8 The Slavemark

8. THE SLAVEMARK Hiccup was right, the ship was carrying slaves. Hiccup asked Red Ronald about it the next morning, and Ronald said there were one hundred and nineteen slaves being kept in the hold, all of them Northern Wanderers. Wanderers were very fierce and wild, and they detested Vikings. It made Hiccup shiver to hear the noise of their Cursing, floating up out of a heavily barred Hatch in the centre of the back deck, all day and all night. Two days passed. Each morning Hiccup would read the ticking- thing for Norbert in his cabin, and then the three young Heroes spent the rest of the time dreaming of escape as the ship chugged steadily north and the weather grew colder and colder. There is no more exciting place for a lively young dragon than a ship in full sail. The two little dragons were now having a lovely time, flying through the rigging, getting tangled up in ropes, sliding down the sails, trying to nick things from the Cooking Cabin without getting caught by the Cook, dashing after mice in the hold, chewing the arms off Norbert's shirts and the bottoms out of

8. Hiccup说得对，这艘船载的是奴隶。 第二天早上，小嗝嗝向红德·罗纳德问起这件事，罗纳德说货舱里关着一百一十九个奴隶，都是北方流浪者。 流浪者非常凶猛和野蛮，他们憎恨维京人。 小嗝嗝听到他们的诅咒声，整天整夜地从后甲板中央一个严严实实的舱门里飘出来，吓得浑身发抖。 两天过去了。每天早上，小嗝嗝都会在船舱里给诺伯特念滴答作响的东西，然后三个年轻的英雄就在剩下的时间里幻想着逃跑，因为船在不断地向北行驶，天气越来越冷。 对于一条活泼的小龙来说，没有什么地方比一艘扬帆的船更令人兴奋了。 两条小龙现在玩得很开心，它们飞过索具，被绳子缠住，从帆上滑下来，试图从厨子舱里偷东西而不被厨子抓住，追逐货舱里的老鼠，咬掉诺伯衬衫上的胳膊和屁股

his shoes, and in the Stormfly's case, flirting with the hunting-dragons who were lined up, very dignified on the mast-head. But both dragons avoided the Slave Hatch. Every time Toothless passed it, his hackles rose, and he hissed with fear and alarm. The three young Heroes had had time to think, and so they were now quite optimistic about their chances of escaping. It was just a question of agreeing on a plan. 'OK,' said Camicazi breezily. 'I've thought of several ways to escape. I might dress up as a Hysteric and trick one of those idiot guards into launching one of those little landing-boats by saying we'd hit an iceberg.' 'That Hysteric guard isn't going to think you're another Hysteric!' scoffed Fishlegs. 'However stupid they are they're not actually blind! You're only four foot tall, Camicazi, you're blonde, you're female, you have no facial hair…' 'Aha,' said Camicazi, laying a finger against her nose and looking very cunning, 'but if I wear a very long coat, and stand on your shoulders, and I'll stick one of Norbert's bearskin knee-pads on to my chin as a beard–'

他的鞋子，在暴风号的情况下，和那些排在桅顶上的猎龙调情，这些猎龙很有尊严。 但两条龙都避开了奴隶舱门。 “无牙”每次经过这里，他的鬃毛就会竖起，发出恐惧和惊恐的嘶嘶声。 三位年轻的英雄有时间思考，所以他们现在对逃跑的机会相当乐观。 这只是一个就计划达成一致的问题。 “好吧，”卡米卡齐轻松地说。 “我想了好几个逃跑的办法。 我可能会打扮成歇斯底里的人，骗那些白痴警卫说我们撞上冰山了，让他们把一艘小登陆艇放下水。“那个歇斯底里的警卫不会认为你是另一个歇斯底里的人！”鱼腿嘲笑道。 “不管他们有多蠢，他们并不是真的瞎了！”“啊哈，”卡米卡齐用一根手指放在鼻子上，显得很狡猾地说，“但如果我穿上一件很长的外套，站在你的肩膀上，把诺伯的一块熊皮护膝贴在我的下巴上，当胡子——”

'There's no way in a million years that that is going to work,' argued Fishlegs. 'OK, so what's YOUR idea, then, Mr Clever Clogs?' said Camicazi crossly. 'I'm telling you, I've escaped from more Uglithug Dungeons and Murderous Cage-Mazes than you've had hot dinners…' Meanwhile, in the background, Norbert was watching the crew feeding the Wanderer Slaves by opening up the Slave Hatch and throwing food down below. 'Not TOO much of that bread,' Norbert roared greedily. 'They're refusing to row, and slaves that are on strike should not be fed.' Unbeknownst to Norbert, Toothless was showing off his excellent hunting skills to Stormfly. He had been chasing a fly through the rigging for the past five minutes. He was now hovering about a metre above Norbert's head, only his wings and his narrowed eyes moving as he watched the fly. 'Bzzz… bzzzzz… bzzzzzz…' buzzed the fly, zig-zagging drunkenly around Norbert's head. Toothless crept ever so softly down in the air as his muscles poised, ready to pounce. The fly made a few more aimless buzzes…

鱼腿争辩说：“这在一百万年里是行不通的。” “好吧，那么你的想法是什么，聪明的木底鞋先生？”卡米卡齐生气地说。 “我告诉你，我从丑陋的地牢和杀人的迷宫里逃出来的次数比你吃过热腾腾的晚餐的次数还多……”与此同时，在背景中，诺伯正在看着船员们打开奴隶舱门，往下面扔食物，喂流浪奴隶。 “别吃太多面包。”诺伯贪婪地吼道。 “他们拒绝划船，罢工的奴隶不应该得到食物。”诺伯特不知道的是，无牙正在向暴风飞展示他出色的狩猎技能。 在过去的五分钟里，他一直在索具上追逐一只苍蝇。 他现在在诺伯头顶上方大约一米的地方盘旋着，只有他的翅膀和眯起的眼睛在动，他看着那只苍蝇。 “嗡嗡……嗡嗡……嗡嗡……”苍蝇嗡嗡地叫着，醉醺醺地在诺伯的头上盘旋。 无牙在空中轻轻地爬行，他的肌肉摆好姿势，准备猛扑过去。 苍蝇又漫无目的地嗡嗡叫了几声。

…and settled on the end of one of Norbert's sticking-up hairs. 'W-W-Wrrrewwwowwwwrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!' With the smothered yowl of a kung-fu kitten, Toothless launched himself, claws out, on to Norbert's head. Norbert was not a relaxed personality. In fact, you could describe him as 'tightly wound'. So his reaction when a dragon suddenly landed unexpectedly on his head was to shriek like a fire-engine and spring into the air, as if stung by a bee. One of his flailing arms pushed over one of the Hysteric crew- members… who then cannoned into Hiccup… and Hiccup slid over, plunging down into the Hatch, just managing to grab hold of the edge of the Hatch as he fell, so he was still hanging on by one hand… …until with a cry of 'Hiccup!' and Toothless still attached to his head, Norbert blundered forward to try and help, and in the process trod heavily on Hiccup's clinging fingers. So that Hiccup let go and fell down the Hatch… …the Hatch that Bearcub's Grandmother only the day before had been warning that no Viking should fall down OR ELSE… …down that very same Hatch Hiccup fell, the

……最后选定了诺伯竖起来的一根头发的末端。 “W-W-Wrrrewwwowwwwrrrrrrrrr ! !”“无牙”发出小猫功夫般的压抑的嚎叫，伸出爪子，扑到诺伯的头上。 诺伯特不是一个随和的人。 事实上，你可以用“紧绷的”来形容他。 因此，当一条龙突然出乎意料地落在他头上时，他的反应是像消防车一样尖叫，然后跳向空中，好像被蜜蜂蜇了一样。 他的一只挥舞着的手臂把“歇斯底里”号的一名船员推了过去……那名船员随后撞上了小嗝嗝……小嗝嗝滑了过去，一头扎进舱门，在他掉下去的时候，他刚刚抓住舱门的边缘，所以他仍然用一只手抓住舱门... ...，直到他大叫一声“小嗝嗝！”没有牙齿的诺伯还粘在他的头上，他跌跌撞撞地走上前想帮忙，却重重地踩在了小嗝嗝紧紧抓住他的手指上。 于是小嗝嗝松开手，掉下了舱口... ...就是熊宝宝的祖母前一天还警告维京人不要掉下来的舱口，否则就... ...小嗝嗝掉下了舱口

door clanging shut behind him. There was a short silence. Then pandemonium broke out.

门在他身后哐当关上了。 一阵短暂的沉默。 接着，一场大混乱爆发了。

'Aaaarrgh!' screeched Norbert the Nutjob, seeing his guide to America lost, and his journey going up in smoke. 'Get him out! Get him out! They'll kill him!' But the crew could not open the Hatch. Somebody had lost the key and had to run off and find it. Frantically, Camicazi and Fishlegs and Norbert pulled and pulled at the bars, and tried to squint down to see what was happening. There was a horrible noise of shouting and screaming going on down there in the darkness. What was happening to Hiccup? Hiccup fell down, down, down, into the blackness of the hold, landing on the wood with the carrots, and the bread, and the cabbages the Wanderers were starting to eat. There was a shocked silence for a moment. Then came a roar of rage. 'It's a Viking!' yelled one big Wanderer, shaking his chains in fury. 'Kill him!' shrieked Bearcub's Grandmother, showing her sharp pointy teeth and seizing Hiccup by the leg. 'Crush him to death!' She made a growling noise like a wolf. 'It's quite a small Viking,' said the big Wanderer more uncertainly as he grabbed hold of Hiccup, and he

“Aaaarrgh !疯子诺伯特尖叫道，他看到他的美国向导迷路了，他的旅程化为乌有。 “把他弄出去！”把他弄出去！他们会杀了他的！”但是船员们打不开舱门。 有人把钥匙丢了，不得不跑出去找。 卡米卡齐、鱼腿和诺伯疯狂地拉啊拉，试图眯着眼睛往下看到底发生了什么。 黑暗中传来一阵可怕的喊叫和尖叫。 小嗝嗝怎么了？ 小嗝嗝往下，往下，往下，掉进漆黑的船舱里，落在木头上，上面有胡萝卜、面包，还有流浪汉们正在吃的卷心菜。 一阵震惊的沉默。 接着是一声怒吼。“是维京人！”一个高大的流浪者喊道，愤怒地摇晃着他的锁链。 “杀了他!熊宝宝的奶奶尖声叫道，露出尖尖的牙齿，一把抓住小嗝嗝的腿。 “把他压死！”她像狼一样发出一声咆哮。 “这是一个相当小的维京人。”大流浪者更不确定地说，他抓住了小嗝嗝