6 Meanwhile, deep in the ocean

6. MEANWHILE, DEEP IN THE OCEAN… Meanwhile, deep in the ocean, but not so very far from the Isle of Berk, a real Sea Dragon such as Old Wrinkly had been describing lay sleeping on the sea-bed. He was indescribably large. He had been there so long that he almost seemed to be part of the ocean-floor itself, a great underwater mountain, covered in shells and barnacles, some of his limbs half-buried in the sand. Generation after generation of little hermit crabs had born and died in this Dragon's ears. Hundreds and hundreds of years he'd slept, because he'd had rather a large meal. He'd had the luck to catch a Roman Legion camping on a cliff-top –they were completely cut off and he had spent an enjoyable afternoon wolfing down the whole lot of them, from commanding officer to lowliest private. Horses, chariots, shield and spears, the entire lot went down the ravenous, reptilian gullet. And, while things such as golden chariot wheels are an additional source of fibre to a Dragon's diet, they do

6. 与此同时，在海洋深处……与此同时，在离博克岛不远的海洋深处，一条像老皱纹所描述的那样的真正的海龙躺在海床上睡觉。 他的块头大得难以形容。 他在那里呆得太久了，简直像是海底的一部分，仿佛是一座巨大的海底山，上面覆盖着贝壳和藤壶，他的一些四肢半埋在沙子里。 一代又一代的小寄居蟹在这条龙的耳朵里出生和死亡。 几百年来，他一直在睡觉，因为他吃了一顿丰盛的饭。 他很幸运地赶上了一个罗马军团在悬崖顶上露营——他们完全被切断了联系，他花了一个愉快的下午把他们从指挥官到最底层的士兵都吃掉了。 马匹、战车、盾牌和长矛，所有的一切都落入了贪婪的爬虫类动物的食道。 而且，虽然像黄金车轮这样的东西是龙饮食中额外的纤维来源，但它们确实如此

take some time to digest. The Dragon had crawled down into the depths of the ocean and gone into a Sleep Coma. Dragons can stay in this suspended state for eternity, half-dead, half-alive, buried under fathom after fathom of icy-cold sea-water. Not a muscle of this particular Dragon had moved for six or seven centuries. But the previous week, a Killer Whale who had chased some seals unexpectedly deep was surprised to notice a slight movement in the upper eyelid of the dragon's right eye. An ancestral memory stirred in the whale's brain and he swam away from there as fast as his fins could carry him. And, a week later, the sea around the Dragon Mountain– which had previously been teeming with crabs and lobsters and shoals and shoals of fish– was a great, underwater desert. Not a mollusc stirred, not a scallop shimmied. The only sign of life for miles and miles was the rapid jerking of both the Dragon's eyelids, fluttering up and down as if the Dragon had suddenly gone into a lighter sleep and was dreaming, who knows what dark dreams.

花点时间消化。龙已经爬进了海洋深处，进入了昏睡状态。 龙可以永远停留在这种悬浮状态，半死半活，埋在一英尺又一英尺冰冷的海水中。 六七个世纪以来，这条龙的一块肌肉都没有动过。 但在前一周，一头虎鲸意外地在深海中追逐海豹，它惊讶地注意到龙的右眼上眼睑有轻微的运动。 一种祖先的记忆在鲸鱼的脑子里翻腾起来，它飞快地游开了。 一个星期后，龙山周围的海域——之前是螃蟹、龙虾、鱼群和鱼群的聚集地——变成了一片巨大的水下沙漠。 软体动物一动也不动，扇贝也不动。 几英里之外唯一的生命迹象，就是巨龙的眼皮在急速地跳动，上下扑腾，仿佛巨龙突然进入了较浅的睡眠，正在做梦，谁知道是什么黑暗的梦。