17 The Beast

17. THE BEAST Hiccup plunged down from the broken cage… …and was caught mid-air by the unfeasibly large hand of the Dragon Monster, snatching him out of the ether as Hiccup had seen smaller dragons do with bluebottles. (I am afraid that there is an excellent but rather revolting reason for this. Dragons like to eat their prey alive, a bit like you might prefer a nice juicy plump raspberry to one that has been squashed on the ground.)

17. 嗝嗝从破碎的笼子里一跃而下... ...，在半空中被龙怪那只不可思议的大手抓住了，把他从空中拽了出来，就像嗝嗝见过的小龙抓蓝瓶子一样。 对此，我恐怕有一个极好的但却令人反感的理由。 龙喜欢生吃猎物，有点像你可能更喜欢多汁的丰满覆盆子，而不是在地上压扁的覆盆子。)

The Beast threw Hiccup up into the air again, and threw back his head to catch him in his jaws. The mouth opened up like a big black cave, edged with razor-sharp teeth like stalactites, and Hiccup just had time, as he somersaulted through the air, to shout 'HALT!' in Dragonese, before he fell into the Creature's mouth…

野兽又把小嗝嗝抛向空中，把他的头向后一仰，用嘴咬住了他。 嘴巴张开了，像一个黑色的大洞穴，边缘有像钟乳石一样锋利的牙齿，嗝嗝在空中翻了个筋斗，刚来得及喊一声“停！”在他掉进怪物嘴里之前，用龙语说……

And the jaws snapped SHUT.

下巴啪地一声合上了。

Absolute blackness, and a heat that burned, and Hiccup was just thinking, as well he might, This really is the end now… …when the Monster reached inside his own mouth, and fished Hiccup out by the end of one talon, ju-u-u-ust before he swallowed. 'HALT!' said Hiccup again, coughing wildly as he hung from the Creature's talon, dripping with the disgusting green goo of the dragon's saliva. The Monster drew Hiccup up to his big yellow eye and took a good look at him. And in between coughs Hiccup took a good look at the Creature too. He could not believe what he saw. It was a Seadragon. And not just any old Seadragon, either. It was an exceptionally rare Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus. Hiccup recognised it because he had met one of them before, a year or so ago, on his very first adventure as a Warrior-in-Training.* What was a Seadragon doing here? The Beast was chained to the ground. He drew great rasping, asthmatic breaths that were painful to hear, and his skin was worn as dry

绝对的黑暗，灼热的火焰，嗝嗝正在想，他也可能在想，这真的是结束了... ...当怪物把手伸进自己的嘴里，用一只爪子的末端把嗝嗝捞了出来，就在他咽下去之前。 “停止!小嗝嗝又说了一遍，他被那怪物的魔爪缠住，咳嗽得很厉害，嘴里还滴着恶心的绿色恶龙唾液。 怪物把小嗝嗝拉到他的大黄眼睛前，仔细地看了他一眼。 在咳嗽的间隙，嗝嗝也仔细地看了看那个怪物。 他简直不敢相信他所看到的。 那是一只海龙。而且也不是普通的海龙。 这是一只极其罕见的巨海龙。 小嗝嗝认出来了，因为大约一年前，在他第一次作为训练中的勇士冒险时，他就遇到过他们中的一个。海龙在这里做什么？ 野兽被锁在地上。 他发出刺耳的喘息声，听起来很痛苦，他的皮肤被磨干了