5 The Stealth Dragon

5. THE STEALTH DRAGON At first sight, there appeared to be nothing at all in the stable. Stealth Dragons are chameleons, which means that they turn exactly the same colour as the background around them. And they are particularly good at it, so good that, even as large as they are, their camouflage makes them practically invisible. Which means that they can sneak up on a Village, or indeed, a Library, without anyone realising they are there. It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust and to see the faint ghostly outline of a very large, sleeping dragon, the bottom of it exactly the colour and texture of the pile of hay he was sleeping on, the top just precisely the pattern of the wood he was leaning against, knot-holes and all. 'Isn't this just the coolest thing you ever saw?' sang Camicazi excitedly, running her fingers along the creature's invisible side. 'I've always wanted to ride one of these things!' 'WOW,' breathed Hiccup admiringly. 'WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW. Look at its tail spines, they're gigantic… But we can't possibly steal this dragon, Camicazi.'

5. 乍一看，马厩里似乎什么也没有。 隐形龙是变色龙，这意味着它们的颜色和周围的背景完全一样。 它们特别擅长这一点，以至于即使它们那么大，它们的伪装也让它们几乎看不见。 也就是说，他们可以偷偷溜进村庄，或者图书馆，而不会被人发现。 过了几秒钟，他们的眼睛才调整过来，看到了一条正在睡觉的巨龙的模糊的幽灵般的轮廓，龙的底部和他睡在上面的那堆干草的颜色和质地一模一样，龙的顶部和他靠在上面的木头的图案一模一样，还有打结的洞等等。 “这难道不是你见过的最酷的东西吗？”卡米卡齐兴奋地唱着，用手指抚摸着这个生物看不见的一面。 “我一直想骑这玩意！”“哇，”嗝嗝羡慕地喘着气说。 哇，哇，哇，哇，哇，哇。 “看看它的尾刺，真大……但我们不可能偷走这条龙，卡米卡兹。”

'Why not?' asked Camicazi, vaulting on to the dragon-shaped block of air that seemed to be the Stealth Dragon's back, waking it up with a start. 'Why not?' squeaked Fishlegs. 'Why not??? This isn't just any old riding-dragon, this is a Secret Military Weapon! Madguts the Murderous and those scary Warriors in his Tribe are going to be turning over every stone in the Archipelago looking for this dragon! And I don't want to be sitting on its back when they find it!' 'Well, whether you lot come with me or not, I'm going to steal this dragon, and pilfer that book, and be back in time for tea,' said Camicazi, doing up the seatbelt on the saddle, and gathering the Stealth Dragon's reins in her hands. 'What are you Hooligans made of?' she said teasingly. 'You're not AFRAID, are you?' Of course Hiccup was not going to admit that he was afraid to a small blonde girl a whole head shorter than he was. 'I know I'm going to regret this,' said Hiccup, climbing on to the shimmering mirage of the Stealth Dragon. 'Not half as much as I'M going to regret it,' said Fishlegs between gritted teeth, jumping from foot to foot in his anxiety. 'What if Madguts CATCHES us?

“为什么不呢?卡米卡齐问道，一边跳到那块似是隐形龙背部的龙形空气块上，把它惊醒了。 “为什么不呢?鱼腿尖声说。 “为什么不呢? ?这可不是普通的骑龙，这是秘密军事武器！凶残的疯子和他部落里那些可怕的勇士会在群岛上翻遍每一块石头寻找这条龙！我可不想被发现的时候坐在它背上！“好吧，不管你们跟不跟我去，我都要去偷这条龙，偷那本书，然后及时回来喝茶。”卡米卡齐说着系好马鞍上的安全带，把隐形龙的缰绳拿在手里。 “你们这些流氓是什么做的？”她揶揄地说。 “你不会害怕吧？”小嗝嗝当然不会承认他害怕一个比他矮一头的金发小女孩。 “我知道我会后悔的。”小嗝嗝说着，爬上了隐形龙号闪闪发光的海市蜃楼。 “我更后悔的是，”鱼腿咬着牙说，焦虑地跳来跳去。 “要是疯子抓住我们怎么办？”

He's only the scariest Chief in the entire barbarian world…' 'He can't catch us, that's the whole point,' grinned Camicazi, 'because we'll be riding on the back of an invisible dragon, and invisible dragons are un-trackable, that's what makes them such great Secret Weapons. Stop worrying for once in your life, Fishlegs, and get up here and live a little!' Fishlegs sighed, and followed Hiccup on to the Stealth Dragon's back and the two boys fastened themselves into the seatbelts on the saddle. The Stealth Dragon's tall, aerodynamically curved back-spines soared up on either side of them, so that they were now as invisible to any onlookers as the Stealth Dragon himself. 'Could we possibly go to the Meathead Public Library? It's just to the right of the Meathead Islands, on a small island called Forget Me?' Hiccup asked the Stealth Dragon politely. If anybody knows how to train a dragon, it's the Murderous Tribe, and the Stealth Dragon stood to attention and answered with military promptness. 'Absolutely, SIR! Anything you say, SIR! Will that be all, SIR?' 'What a goody-goody,' muttered Toothless.

“他抓不到我们，这就是问题所在，”卡米卡齐咧嘴笑着说，“因为我们将骑在一条看不见的龙的背上，而看不见的龙是无法追踪的，这就是它们成为伟大秘密武器的原因。” 别再担心了，鱼腿，到这儿来，活得痛快一点！”鱼腿叹了口气，跟着小嗝嗝上了隐形龙的背，两个男孩系好了安全带。 隐形龙的高大的、按照空气动力学原理弯曲的脊骨在他们的两边高耸起来，所以现在任何旁观者都看不见他们，就像隐形龙本身一样。 “我们能不能去米斯海德公共图书馆？” 就在笨蛋群岛的右边，在一个叫‘勿忘我’的小岛上。”小嗝嗝礼貌地问隐形龙。 如果有人知道如何训练龙，那一定是凶残部落，而隐形龙则立正立正，以军事般的敏捷回应。 “当然,先生!你说什么都行，先生！就这些吗，先生？“真是假惺惺的。”无牙喃喃地说。

'And… off… we… GO!' yelled Camicazi, giving the reins a wild shake. 'YOOOICKS!' The Stealth Dragon leapt into the air the moment the command left her throat. And once Hiccup had caught his breath and begun to peer over the edge of the Stealth Dragon's back fins, the dragon was flying so fast that Berk was a pale purple shadow far behind them, and they were halfway to the Meathead Islands already. 'Will you look at the ACCELERATION on this thing? WAHOOOOOO!' whooped Camicazi above the roaring wind. 'You've got to admit, Fishlegs, this is a ride of a lifetime!' But Fishlegs was too busy concentrating on not getting dragon-sick to admit to anything of the sort. Toothless held on to Hiccup's shoulder like a disgruntled robin, his ears flapping in the wind, muttering, 'Us d-d-don't HAVE to go so f-f-fast… don't HAVE to… this g-g-guy he's j-j-just showing off…'–as if he had never shown off in his life before. Stealth Dragons do fly fast. They fly so fast that by the time they caught sight of the Library itself and Hiccup had realised that Camicazi had not told the truth about the Hairy Scary Librarian being the only guard, and that the place was

“然后……走……我们……走！”卡米卡齐大声喊着，使劲摇晃着缰绳。 “YOOOICKS !”命令一离开她的喉咙，隐形龙就跃入空中。 小嗝嗝刚喘过气来，开始从隐形龙的后鳍边缘往外看，那条龙飞得飞快，伯克在他们后面很远的地方成了一个淡紫色的影子，他们已经在去蛋头群岛的半路上了。 “你能看看这东西的加速度吗？” WAHOOOOOO !卡米卡齐在呼啸的狂风中喊道。 “你得承认，鱼腿，这是一次千载难逢的旅行！”但鱼腿正忙着集中精力不让自己染上龙病，所以没有承认这类事情。 无牙抓住小嗝嗝的肩膀，像一只不满的知更鸟，他的耳朵在风中扑扇着，喃喃地说：“我们——我们——我们没必要走得这么快……没必要……这个——这个家伙，他——他——只是在炫耀……”——好像他以前从来没有炫耀过。 隐形龙确实飞得很快。 他们飞得太快了，当他们看到图书馆的时候，小嗝嗝意识到卡米卡齐并没有说那个毛茸茸的可怕的图书管理员是唯一的守卫，而这个地方是

in fact absolutely crawling with hundreds of heavily armed Meathead Guards and their Driller-Dragons. By this time… it was TOO LATE. The Stealth Dragon had already sailed sheer over the blackened battlements, as quiet as a whisper. The invisible creature then hovered next to a window three hundred feet up the Main Library Building, and one by one the Vikings crawled across his invisible wings and on to the window ledge. Hiccup whispered to the Stealth Dragon to hang about and wait for their return, and the dragon nodded obediently. 'Absolutely, SIR! No problem, SIR! All you have to do is call, SIR!' the dragon whispered back, and he drew back to hover a respectful little distance away. Camicazi was the first to crawl through the Library window, followed by Fishlegs and then Toothless, so that only Hiccup remained, standing on the tiny, crumbly window ledge. There he stood for a few seconds, until his attention was momentarily distracted by a passing wild dragon called a Lesser-Spotted Squirrelserpent, and he lost concentration, and slipped off the edge of the window with a shriek.

实际上，这里爬满了数百名全副武装的笨蛋守卫和他们的钻龙。 这时……已经太晚了。 “隐形龙”号悄无声息地驶过漆黑的城垛。 然后，这个隐形的生物在图书馆主楼三百英尺高的一扇窗户旁盘旋，维京人一个接一个地爬过它隐形的翅膀，爬上窗台。 小嗝嗝低声对潜行龙说，让它在附近等着他们回来，龙顺从地点了点头。 “当然,先生!没问题，先生！你要做的就是打电话，先生！恶龙低声回答道，它后退了几步，恭恭敬敬地在不远处盘旋。 卡米卡齐第一个爬进了图书馆的窗户，接着是鱼腿，然后是无牙，所以只剩下小嗝嗝站在小而易碎的窗台上。 他在那里站了几秒钟，直到一条名叫小斑点松鼠蛇的野龙经过，他的注意力被暂时分散了，他失去了注意力，尖叫着从窗户边缘滑了下去。

And this is how Hiccup was left hanging at the end of Chapter One. Only five hours after he woke up on his twelfth birthday, Hiccup found himself dangling by one hand from a window ledge, three hundred feet up in the air, with the Meathead Warrior Guards down below fitting their silver-tipped arrows to their Northbows, and bending down to let their Driller-Dragons off their chains.

这就是为什么小嗝嗝在第一章的结尾被悬着。 十二岁生日那天，小嗝嗝醒来后才过了五个小时，就发现自己一只手悬在三百英尺高的窗台上，下面的麦头武士卫队正在给他们的北弓装上银头箭，还弯下腰去解开他们的钻龙钻具。