2 Inside the dragon nursery

2. INSIDE THE DRAGON NURSERY You have probably guessed by now that Hiccup was not your natural Viking Hero. For a start, he didn't LOOK like a Hero. Somebody like Snotlout, for instance, was tall, muscley, covered in skeleton tattoos, and already had the beginnings of a small moustache. This consisted of a few straggly yellow hairs clinging to his upper lip and was deeply unpleasant to look at, but still impressively manly for a boy not yet thirteen. Hiccup was on the small side and had the kind of face that was almost entirely unmemorable. He DID have Heroic Hair, which was a very bright

2. 现在你可能已经猜到Hiccup不是你天生的维京英雄。 首先，他看起来不像个英雄。 例如，像鼻鼻这样的人，身材高大，肌肉发达，全身都是骷髅纹身，而且已经开始留小胡子了。 他的上唇上有几根黄色的头发，看起来很不舒服，但对于一个不到十三岁的男孩来说，仍然很有男子气概。 小嗝嗝个子偏小，长着一张几乎完全让人难以记住的脸。 他确实有一头英雄般的头发，这是一个非常明亮的

red and stood up vertically however much you tried to wet it down with sea-water. But nobody ever saw that because it was hidden under his helmet most of the time. You would NEVER have picked Hiccup out of those ten boys to be the Hero of this story. Snotlout was good at everything and a natural leader. Dogsbreath was as tall as his father and could do amusing things like farting to the tune of the Berk National Anthem. Hiccup was just absolutely average, the kind of unremarkable, skinny, freckled boy who was easy to overlook in a crowd. So, when Gobber blew the horn and moved out of sight to find a comfortable rock to sit on and eat his mussel-and-tomato sandwich, Snotlout pushed Hiccup out of the way and took charge. 'OK, listen up, boys,' he whispered in a menacing fashion. 'I'M in charge, not the Useless. And

不管你怎么用海水把它弄湿，它都是红色的，笔直地站着。 但没有人看到，因为大部分时间它都藏在他的头盔下面。 你绝对不会从那十个男孩中挑出小嗝嗝来做这个故事的英雄。 鼻涕精什么都擅长，是个天生的领袖。 狗呼吸和他父亲一样高，还会做一些有趣的事情，比如随着伯克国歌的旋律放屁。 小嗝嗝绝对是一个普通的男孩，在人群中很容易被忽视。 所以，当戈伯吹响号角，离开视线，去找一块舒适的石头坐下吃他的贻贝和西红柿三明治时，鼻涕虫把嗝嗝推到一边，接管了一切。 “好了，听着，孩子们。”他威胁地小声说。 “我是负责人，不是没用的人。 和

anybody who objects gets a knuckle sandwich from Dogsbreath the Duhbrain.' 'Ugh,' grunted Dogsbreath, pounding his fists together in happy excitement. Dogsbreath was Snotlout's chief sidekick and a great, big gorilla of a boy. 'Bash him, Dogsbreath, to show what I mean…' Dogsbreath was delighted to oblige. He gave Hiccup a shove that sent him sprawling head first into the snow, then ground his face in it. 'Pay attention!' hissed Snotlout. The boys dragged their eyes away from Dogsbreath and Hiccup and paid attention. 'Rope yourselves together. The best climber should go first…' 'Well, that's YOU of course, Snotlout,' said Fishlegs. 'You're the best at everything, aren't you?' Snotlout looked at Fishlegs suspiciously. It was difficult to tell whether Fishlegs was laughing at him or not, because of his squint. 'That's right, Fishlegs,' said Snotlout. 'I AM.' And, just in case he had been laughing at him: 'Bash him, Dogsbreath!' While Dogsbreath pushed Fishlegs down to join Hiccup in the snow, Snotlout bossily ordered

任何反对的人都会得到狗屎呼吸的指关节三明治。“啊，”狗息哼了一声，兴奋地捶打着拳头。 狗息是鼻鼻子的主要伙伴，也是一个像大猩猩一样高大的男孩。 “揍他，狗息，让我明白我的意思……”狗息很高兴地答应了。 他推了嗝嗝一下，把他的头撞到雪地里，脸也被压在了雪地里。 “注意!”鼻涕鼻子嘶嘶地说。 孩子们把目光从狗息和嗝嗝身上移开，集中注意力。 “把你们绑在一起。 “嗯，那当然是你，鼻涕虫。”鱼腿说。 “你什么都是最好的，不是吗？”鼻子狐疑地看着鱼腿。 很难分辨鱼腿是不是在嘲笑他，因为他眯着眼睛。 “说得对，鱼腿。” “我是。”为了防止他一直在嘲笑他，他说：“揍他，臭狗！”当狗息把鱼腿推到雪地里和小嗝嗝一起时，鼻屎命令道

everybody to rope themselves together. Hiccup and Fishlegs were the last to be tied on, just behind a flushed and triumphant Dogsbreath. 'Oh brilliant,' muttered Fishlegs. 'I'm about to enter a cave full of man-eating reptiles tied up to eight complete maniacs.' 'If we get to the cave…' said Hiccup nervously, looking up at the sheer black cliff. Hiccup put the lighted torch between his teeth to leave his hands free, and started climbing after the others. It was a perilous climb. The rocks were slippery with snow and the other boys were thoroughly over-excited, making the ascent far too quickly. At one point Clueless missed his footing and fell– luckily on to Dogsbreath, who caught him by the back of the trousers and heaved him back on to the rock again, before he brought the whole lot of them down. When they finally made it to the mouth of the cave, Hiccup looked down briefly at the sea pounding the rocks way below, and swallowed very hard… 'Untie the ropes!' ordered Snotlout, his eyes popping with excitement at the thought of the dangers

每个人都把自己绑在一起。 嗝嗝和鱼腿是最后一个被拴住的，就在满脸通红、得意洋洋的狗息后面。 “哦，太棒了。”鱼腿喃喃地说。 我即将进入一个洞穴，里面全是吃人的爬行动物，和八个疯子绑在一起。“如果我们到了山洞……”嗝嗝抬头望着漆黑的悬崖，紧张地说。 小嗝嗝把点燃的火把放在牙齿之间，腾出双手，开始跟着其他人爬。 这是一次危险的攀登。岩石上结了雪，很滑，其他孩子都太兴奋了，爬得太快了。 在某个时刻，Clueless没有站稳，摔了下来——幸运的是，Dogsbreath抓住了他的裤子后面，把他重新拉回到岩石上，然后他把所有人都打倒了。 当他们终于来到洞口时，嗝嗝朝下看了一眼，大海在猛烈地撞击着下面的岩石，他使劲咽了一口唾骂……“解开绳子！”鼻子鼻子命令道，想到这些危险，他的眼睛兴奋地瞪大了

to come. 'Hiccup goes into the cave first because HE is the son of the Chief…' He sneered. 'And, if any of the dragons ARE awake, he'll be the first to know about it! Once we're in the cave, it's every man for himself. Only the strong can belong…' Although he wasn't your usual mindless thug of a Hooligan, Hiccup wasn't a wimp, either. Being frightened is not the same as being a coward. Maybe he was as brave as anyone else there, because he went to catch a dragon despite knowing what dragons are like. And, when he had climbed perilously to the mouth of the cave and had found that inside there was a long, twisty tunnel, he still went down it, despite not being too keen on long, twisty tunnels with dragons at the end of them. The tunnel was dripping and clammy. At times it was high enough for the boys to walk upright. Then it would close down into narrow, claustrophobic holes that the boys could only just squeeze through, squirming on their stomachs, with the flares held in their mouths. After ten long minutes of walking and crawling into the heart of the cliff, the stench of dragon– a salty stink of seaweed and old mackerel

来。“嗝嗝先进洞，因为他是酋长的儿子……”他冷笑着说。 “而且，如果哪条龙醒了，他会第一个知道的！”一旦我们进了洞，每个人都得为自己着想。 虽然他不是你通常认为的那种没有头脑的流氓，但Hiccup也不是一个懦夫。 害怕并不等于懦弱。 也许他和其他人一样勇敢，因为尽管他知道龙是什么样子，他还是去抓了一条龙。 当他艰难地爬到洞口，发现里面有一条又长又弯的隧道时，他还是走了下去，尽管他不太喜欢尽头有龙的又长又弯的隧道。 隧道里湿漉漉的。 有时高得足以让孩子们直立行走。 然后，它会关闭成狭窄的、幽闭恐怖的洞，男孩们只能勉强挤过去，趴在地上扭动身体，嘴里叼着照明弹。 经过十分钟漫长的步行和爬行，来到悬崖的中心，龙的恶臭——海藻和老鲭鱼的咸味

heads– got stronger and stronger, until finally it became unbearable and the tunnel opened out into a ginormous cavern. The cavern was full of more dragons than Hiccup could ever have imagined existed. They were every possible colour and size, and they included all the species that Hiccup had heard of, and quite a few more that he hadn't. Hiccup started sweating as he looked around him at pile after pile of the animals, draped over every available surface; even hanging upside-down from the roof like giant bats. They were all fast asleep, and most of them were snoring in unison. This was a sound so loud and so deep that it seemed to penetrate right into Hiccup's body and vibrate around his soft insides, churning his stomach and bowels, and forcing his heart to beat at the same slow dragon pulse. If one, just one, of these countless creatures were to wake up, it would raise the alarm to the others and the boys would meet a horrible death. Hiccup had once seen a deer that had wandered too close to Wild Dragon Cliff torn to pieces in a matter of minutes… Hiccup closed his eyes. 'I will NOT think about it,' he said to himself. 'I WILL NOT.'

头越来越大，直到最后它变得无法忍受，隧道通向一个巨大的洞穴。 山洞里的龙比Hiccup想象的还要多。 它们有各种可能的颜色和大小，包括嗝嗝听说过的所有物种，还有不少他没有听说过的物种。 嗝嗝看着周围一堆又一堆的动物，到处都是，他开始出汗了。甚至像大蝙蝠一样倒挂在屋顶上。 他们都睡得很熟，大多数人都在一起打鼾。 这声音又大又深，似乎穿透了小嗝嗝的身体，在他柔软的内脏周围振动，搅动着他的胃和肠子，迫使他的心脏以同样缓慢的龙脉跳动。 如果这些无数的生物中有一个，哪怕只有一个醒来，就会引起其他生物的警觉，孩子们就会遭遇可怕的死亡。 嗝嗝有一次看到一只鹿在离野龙崖太近的地方游荡，几分钟内就被撕成了碎片…… “我不去想它，”他自言自语道。 “我不会的。”