19 The heir to Grimbeard the Ghastly

19. THE HEIR TO GRIMBEARD THE GHASTLY 'So,' chatted Hiccup, 'while we're waiting for this poison to take effect, why don't you tell me how it works?' 'Well,' crowed the Strangulator, 'you will lose control of your tentaclesss ass they sssstart to sssstiffen…' 'I can feel a sort of tingling in my feet, like pins and needles,' admitted Hiccup. The Strangulator's own tentacles were leaping about wildly, as stiff as boards. 'The poissson turnsss sssome victimsss green before they die…' hissed the Strangulator gleefully. 'Is it just me,' said Hiccup, 'or is there a sort of greenish tinge to my left arm?' There wasn't. It was as white and freckled as ever. But a strange green cloud was building within the Strangulator's transparent body, gradually obscuring the unfortunate dragons he was digesting.'… and then as the poissson reaches the head,' continued the Strangulator, 'the nervoussss ssyssstem

19. “那么，”小嗝嗝说，“在我们等待毒药起作用的时候，你为什么不告诉我它是怎么起作用的呢？”“好吧，”扼杀者咆哮道，“你会失去对你那没有触手的屁股的控制，它们会开始变得僵硬……”“我能感觉到我的脚有点刺痛，就像针扎一样。” 掐死者自己的触角也在疯狂地跳跃，像木板一样僵硬。 “毒枪会在受害者死前把他们变成绿色……”掐死者高兴地嘶嘶地说。 “是只有我一个人，”小嗝嗝说，“还是我的左臂有点青？”没有。 它和以前一样白，还有雀斑。 但是一团奇怪的绿云正在扼杀者透明的身体里积聚，逐渐遮蔽了他正在消化的那些不幸的龙。“……然后，当子弹到达头部时，”扼杀者继续说，“神经系统

sssssimply explodesss…' He looked at Hiccup hopefully. Nothing seemed to be happening. 'That'sss funny,' said the Strangulator.' It doesn't sssseem to be working…' 'Maybe some people take longer,' said Hiccup reassuringly. 'You're looking a little peaky yourself, maybe you should lie down.' The Strangulator looked down at itself. The green cloud had now blown into every crook and cranny of its body, and was finally approaching its tiny brain… screeched the Strangulator. The nervous system of the Strangulator simply exploded. All of its electric circuits lit up like light bulbs. It thrashed around like a mad thing, knocking out great chunks of rock from the sides of the cave and sending treasure flying through the air in all directions. Fishlegs hid himself underneath an overhanging rock in order not to be hit by the whirling coils. Toothless crawled into a crevice in the ceiling. For about a minute and a half the Strangulator threw

他满怀希望地看着小嗝嗝。 似乎什么也没发生。 “这太可笑了，”扼杀者说。“也许有些人需要更长的时间，”小嗝嗝安慰地说。 “你自己看起来也有点憔悴，也许你应该躺下休息。”扼杀者低头看了看自己。 绿云现在已经吹进了它身体的每一个角落和缝隙，终于逼近了它的小脑袋……掐死者尖声说。 扼杀者的神经系统爆炸了。 所有的电路都像灯泡一样亮了起来。 它像个疯狂的东西一样四处翻滚，从洞穴的侧面撞出大块的岩石，把宝藏扔向四面八方。 鱼腿躲在一块悬垂的岩石下面，以免被旋转的线圈击中。 无牙爬进天花板的裂缝里。 绞杀者扔了大约一分半钟

itself wildly off the walls of the cavern, screeching a strange primeval agonised shriek. Then all of its tentacles stood out straight and stiff and it fell to the ground. The Strangulator jerked a few more times in agony. Its tail with the dangerous tip lashed ferociously for a moment or two. And then all was silence in the Great Cavern. Huge clouds of dust gradually dispersed. Fishlegs crawled out of his hiding-place. He scrambled over slimy rock-falls, slimy treasure, and even slimier coils of Strangulator, looking for Hiccup. Hiccup was dazed but alive. He'd had a tidal wave of a ride, thrown this way and that way until his teeth rattled. But the great coils of the tentacle wrapped around his body had cushioned him from any hurt. He beamed at Fishlegs and Toothless. 'That was one STUPID Monster,' he said. 'How did you DO it? How did you DO it?' asked Fishlegs again and again in amazement as he and Toothless unwound the tentacle from Hiccup's body. For answer, Hiccup lifted up his shirt, and there, wrapped around his chest, was the very tip of the tentacle… and in the gelatinous transparent flesh of it was a giant needle puncture mark, with the green

它疯疯癫癫地离开洞穴的墙壁，发出一种奇怪的原始的痛苦的尖叫。 然后它所有的触须都伸出来，又直又硬，它就倒在地上了。 掐死者又痛苦地抽搐了几下。 它那带有危险尖端的尾巴猛烈地甩了一会儿。 然后，大岩洞里一片寂静。 巨大的尘埃云逐渐散去。 鱼腿从他的藏身之处爬了出来。 他爬过黏糊糊的瀑布、黏糊糊的宝藏，甚至更黏糊糊的绞杀者，寻找小嗝嗝。 小嗝嗝头昏眼花，但还活着。 他经历了一次潮汐般的颠簸，被抛来抛去，直到他的牙齿嘎吱作响。 但是缠绕在他身体上的巨大的触手使他免受任何伤害。 他对鱼腿和无牙笑了笑。 “那是一只愚蠢的怪物，”他说。 “你是怎么做到的？”你是怎么做到的？鱼腿和无牙解开嗝嗝身上的触手时，惊讶地问了一遍又一遍。 嗝嗝撩起衬衫作为回答，在他的胸前包裹着一条触手的尖端……在它透明的胶状肉上有一个巨大的针扎痕，带着绿色

poison clearly visible coursing underneath the skin. What Hiccup had done was to pull his shirt OVER the end of the tentacle while Toothless was distracting the Creature. The Strangulator had so lost sensory contact with the ends of its tentacles that it did not realise that it was in fact injecting ITSELF under the white material of Hiccup's shirt. 'That particular plan,' said Fishlegs at last, 'required a Fiendish Amount of LUCK.' 'It WAS lucky,' admitted Hiccup happily, 'but we're ALIVE, aren't we?' Fishlegs grinned back at him and Toothless did three back somersaults in the air and a congratulatory cock-a-doodle-doo. 'And that swordfighting. Where did THAT come from? You've always been grim at swordfighting.' 'Swapped hands,' mumbled Hiccup, beaming but a bit embarrassed. 'A left-handed genius who single-handedly defeated Alvin the Treacherous AND a Monstrous Strangulator,' gloated Fishlegs. 'This is going to look so GOOD when we tell everybody back home. I just can't WAIT to see the look on Snotlout's face when he sets eyes on this treasure. It makes that

毒素在皮肤下清晰可见。 小嗝嗝所做的，是在无牙分散它注意力的时候，把自己的衬衫拉到触手的末端。 掐死者已经完全失去了与触角末端的感觉联系，它没有意识到它实际上是在把自己注射到小嗝嗝衬衫的白色材料下面。 “那个特别的计划，”鱼腿终于说，“需要极大的运气。“这是幸运，”小嗝嗝高兴地承认，“但我们还活着，不是吗？”鱼腿朝他笑了笑，无牙在空中后空翻了三个跟头，还汪汪地表示祝贺。 “还有决斗。这是从哪里来的？ 你在剑术上一直很冷酷。“交换了手，”小嗝嗝嘟囔着，微笑着，但有点尴尬。 鱼腿幸灾乐祸地说：“一个左撇子天才，单枪匹马打败了奸诈的阿尔文和一个可怕的扼杀者。” “当我们把这件事告诉国内的每个人时，它会看起来很棒的。 我等不及要看鼻鼻子看到宝藏时脸上的表情了。 这使得

poxy little box he dug up on the Isle of the Skullions look pretty measly.' 'Yeeees,' said Hiccup slowly. 'but we ARE still trapped in an inaccessible underground cavern, aren't we? We have to GET OUT OF HERE first.' Fishlegs's face fell. 'So we do,' he admitted. 'But the Creature must have some way from this cavern up to the caves in the Wild Dragon Cliff… I mean, look at those dragons in his digestive system, he must have been feeding off the Dragon Nursery for years. All we have to do is go through these Caliban Caves and—' 'N-n-no,' said Toothless firmly. 'T-t-toothless knows. Toothless grow up here. Other C-c-creatures in there much bigger and b-b-badder than that one…' 'OK then,' said Hiccup. 'We go back the way we came. Let's hope that door still opens.' The door did still open. As they were opening it, Hiccup noticed a piece of paper nailed on their side of it. It was a letter. It was written in the same scrawly handwriting as Grimbeard's riddle, and it was addressed to the 'TRUE HEIR OF GRIMBEARD THE GHASTLY'. Hiccup took the letter off the nail and read it.

他在骷髅岛上挖出的一个小盒子看起来很可怜。“是啊，”小嗝嗝慢慢地说。 “但我们仍然被困在一个无法进入的地下洞穴里，不是吗？” 我们得先离开这里。”鱼腿的脸一沉。 “是的，”他承认。“但是这个生物一定有办法从这个洞穴到野龙崖的洞穴……我的意思是，看看他消化系统里的那些龙，他一定多年来一直以龙育幼所为食。” 我们要做的就是穿过这些卡利班洞穴，然后——”“不——不。” “T-t-toothless知道。在这里长大，没有牙齿。 “那好吧，”小嗝嗝说。 “我们原路返回。 希望那扇门还会打开。”门还开着。 当他们打开盒子的时候，嗝嗝注意到他们那一边钉着一张纸。 那是一封信。它的笔迹和Grimbeard的谜语一样潦草，收件人是“可怕的Grimbeard的真正继承人”。 小嗝嗝把信从钉子上取下来读了起来。

DEAR HEIR. (said the letter) I have had a glorious Viking life. But now I am an old, old man I find I am not so happy with my fifty years of rollicking and robbery, fighting and fresh air. I wonder if I might have run things differently. This treasure for instance. The Sagas will tell you that the stealing of it was my Most Magnificent Moment. But since then, It has been tearing my once- happy band of burglars apart with GREED and LUST FOR POWER. We are just not ready to look after this treasure. So I have decided to get rid of it. I know that there will be men who will hear of the Legend of the Treasure and come looking for it, and for them I have buried a small chest on the Isle of the Skullions as a decoy, so that they will think that the hunt ends there. I have hidden the REAL TREASURE deep, deep in this underground cavern. It has taken many many months for my dragons to swim down here with it. It is guarded by water one way

亲爱的继承人。（信上说）我曾有过辉煌的维京生活。 但现在我老了，老了，我发现我对五十年的嬉闹、抢劫、打架和新鲜空气不那么满意了。 我想知道我是否可以用不同的方式来管理。 比如这个宝藏。 传说会告诉你，偷走它是我最辉煌的时刻。 但从那以后，它就用贪婪和对权力的欲望撕裂了我曾经快乐的窃贼队伍。 我们只是还没有准备好照看这些宝藏。 所以我决定把它扔掉。 我知道会有人听到宝藏的传说，就会来找它，为了他们，我在骷髅岛上埋了一个小箱子作为诱饵，这样他们就会认为狩猎到这里就结束了。 我把真正的宝藏藏得很深很深，藏在这个地下洞穴里。 我的龙花了好几个月才游到这里。 它的一侧被水保护着