8 Hunting for the Amber in the Amber Slavelands

8. HUNTING FOR THE AMBER IN THE AMBER SLAVELANDS Very early the next morning, the slaves gathered in the prison courtyard for the Seeking. Toothless was very tired and very scared, peering out of Hiccup's waistcoat. 'Toothless not want to go on this Seeking.' Nor did Hiccup. 'OPEN THE DOORS TO THE AMBER SLAVELANDS!' cried Alvin the Treacherous. C-CCREAK! The great doors opened on the east side of the courtyard of Prison Darkheart and Hiccup got his first view of the sands of the Amber Slavelands. It was the volcanic rock that had turned them that extraordinary bright scarlet red, like blood, and with the sinking of the tide they stretched out for miles, encircled by the arms of the Slaveland walls, as far as the eye could see and beyond. 'DIG FOR YOUR LIVES! HUNT TILL YOUR EYES DROP OUT! BUT TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES FOR THOR'S SAKE… We've been losing a lot of slaves recently,' cried Alvin the Treacherous, and the cold clear note of the bugle rang

8. 在琥珀奴隶地寻找琥珀第二天一大早，奴隶们聚集在监狱的院子里进行寻找。 无牙很累，也很害怕，从小嗝嗝的背心里往外看。 “没牙的我不想去找你。”小嗝嗝也没有。 “打开通往琥珀色奴隶地的大门！”背信弃义的阿尔文喊道。 C-CCREAK !黑心监狱院子东边的大门打开了，希卡普第一次看到了琥珀色奴隶地的沙滩。 正是火山岩把它们变成了鲜红的鲜红色，像血一样。随着潮水的退去，它们一直延伸到几英里外，被奴隶地城墙的臂膀包围着，一直延伸到一望无际的地方。 “为你们的生命掘地！”直到你的眼睛掉下来！但是看在托尔的份上，你们要照顾好自己……我们最近失去了很多奴隶。”叛徒阿尔文喊道，冰冷而清晰的军号响了起来

out. 'THE SEEKING BEGINS!!!' All around the edges of the courtyard, tucked away behind the crazy jumble of weaponry and dragon-traps, were rows and rows of sand-yachts. The crowds of slaves rushed and jostled for them now, for the witch's prize of freedom was far more precious than her punishment of death. 'Calmly, Amber-Hunters!' said Stoick the Vast, holding up his great hand. 'Calmly! There is plenty of time.' So the Amber-Hunters got to the sand-yachts after the first undignified rush. Eggingarde showed Hiccup his sand-yacht. 'This one hasn't got an owner,' said Eggingarde. Hiccup swallowed. 'What happened to the last owner?' asked Hiccup, although he already knew the answer. 'I really can't say,' said Eggingarde, but her eyes seemed to say 'Lo-o-o-o-st…' 'Don't tell me, it's bad for morale,' Hiccup finished for her. The sand-yacht was a wobbly, skew-whiff thing, with a basket balanced on one end to put the amber in, and a long pole, again slightly skew-whiff, to pole along the sand with.

出去了。“寻找开始了！！”在院子的四周，隐藏在乱七八糟的武器和捕龙器后面的，是一排排的沙滩游艇。 现在，成群的奴隶向他们冲来，挤来挤去，因为女巫获得的自由远比她的死刑要珍贵得多。 “冷静,Amber-Hunters !巨人斯托伊克举起他的大手说。 “冷静!时间有的是。”在第一次不体面的匆忙之后，琥珀猎人来到了沙滩游艇上。 艾格加德给小嗝嗝看了他的沙滩游艇。 “这只没有主人，”埃格加德说。 打嗝吞下。“上一个主人怎么样了？”小嗝嗝问，虽然他已经知道答案了。 “我真的说不上来，”艾格加德说，但她的眼睛似乎在说：“罗——罗——罗——斯——斯……”“别告诉我，这会打击士气的。” 那艘沙游艇是一艘摇摇晃晃、歪歪斜斜的东西，一端有一个平衡的篮子，用来装琥珀，还有一根长杆，也是微微歪斜的，用来在沙滩上撑着。

In his mind Hiccup called this little yacht The Hopeful Puffin 2, because it reminded him so much of The Hopeful Puffin, the little boat he used to have on Berk, long ago. Before the war… To give himself courage, and to remind him of that happy time he hoped would come again, he took out a piece of chalk from his rucksack, and drew a picture of The Hopeful Puffin on the side of the sand-yacht. 'You have to take care of your sand-yacht,' explained Eggingarde, 'because if your sand-yacht breaks a mast or something, there's no way you can get back to Prison Darkheart without the tide catching you.' Every team had a prison guard. Alvin had put Snotlout in charge of the Amber-Hunters. 'But I'm a Chief and a dragon-fighter!' complained Snotlout furiously. 'I'm not a slave or a guard! I should be out there, beyond the prison walls, killing dragons for you, King. I'm way too important to this war effort for you to lose me on the sands.' 'Silence!' yelled Alvin. 'Are you disrespecting my orders, Chief Snotlout?' Snotlout was silent. He was not a fool. He knew what happened

在他的脑海里，嗝嗝把这艘小游艇叫做“希望的海雀2号”，因为它让他想起了很久以前他在博克岛乘坐的小船“希望的海雀号”。 为了给自己鼓足勇气，也为了提醒自己希望再次到来的幸福时光，他从背包里拿出一支粉笔，在沙滩游艇的船舷上画了一幅《满怀希望的海雀》。 “你必须照顾好你的沙滩游艇，”埃金斯加德解释说，“因为如果你的沙滩游艇折断了桅杆之类的东西，你就不可能在不被潮水吞没的情况下回到黑心监狱。”每个队都有一名狱警。 阿尔文让鼻子哥负责琥珀猎人。 “可我是首领，又是斗龙的！”鼻涕鼻子愤怒地抱怨道。 “我不是奴隶，也不是守卫！”我应该在外面，在监狱的围墙外，为你杀龙，国王。 我对这场战争太重要了，你不能在沙滩上失去我。“安静!阿尔文喊道。 “你是在违抗我的命令吗，鼻子头儿？”鼻鼻子沉默了。 他不是个傻瓜。他知道发生了什么事

to people who disrespected Alvin's orders. 'Thank you,' purred Alvin. 'We've lost a lot of prison guards recently and we have to find that Jewel soon, my mother has seen it in her dreams, and Mother's dreams must be obeyed.' So it was Snotlout who addressed the Amber-Hunters' party before they left. 'RIGHT, you 'orrible lot! You heard what Alvin said: hunt until your eyes drop out! And Stoick, Baggy and Gobber, please keep up. I don't want you old guys holding up the whole team,' he sneered. So they followed the great army of yachts on to the sands.

那些不尊重阿尔文命令的人 “谢谢你。”阿尔文咕噜着。 “最近我们失去了很多狱警，我们必须尽快找到珍宝，我母亲在梦里看到过它，我们必须遵守母亲的梦想。”原来是鼻子哥在琥珀猎人的派对上致辞，然后他们离开了。 “对，你们这些可怕的家伙！”你听到艾尔文说的了：一直猎到眼睛掉下来！斯托伊克，巴吉和戈伯，请跟上。 “我可不想让你们这些老家伙拖累整个球队。”他冷笑着说。 于是，他们跟着游艇大军上了沙滩。

Every now and then one little team ahead of them broke off to begin working on one of the pointless holes, or hunting for the amber, so as they travelled farther and farther east across the sand, the army of yachts grew smaller and smaller. Until it was just the Amber-Hunters. For hours and hours they sailed. They had long left the islands and the land behind. The tide made a strange kind of sucking noise as it sank, and it seemed as if it was bubbling, bursting, and maybe it was Hiccup's imagination playing tricks on him, but it seemed as if there really might be something DOWN there, something that was incubating, that the sands were about to give birth to something dreadful… There could be Brainless Leg-Removers down there… There could be Rocket-Rages… There could be something even worse than these… The scary thing was that all the other slaves seemed to think the same thing. They were very, very jumpy, looking over their shoulders all the time. Toothless and the Wodensfang peered anxiously out of Hiccup's waistcoat. 'Do you think Eggingarde is right and there

每隔一段时间，他们前面就会有一个小队伍停下来，开始在一个毫无意义的洞里工作，或者寻找琥珀，所以当他们在沙滩上越向东走越远的时候，这支游艇队伍就变得越来越小了。 直到只剩琥珀猎人。 他们航行了好几个小时。 他们早已离开了岛屿和陆地。 潮水在下沉的时候发出一种奇怪的吮吸声，似乎在冒泡，破裂，也许是希卡普的想象力在捉弄他，但似乎真的有什么东西在下面，有什么东西在孵化，那里可能会有无脑截肢者……那里可能会有火箭狂怒者……那里可能会有比这些更糟糕的东西……可怕的是，所有其他奴隶似乎都在想同样的事情。 他们非常非常紧张，一直在回头看。 无牙怪和狼人从嗝嗝的马甲里焦急地望着。 “你认为埃金加德说得对吗？

is that Monster down there?' asked Toothless, querulously. 'Now, Toothless,' said the Wodensfang. 'If there is a Monster, we shall just have to try and reason with it. Us dragons are just as capable of evolving into more civilised beings as humans are…' Yes, that was all very well, thought Hiccup, but I would put a bet on that dragon not being very reasonable. Chief Snotlout found it hard to keep up with the Amber-Hunters. The prison guards had wider, bigger sand-yachts and Snotlout hadn't yet mastered the rhythm of his. Even Hiccup was faster than Snotlout, despite the fact the falling-apart The Hopeful Puffin 2 was impossible to steer in a straight line, and wobbled its way forward in desperate zig-zags. (And in this it was very like The Hopeful Puffin 1, a valiant little boat, but it tended to go round in circles.) 'Stop! Slow down! Wait for me!' shouted Snotlout, waving his whip. But nobody bothered waiting for Snotlout. He fell further and further behind. So when they finally reached the most evil of the Evil Reaches, way, way to the east, it was Stoick who

下面那个怪物是谁？无牙抱怨地问。 “好了，无牙。” “如果真的有怪物，我们就得试着和它讲道理。 “是的，这很好，”小嗝嗝想，“但我敢打赌，这条龙不是很通情达理。 长鼻子发现很难跟上琥珀猎人。 狱警们有更宽更大的沙滩游艇，而鼻子哥还没有掌握他的节奏。 就连小嗝嗝也比鼻鼻子快，尽管这架正在解体的“希望海雀2号”已经不可能开直线了，只能在绝望的曲折中摇摇晃晃地前进。 （在这一点上，它很像“希望海雀一号”，一只勇敢的小船，但它往往在原地打转。）“停!慢下来!等等我！鼻涕鼻子喊着，挥舞着鞭子。 但是没有人等鼻涕精。 他落在后面越来越远。 所以当他们最终到达最邪恶的地方，遥远的东方，是斯托伊克