17 The Leviathorgan Strikes

17. THE LEVIATHORGAN STRIKES The Hysteric nearest to Hiccup fell to his knees, gasping: 'Thor save us!' All they could see of the Creature were the spines on its back drawing closer and closer in the water. It was aiming straight for the boat. But at the very last moment, it changed direction, and swam alongside it. And it was only then that they realised how truly enormous it was. It was IMMENSE. As the Dragon passed the boat, it rolled slightly on its side, and one terrible yellow reptilian eye stared at Hiccup, pinpointing him, picking him out. There was a curious expression in that eye, of intelligent humour mixed with the purest fury. It was as if it hadn't forgotten the incident in the Ice Cave, and something in that eye seemed to say, 'You're going to pay for that, boy, and I'm going to enjoy it… You can't get away from me now.' And then it moved on, muscles rippling, as it swam sinuously as a panther through the water. It swam so close to the boat, that it was almost as if it

17. 离嗝嗝最近的那个歇斯底里的人跪倒在地，喘着气说：“托尔救救我们吧！”他们所能看到的，只是它背上的刺在水里越来越近。 它正瞄准小船。 但在最后一刻，它改变了方向，游到它旁边。 直到那时，他们才意识到它有多么巨大。 它是巨大的。当巨龙经过小船的时候，它微微地侧过身子，一只可怕的爬行动物的黄色眼睛盯着小嗝嗝，准确地指着他，把他认出来。 那只眼睛里有一种奇怪的表情，既有聪明的幽默，又夹杂着最纯粹的愤怒。 它好像没有忘记冰洞里发生的事，眼睛里似乎有什么东西在说：“你会为此付出代价的，孩子，我要好好享受……你现在逃不掉了。”然后它继续前进，肌肉起伏，像美洲豹一样在水中蜿蜒游动。 它游得离船很近，几乎就像

were showing off how big it was. That long, glorious back with the cruel, primeval spikes, went on, it seemed like, for ever… Oh for Thor's sake, thought Hiccup, his heart in his mouth, it must be twice, no nearly three times as long as this boat… It was a Leviathorgan, all right. Like all the ancient Sea-dragons, it had probably been alive since the age of the dinosaurs, and it had the look of something dug up from the past. Blackened crustacea festooned its spiny armour like rust. Parts of its body were so encrusted with coral, and trailing with long drifts of seaweed, that it was like a living, moving reef. The heart-stoppingly huge length of the Leviathorgan swam beside the boat. And then it turned away, and swam on past them, and disappeared below the water, the casual, contemptuous flip of its tail creating such a great white washing powerful wake that it swamped the deck with a wave that covered their knees.

我们在炫耀它有多大。 那长长的、光荣的脊背，带着残酷的、原始的尖刺，好像永远都没有尽头……啊，看在上帝的份上，小嗝嗝心里想，心都提到嗓子眼儿了，它一定是这只船的两倍，不，差不多是三倍…… 像所有的古代海龙一样，它可能从恐龙时代就存在了，而且它看起来像是从过去挖出来的东西。 变黑的甲壳类动物像铁锈一样把带刺的甲壳装饰起来。 它身体的某些部位结满了珊瑚，拖着长长的海藻，就像一个活的、会动的礁石。 那条巨兽在船旁边游来游去，长得让人心跳停止。 然后，它转过身来，从他们身边游过去，消失在水里，它那漫不经心的、轻蔑的尾巴一甩，掀起了一股巨大的、白色的、强有力的尾流，淹没了甲板，波浪没过了他们的膝盖。

'Where's it gone?' Many voices called out the same question from the ship. There had been a look in that Dragon's giant eye which Hiccup had seen in the expression of Toothless when he had cornered something smaller than himself, like a mouse or a rabbit.

“它去哪儿了？”船上许多人都在问同样的问题。 那条龙的大眼睛里有一种眼神，就像小嗝嗝在把比自己小的东西，比如老鼠或兔子逼到角落里时，从无牙兽的表情中看到的那样。

Like cats, dragons have a cruel streak, and they like to play with their food, before they kill it. 'It's going to play with US…' thought Hiccup with foreboding. 'Grab on to something on the boat!' he yelled out, winding a rope attached to the mast firmly round his wrist. 'Oh brother,' moaned Fishlegs, as he did the same, 'how did this happen? We just went out for a simple little SWIMMING RACE, is there NO safe activity in this uncivilised world?' The dragon had dived under the water, and there was no sign of it, just the roaring of the wind, the crashing of the thunder, the drenching rain. 'WHERE IS IT? WHERE'S IT GONE?' someone shouted frantically. There was an explosion of white water to Hiccup's left, as the Leviathorgan LEAPT out of the sea. It flew right over the boat, and hovered there. Again, it was almost as if it were showing off how big it was. It was so enormous that hovering above the great ship's mast, the tips of its great wings just grazed the surface of the water as they beat downward on either side. Its eyes bored down at the Viking ship. Gently

像猫一样，龙也有残忍的一面，它们喜欢在杀死食物之前先玩弄它。 “它要和我们玩了……”小嗝嗝有一种不祥的预感。 “抓住船上的什么东西！”他喊道，把绑在桅杆上的一根绳子牢牢地绕在手腕上。 “哦，兄弟，”鱼腿呻吟着，他也这样做了，“这是怎么发生的？ 我们只是去参加一个简单的小型游泳比赛，在这个不文明的世界里就没有安全的活动吗？”巨龙已经潜入水中，没有任何迹象，只有呼啸的风声、轰隆隆的雷声和滂沱的大雨。 “它在哪儿？”它去哪儿了？有人疯狂地喊道。 当那只巨兽跃出海面的时候，在小嗝嗝的左边，白色的海水爆发了。 它从船的上方飞过，盘旋在那里。 再一次，它似乎在炫耀自己有多大。 它是如此巨大，在大船的桅杆上方盘旋，它的大翅膀的尖端在两侧向下拍打时，正好擦过水面。 它的眼睛盯着那艘海盗船。 轻轻

it reached out its gigantic talons, and took hold of the mast of the American Dream 2, like an eagle grasping a stick. And then it lifted the entire ship completely clear of the water… It looked down into the boat to see the reaction of the inhabitants. Most of them were screaming. The great Sea-dragon gave the ship a little shake, sending the Vikings inside it catapulting around the deck like marbles… and then it dropped the American Dream 2 back into the water again. The Monster hung above them still, blotting out the sky, and now it stretched wide its great ancient mouth, far wider than would have seemed physically possible, so that it became a great black cavern, opening up in front of their eyes. Like an enormous spitting cobra, the Sea-dragon began to hiss. First a gentle sssssss… getting louder and louder, SSSSSSS, until it built up into such a sinister, angry intensity that it was as if the entire ship were crawling with nests of serpents about to strike. The sound sent goosebumps all over Hiccup's body, and every individual hair on his head stood up as if charged

它伸出巨大的爪子，抓住了美国梦的桅杆，就像老鹰抓住了一根棍子。 然后它把整艘船举离水面……它向下看了看船上的居民的反应。 大多数人都在尖叫。 巨大的海龙轻轻摇晃了一下船，把里面的维京人像弹珠一样在甲板上弹跳起来，然后又把“美国梦2”扔回了水里。 怪物仍然悬在他们的上方，遮住了天空，现在它张开了它那古老的大嘴，比身体上所能承受的要大得多，所以它变成了一个巨大的黑色洞穴，在他们眼前敞开着。 像一条巨大的吐痰眼镜蛇一样，海龙开始发出嘶嘶声。 先是轻轻的嘶嘶声……越来越响，嘶嘶声，最后变成了一种邪恶的、愤怒的强度，仿佛整艘船都爬满了蛇窝，随时准备袭击。 这声音使小嗝嗝全身起了鸡皮疙瘩，他头上的每根头发都竖起来，好像被充电了一样

with static electricity. The Creature's eyes bulged, its throat worked. It was looking straight at Hiccup, and instinctively, Hiccup ducked behind the mast. Something flew through the air, and sunk itself quivering into the wood. With round, terrified–no, petrified–eyes, Hiccup peered round the mast to look at it. It was the sting of the Leviathorgan. Hiccup had heard of this in legends. Like a gigantic bee, the Leviathorgan carries stings within its body, but in its throat, inside the fire-hole rather than its abdomen. It can propel these stings from its mouth at astonishing speed, like a rocket launcher. The sting of a bee is no more than a couple of millimetres long. The sting of a Leviathorgan is roughly the length of a spear. It had sunk quite eight centimetres into the wood, and remained there, shivering and on fire. It seemed to be made out of some kind of bone as hard as metal, but it was difficult to tell because the flames flickered along its length. A great scarlet-black stain was spreading out on the mast as the poison from the tip leaked out, and Hiccup was just taking off his jacket to smother the flames before they set fire to the

用静电。那怪物的眼睛鼓了起来，喉咙发痛。 它正盯着嗝嗝，嗝嗝本能地躲到桅杆后面。 有什么东西从空中飞过，颤巍巍地落在树林里。 小嗝嗝瞪着圆圆的、惊恐的——不，是呆滞的——眼睛，从桅杆上往下看。 这是大海兽的毒刺。 嗝嗝在传说中听说过这件事。 就像一只巨大的蜜蜂，利维坦风琴在它的身体里携带刺，但在它的喉咙里，在火洞里，而不是腹部。 它可以像火箭发射器一样以惊人的速度从嘴里喷出这些刺。 蜜蜂的蛰针不超过几毫米长。 利维athorgan的刺大约有长矛那么长。 它在树林里陷了足足八厘米，还在那儿颤抖着，身上着了火。 它似乎是由某种像金属一样坚硬的骨头制成的，但很难分辨，因为火焰沿着它的长度闪烁。 毒汁从桅杆尖漏出来，一大片猩红色的污迹在桅杆上蔓延开来，小嗝嗝正要脱下外套，把火扑灭，免得把船烧起来