12 The Lost Kingdom of the Wilderwest

12. THE LOST KINGDOM OF THE WILDERWEST He was a very ancient dragon indeed. Dried up and brown, like an old prune, barely able to open his eyes, wrinkles so deep and folded he was like a crumpled map. Hiccup had never seen such an old dragon. For a split second, Hiccup was convinced the dragon was going to kill him. He had brought back his head like dragons do, like a rattlesnake about to strike. And Hiccup tried to move his sword, but it was as if his arm were turned to stone. Dragon-eye met boy-eye, the golden cat's eye meeting Hiccup's blue,

12. 他确实是一条非常古老的龙。 干枯枯黄，像一棵老梅干，几乎睁不开眼睛，皱纹又深又皱，像一张皱巴巴的地图。 小嗝嗝从来没见过这么老的龙。 有那么一瞬间，小嗝嗝确信龙要杀了他。 他像龙一样把头缩回来，像响尾蛇一样准备出击。 小嗝嗝想移动他的剑，但他的手臂好像变成了石头。 龙的眼睛碰到了男孩的眼睛，金猫的眼睛碰到了小嗝嗝的蓝眼睛，

there in the middle of that circle of fire. Hiccup's head began to spin. He closed his eyes. 'Who are you?' asked the dragon– but he already knew the answer. 'I am Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. And I want to take this Crown, please,' said Hiccup politely. 'Who are you?' 'Well, Hiccup the Third, I am the Wodensfang and I am supposed to kill whoever tries to take this Crown…' His voice was a barely-there hiss, the faraway whisper of a skeletonleaf. 'Please don't,' said Hiccup, still with his eyes closed. There was a long silence. 'Because humans and dragons cannot live together,' said the dragon. 'You sound like the Dragon Furious,' said Hiccup, opening his eyes. 'I don't believe that that is true.' 'Once I believed as you did,' said the dragon very, very wearily, 'but I have changed my mind.' 'Of course they can live together!' said Hiccup fiercely. 'Some of my best friends are dragons! It's just that things have gone wrong somehow…

就在那火圈的中间。 小嗝嗝的头开始旋转。 他闭上了眼睛。“你是谁？”龙问——但他已经知道答案了。 “我是西卡普，可怕的黑线鳕三世。 “我想要这顶王冠，”小嗝嗝礼貌地说。 “你是谁？”“嗯，小嗝嗝三世，我是瓦登斯方，我应该杀死任何企图夺取这顶王冠的人……”他的声音是微弱的嘶嘶声，像是遥远的枯叶的低语。 “请不要，”小嗝嗝说，眼睛仍然闭着。 沉默了很长时间。“因为人类和龙不能生活在一起，”龙说。 “你听起来像愤怒的恶龙。”嗝嗝睁开眼睛说。 “我不相信这是真的。“我曾经和你一样相信，”恶龙非常、非常疲倦地说，“但我改变了主意。“他们当然可以住在一起！”小嗝嗝恶狠狠地说。 “我的一些好朋友是龙！”只是事情不知怎么出了问题……

'The dragons have become enslaved, when they ought to be free. But you HAVE to believe that people and dragons can be better. You HAVE to believe in a better world…' 'And is this what you would do, Hiccup the Third, if you were the King of the Wilderwest? You would free all the dragons?' asked the ancient dragon. 'You would work to make sure that humans and dragons live together in peace?' Hiccup did not want to be the King of the Wilderwest. But sometimes we all have to grow up. 'Yes,' said Hiccup. 'I promise.' The dragon sighed again. 'The problem is,' said the dragon, 'I am an old, old dragon, and you are not the first to make me that promise. And history has a way of repeating itself.'

“龙应该得到自由的时候，它们却成了奴隶。 但你必须相信人和龙可以变得更好。 你必须相信有一个更美好的世界……”“那么，嗝嗝三世，如果你是西部荒野的国王，你会这么做吗？ 你愿意释放所有的龙？古龙问。 “你会努力确保人类和龙和平共处吗？”小嗝嗝不想成为西部荒野之王。 但有时候我们都得长大。 “是的，”小嗝嗝说。“我保证。”龙又叹了口气。 “问题是，”龙说，“我是一条很老很老的龙，你不是第一个给我这个承诺的人。 历史总是会重演的。”

'Maybe it doesn't have to,' said Hiccup. 'Hear my story,' said the dragon, 'and perhaps you will change your mind…' 'I'm in a bit of a hurry,' said Hiccup. The Wodensfang looked at him with his hypnotic eyes. There was a distinct edge to his ancient voice. 'We have all the time in the world,' said the Wodensfang. 'We have all the time in the world,' repeated Hiccup. Hiccup sat down cross-legged, laid his sword on his knees and listened to the story, inside the circle of fire, in the icy heart of Angry Mountain. 'You see,' said the Wodensfang, 'you are not the first human to have the name of Hiccup. You are not the first human to carry that sword.' Oh dear. Oh dear. Hiccup was getting that black-beetles-on-his-scalp feeling again. 'The first human who made me that promise was called… Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the First…'

“也许不需要，”小嗝嗝说。 “听听我的故事，”恶龙说，“也许你会改变主意……” 沃登斯方人用催眠的眼睛看着他。 他那苍老的声音中有一种明显的棱角。 “我们有世界上所有的时间。” “我们有的是时间，”小嗝嗝重复道。 嗝嗝盘腿坐了下来，把剑放在膝盖上，在愤怒山冰冷的中心，在火圈里听着这个故事。 “你知道，”沃登斯说，“你并不是第一个叫嗝嗝的人。 你不是第一个携带这把剑的人。”哦亲爱的。 哦亲爱的。小嗝嗝又有了那种头皮上有黑甲虫的感觉。 “第一个向我许下诺言的人叫……希卡普·可怕黑线鳕一世……”

'Five or six centuries ago,' said the dragon, 'when I was young, it was a very Dark Age, and the dragons and humans were at war. The leader of the dragon army, a great Sea Dragon known as Merciless, had looked into the future and seen that he would be killed by a human by the name of Hiccup. 'He had learnt that a human of this name was living on an island in the Archipelago, and I was sent on a mission to kill all humans on this one particular island. 'Unfortunately, I flew so low over the little island that I became caught in the branches of a tree. I hung there for two days, terribly wounded in my chest, and tangling myself round and round like a fish on a line, growing weaker and weaker.

“五六个世纪以前，”龙说，“当我年轻的时候，那是一个非常黑暗的时代，龙和人类处于战争状态。 龙军的首领是一条名叫“无情”的巨大海龙，他看到了未来，发现自己将被一个名叫Hiccup的人类杀死。 “他知道有一个叫这个名字的人住在群岛的一个岛上，我被派去执行一项任务，杀死这个岛上所有的人。 “不幸的是，我在小岛上空飞得太低了，被一棵树的树枝夹住了。 我在那里挂了两天，胸口受了重伤，像一条拴在鱼线上的鱼一样，一圈又一圈地缠在一起，越来越虚弱。

'I was rescued by a small boy, about nine years old. 'Ironically, he was the very same boy I had been sent there to kill… The boy called Hiccup the First. 'Hiccup the First climbed the tree where I was captured, and untangled me. You have to realize, that was an extraordinary act of bravery, for in those days, dragons and humans were mortal enemies. I had never even SEEN a human up close before. Just killed them from a distance. I could have incinerated the child with one single breath of flame, taken him out with one slash of my dying talons. 'But the boy freed me, and then he nursed me back to health. With his clever human fingers, he sewed up the wound in my chest, put on herbs that healed it. Look, you can see the scar even now!' Hiccup looked. There it was. A scar over his wrinkled brown heart. A faint line, the tiny jagged marks of sewing hundreds of years old. A boy's sewing, uneven and crooked. A scar in the exact same place that Toothless had a scar. And the Dragon Furious had a scar.

“我被一个大约九岁的小男孩救了出来。 “讽刺的是，他正是我被派去杀死的那个男孩……那个叫小嗝嗝一世的男孩。 “第一个嗝嗝爬上了我被俘的那棵树，把我解开了。 你必须意识到，这是一种非凡的勇敢行为，因为在那个时代，龙和人类是死敌。 我以前从来没有近距离地看过一个人。 只是从远处杀了他们。 我本可以一口气把那孩子烧成灰烬，用我垂死的爪子一划就把他救出来。 “但是那个男孩救了我，然后他照顾我，使我恢复健康。 他用他那灵巧的人类手指缝好了我胸口的伤口，涂上了治愈伤口的草药。 瞧，你现在还能看到伤疤呢！”打嗝了。 它就在那儿。他皱巴巴的棕色心上有一道伤疤。 一条模糊的线，几百年前缝纫留下的锯齿状痕迹。 男孩的针线活，凹凸不平，歪歪扭扭。 就在无牙留下疤痕的地方。 龙怒有一道伤疤。