25 Epilogue by Cressida Cowell

EPILOGUE by Cressida Cowell, translator of the Hiccup memoirs When I was a little girl, living on an island in a deep blue sea, I asked myself a question. 'What if dragons really existed?' So imagine my excitement when I was the first one to translate the first of Hiccup's memoirs, and I realized, trembling, that the frail nearly-not-there writing on the document was answering that simple glorious question for the very first time. A question that humans had asked themselves across the vastness of continents, across the inky span of centuries, here finally found, in one tiny box, discovered one accidental day by a boy on a beach. Here, at last, was the answer! Dragons DID exist. And this was the proof. Now I am on to the ninth of his memoirs, and I know there is not long to go. But what I am realizing, slowly, gradually, is that the memoirs are asking a question to which I do not really want to know the answer.

当我还是个小女孩的时候，住在深蓝色大海中的一个小岛上，我问了自己一个问题。 “如果龙真的存在呢？”所以想象一下，当我第一个翻译Hiccup的回忆录时，我是多么兴奋，我颤抖着意识到，文件上那些脆弱的、几乎不存在的文字，第一次回答了这个简单而光荣的问题。 一个人类在浩瀚的大陆上问过自己的问题，在漆黑的几个世纪里，终于在这里找到了，在一个小盒子里，一个男孩在海滩上偶然发现的一天。 终于，答案来了！龙确实存在。 这就是证明。现在我正在读他的回忆录的第九部，我知道这本书很快就会读完。 但我慢慢地、逐渐地意识到，这些回忆录提出了一个我并不想知道答案的问题。

If dragons really existed, what happened to the dragons? Where are they now? I dread to know the answer to this question. I do not want to know. Because I have an awful feeling that Hiccup, whom I have grown to love, has something to do with their disappearance. I do not want to know, and if I had known that this was the question in the first place, perhaps I would not have started. But I cannot stop now… I have to know the answer.

如果龙真的存在，它们会发生什么？ 他们现在在哪里？我害怕知道这个问题的答案。 我不想知道。因为我有一种可怕的感觉，小嗝嗝，我越来越喜欢的人，和他们的失踪有关。 我不想知道，如果我一开始就知道这是一个问题，也许我就不会开始了。 但我现在不能停下来，我必须知道答案。

THE REBELLION HAS BEGUN

叛乱已经开始

Things are not looking good. I told you, right at the beginning of this book, that things were getting darker, and now things are darker still. Snotlout is the new Chief of the Hooligan Tribe. Stoick has been banished and given the Slavemark. And Alvin the Treacherous has EIGHT of the King's Lost Things, and has been proclaimed the new King of the Wilderwest…

事情看起来不太好。 我告诉过你，在这本书的开头，事情变得越来越黑暗，现在事情更加黑暗。 鼻涕精是流氓部落的新酋长。 斯托伊克被放逐了，并得到了奴隶标记。 背信弃义的阿尔文拥有国王丢失的八件东西，并被宣布为西部荒野的新国王……

What can Hiccup do, alone as he is, and hunted now by both humans and dragons alike? Can he find the Dragon Jewel, mankind's last and only hope? And if he does, what will he do with it? Watch out for the next volume of Hiccup's memoirs…

小嗝嗝孤身一人，又被人类和恶龙追捕，他能做些什么呢？ 他能找到龙之宝石吗，人类最后也是唯一的希望？ 如果他知道了，他会怎么做？ 关注下一卷Hiccup的回忆录吧。