…' The Dragon burped. The belch came out as a perfect loop of fire that soared through the air like a smoke ring and landed on the heather surrounding Hiccup, setting it alight, so that for a moment he was standing right in the middle of a circle of bright green flames. The heather was damp, however, and the blaze flared for only a few moments, then extinguished itself. 'Ooops,' giggled the Dragon evilly. 'Pardon me… A little party trick…' He then placed one gigantic claw against the edge of the cliff that Hiccup was standing on.

他的恶龙气喷出一股恶心的黄绿色蒸汽，昏倒在地。 那是死亡本身的恶臭——一种腐烂物质发出的令人头晕目眩的恶臭；腐烂的黑线鳕头和汗流浃背的鲸鱼；死去已久的鲨鱼和绝望的灵魂。 令人作呕的蒸汽在男孩周围绕成一圈令人厌恶的漩涡，钻进他的鼻子，直到他咳嗽、吐口水。 “有人说吃羊之前应该先去骨头，”龙偷偷地讥笑道，“但我觉得这样可以给一顿湿乎乎的饭增加一份爽脆的口感……” 嗝发出来，形成了一个完美的火圈，像一个烟圈一样在空中盘旋，落在嗝嗝周围的石楠花上，把它点燃了。有一会儿，嗝嗝就站在了一圈明亮的绿色火焰中间。 然而，石南丛是潮湿的，火焰只燃烧了一会儿，就熄灭了。 “哎呀！”恶龙邪恶地咯咯笑着。 他把一只巨大的爪子放在小嗝嗝站着的悬崖边上。

'Humans, however,' continued the Dragon thoughtfully, 'humans really should be filleted. The spine in particular can be very tickly as it goes down the throat…' As the Dragon spoke, he extended his claws, the talons slowly emerging from the thick stumps of his fingers and rising up until they resembled nothing more than gigantic razors, six feet wide and twenty feet long, with points on the end like a surgeon's scalpel. 'Removing the human backbone is a delicate job,' hissed the Dragon nastily, 'but one that I am particularly good at… a small incision at the back of the neck'– he gestured at Hiccup's neck– 'a swift stroke downwards, then flick it out… it's practically painless. For ME…' The Dragon's eyes lit up with the purest pleasure.

“然而，人类，”巨龙若有所思地继续说，“人类真的应该被切成碎片。 龙一边说，一边伸出爪子，爪子慢慢地从他粗粗的手指中伸出来，然后往上伸，最后就像一把巨大的剃刀，六英尺宽，二十英尺长，末端的尖像外科医生的手术刀。 “切除人的脊椎骨是一项精细的工作，”恶龙恶狠狠地嘶嘶地说，“但我特别擅长……在脖子后面开个小口，”他指着小嗝嗝的脖子，“往下一划，然后弹出来……几乎不痛。” 为了我……”龙的眼睛里闪烁着最纯粹的喜悦。

Hiccup was thinking very fast indeed. There is nothing like staring Death in the face for speeding up your thoughts. What did he know about dragons that could work against an Invincible Monster like this one? He could see the Dragon Motivation page he had written in his mind's eye. GRATITUDE: dragons are never grateful. FEAR: clearly hopeless. GREED: not a good idea to appeal to at this particular point in time. VANITY and REVENGE: could be useful but he couldn't quite think how. That left JOKES AND RIDDLING TALK. This Dragon looked a bit exalted for jokes. But from his manner of talking he clearly fancied himself as a bit of a philosopher. Maybe Hiccup could buy himself some time if he engaged him in a riddling conversation… 'I've heard of singing for your supper,' said Hiccup, 'but what is a singing supper?' 'A good question,' said the Dragon, in surprise. 'An EXCELLENT question, in fact.' He drew back his claws and Hiccup sighed with relief. 'It's a long time since the supper has shown such intelligence. They're generally too bound up with their titchy little lives to bother with the Really Big Questions.

小嗝嗝的确想得很快。 没有什么比面对死神更能加速你的思考了。 他怎么会知道龙能对付像这样的无敌怪兽呢？ 他可以在脑海中看到他写的“龙的动机”那一页。 感恩：龙从不感恩。 恐惧：显然是无望的。贪婪：在这个特定的时间点，这不是一个好主意。 虚荣和复仇：可能有用，但他不知道怎么用。 剩下的是笑话和猜谜语。 这条龙看起来有点得意，喜欢开玩笑。 但从他说话的方式来看，他显然把自己想象成一个哲学家。 “我听说过在晚餐时唱歌，”嗝嗝说，“但是什么是唱歌的晚餐呢？”“问得好。”恶龙惊讶地说。 “事实上，这是个好问题。”他缩回爪子，嗝嗝松了口气。 “很久没有晚餐表现出这样的智慧了。 他们通常都沉浸在自己琐碎的生活中，无暇顾及那些真正的大问题。