21 Doomsday Eve On Tomorrow

21. DOOMSDAY EVE ON TOMORROW During the night, the Winter Wind of Woden wailed like a banshee across Wrecker's Bay and all the way down towards the blasted, cursed island of Tomorrow. Early the following morning, Doomsday Eve, the witch and Alvin and all of their Alvinsmen were gathered on the Singing Sands of the Ferryman's Gift, at the bottom of the Murderous Islands. A light snow was falling. The witch had also brought along Gobber and those Dragonmarkers re-captured at the end of the Battle Under the Waterfall the previous night.* It was twenty-six Dragonmarkers versus thousands of Alvinsmen, so the outcome of the battle was not a surprise. Only Camicazi and Fishlegs had got away, on the back of the invisible Deadly Shadow The witch wanted them to witness Alvin's triumph before they were executed, so they were standing– sad, chained prisoners-of-war at the back of the crowd. The Alvinsmen were excited but extremely nervous. Many men and women over the past hundred years had come to the Singing Sands of the Ferryman's Gift carrying false Things, hoping, like poor foolish UG the Uglithug, that they might trick the Guardian Protectors into crowning them King of the Wilderwest.*

21. 在夜晚，沃登的冬风像女妖一样哀号着穿过沉船湾，一路向被诅咒的明日岛飞去。 第二天一大早，世界末日前夕，女巫和阿尔文以及所有的阿尔文人都聚集在凶残群岛底部的摆渡人礼物的歌唱沙滩上。 下着小雪。女巫还带来了戈伯和那些在前一天晚上瀑布下之战结束时重新捕获的龙的标记。*这是二十六个龙标记对成千上万的阿尔文人，所以战斗的结果并不令人惊讶。 只有卡米卡齐和鱼腿在看不见的死亡阴影的后面逃走了。女巫想让他们在被处决之前见证阿尔文的胜利，所以他们悲伤地站在人群的后面，像战俘一样戴着镣铐。 阿尔文森一家很兴奋，但也非常紧张。 在过去的一百年里，许多男人和女人带着假的东西来到摆渡人的礼物歌唱之沙，就像可怜的愚蠢的丑格里格一样，希望能欺骗守卫者，让他们加冕为西部荒野之王

All those would-be Kings, along with all of their foolish followers, had died here on this spot, on this very beach. A place where so many unhappy things have happened in the past seems to retain a memory of that misery. The Singing Sands may have sung once, long before the days of Grimbeard the Ghastly. But now they sang no more. Instead a Curse seemed to slouch about those shores, as if it were a live thing looking for prey. An overpowering sense of evil hung there like some dense and heavy mist, and even the witch, an evil thing herself, found the shivering terrors ripple through the sparse hairs on her half-bald head as they waited where so many would-be Kings had risked their lives and lost. 'I can see the Ferryman! Check the Things…' hissed Alvin, his eyes flicking nervously. 'We have got all ten of them, haven't we?' The witch checked the Things once again with a shaking chicken-bone finger.

所有这些未来的国王，连同他们愚蠢的追随者，都死在这里，死在这片海滩上。 一个过去发生过那么多不愉快的事情的地方，似乎保留着那段痛苦的记忆。 歌唱之沙可能曾经歌唱过一次，远在幽灵Grimbeard出现之前。 但是现在他们不再唱歌了。 相反，一个诅咒似乎在海岸上懒洋洋地走来走去，好像它是一个寻找猎物的活物。 一种势不可挡的邪恶感觉像浓雾一样笼罩在那里，就连本身就是邪恶的女巫，也感到颤抖的恐惧在她半秃的头上稀疏的头发中荡漾。他们在这里等待着，有那么多想成为国王的人曾冒着生命危险而失败。 “我看见船夫了！”检查那些东西……”阿尔文嘶嘶地说，眼睛紧张地眨着。 “十个人我们都有，是不是？”女巫用颤抖的鸡骨手指再次检查了这些东西。

Yes, there were still ten of them, just as there had been when she had looked two minutes earlier. 'Stop fidgeting, Alvin,' scolded the witch. 'And let's get your Crown straight.' She adjusted the Crown so that it sat more handsomely on Alvin's head. They had settled the Throne in the middle of the empty beach and Alvin was sitting on it, adorned with all of the other Lost Things, so he looked splendid– or slightly ridiculous, depending on your point of view. The witch bit her lip until it bled, for she knew how crucial it was that they had got this right. One single mistake meant death for them all.

是的，还有十个，就像她两分钟前看的时候一样。 “别乱动了，阿尔文。” “让我们把你的王冠弄好。”她调整了一下王冠，使它戴在阿尔文的头上更漂亮。 他们把王座安置在空旷的海滩中央，阿尔文坐在上面，上面装饰着其他所有的失物，所以他看起来很辉煌——或者有点可笑，这取决于你怎么看。 女巫咬着嘴唇，直到嘴唇流血，因为她知道他们把这件事做好是多么重要。 一个错误就意味着所有人的死亡。

She counted the Things one more time, ve-e-e-ery slowly, just to make absolutely sure. 'Hmmmff,' said the sad little voice of Toothless from his cage, which was covered with a black cloth to drown out the noise of his singing. 'You have t-t-trouble counting to ten. T-t-toothless can count to one hundred m-m-million.

她又数了一遍东西，慢慢地数，只是为了绝对确定。 “嗯哼。”无牙可怜的小声音从他的笼子里传出来，笼子上盖着一块黑布，盖住了他唱歌的声音。 “你数到十都有困难。 没有牙齿可以数到一亿。

One hundred m-m-million bottles h-h-hanging on a wall…' Poor Toothless was just trying to cheer himself up by being cheeky, for he was frightened, and tired. 'Shurrup, you horrible little dragon!' hissed the witch, balling her clawed hands into fists. She was absolutely dying to do something dreadful to him, but of course she needed to keep the little toothless dragon safe until Alvin was the King. The Ferryman was approaching. The waiting Alvinsmen could see a little speck of a boat setting out from the distant shore of Tomorrow, moving through the mist, climbing up and dropping down each white-topped wave towards them, nearer… nearer… NEARER… But the Ferryman's boat was not the only boat in Hero's Gap that day. As the first rays of morning sun began to rise, they dispersed the mists to reveal the ships of Stoick and the other Dragonmarkers, sailing out from their underground hideout in Coral Beach like enchanted ghosts, and they too were heading towards the Singing Sands. The witch looked out to sea, and licked her wicked gums in glee.

一亿只瓶子挂在墙上——挂在墙上……”可怜的无牙只是想装出一副厚脸皮让自己高兴起来，因为他又害怕又累。 “嘘，你这条可怕的小龙！”女巫嘶嘶地说，把有爪子的手攥成拳头。 她真想对他做点可怕的事，但她当然需要保护这条没有牙齿的小恶龙的安全，直到阿尔文成为国王。 船夫走过来了。 等待着的阿尔文人可以看到一条小船的斑点，从遥远的“明天”海岸驶来，穿过薄雾，在每一个白色的浪头上爬上爬下，朝他们驶来，越来越近，越来越近，越来越近，但那天英雄峡不只摆渡人的船。 当清晨的第一缕阳光开始升起时，他们驱散了迷雾，露出了斯托伊克和其他龙标记的船只，它们像被施了魔法的幽灵一样，从珊瑚滩的地下藏身处驶出，也向歌唱之沙驶去。 女巫望着大海，高兴地舔着她邪恶的牙床。

'You're too late!' she gloated. 'Too late, Stoick, you galumphing idiot. My Alvin will be the King now…' Slowly the Ferryman's boat approached. 'Faster!' screamed the witch, casting a nervous eye towards the approaching Dragonmarker ships. A superstitious part of her still feared that the Dragonmarkers might, in some last-minute battle, take the Things. The witch gave a shriek of joy as the blindfolded Ferryman carefully placed his oars inside the boat, drifted into shore and came to a stop on the sand. His sixth sense told this Druid Guardian that he had company on the beach. He climbed out of the boat and strode towards the Alvinsmen waiting on the

“你来得太晚了！”她幸灾乐祸地说。 “太迟了，斯托伊克，你这个自大的白痴。 我的阿尔文现在是国王了……”船夫的船慢慢靠近了。 “快!女巫尖叫着，紧张地看了看正在驶来的龙标记船。 她内心迷信的一部分仍然害怕龙的标记会在最后一刻的战斗中夺走这些东西。 当被蒙住眼睛的船夫小心翼翼地把桨放进船里，漂向岸边，停在沙滩上时，女巫发出了一声快乐的尖叫。 他的第六感告诉这个德鲁伊守护者，他在海滩上有人。 他从船上爬下来，大步走向等在船上的阿尔文森夫妇