5 Something Nasty in the Cauldron

5. SOMETHING NASTY IN THE CAULDRON 'AAAAAAARGGGGHHHHHH!' screamed the Hooligans, the Murderous and the Grims, the Bog- Burglars, the Silents, the Bashem-Oiks, and the other Tribes of the Archipelago, stampeding around the banqueting hall like panicking water buffalos as the white hand stretched towards them. 'Ghosts and ghouls…' breathed Stoick the Vast through white lips, '…born out of the cooking pot…' Snaggletooth jumped right into Gobber's arms, and appeared to be trying to climb on top of his head. Baggybum the Beerbelly attempted to climb under a bench, and jammed there, tight as a cork in a bottle. In fascinated horror, Hiccup fixed his eyes on a second outstretched hand, white as coral, and covered with an unidentified grey-green slime of some sort, as it shakily re-e-e-eached out of the cauldron and grasped the edge of the rim. And slowly, slowly, up out of the cooking pot, there rose a human head as paper white and grinning

5. 坩埚里有恶心的东西……流氓、杀人狂和格林族、沼泽窃贼、沉默族、巴什姆奥克斯族和群岛上其他部落的人尖叫着，当那只白色的手向他们伸出来时，他们像惊慌失措的水牛一样，在宴会厅周围狂奔。 “鬼魂和食尸鬼……”巨人斯托伊克从苍白的嘴唇里喘着气说，“……从锅里出来的……” “啤酒肚Baggybum”试图爬到长凳下面，却卡在那里，像瓶子里的软木塞一样紧。 小嗝嗝惊恐地盯着另一只伸出来的手，那只手像珊瑚一样白，上面覆盖着一层不明的灰绿色黏液，它摇摇晃晃地从坩埚里伸出来，抓住了坩埚的边缘。 慢慢地，慢慢地，从锅里伸出一个像纸一样白的人的头，咧着嘴笑着

as a skull. And as the figure rose higher and higher, they saw it was the figure of an old woman, with long white hair, and half-blind eyes covered with a thick grey layer of scum, and a nose as sharp as the point of a knife. 'A ghost! A ghost! A ghost!' screamed the Vikings. For the old woman was skinny as a skeleton, and her grey breast-plate and long white robes and malevolent expression were exactly the sort of things you might expect a ghost to be wearing. Hiccup was peering through his fingers now, and he let out a gasp as he suddenly realized that this wasn't a ghost at all. In fact, it was something considerably worse than a ghost. It made an undead warrior ghost from Valhalla look like a fluffy little kitten on a play-date. Still so painfully white, so drained of colour that Hiccup could hardly bear to look at her. The bones so

作为一个头骨。当那人影越升越高时，他们看见那是一个老妇人的身影，长长的白发，半瞎的眼睛上蒙着一层厚厚的灰色污垢，鼻子像刀尖一样锋利。 “一个幽灵!一个鬼!一个鬼!维京人尖叫着。 因为那老妇人瘦得像个骷髅，她那灰色的胸甲、白色的长袍和恶毒的表情，正是你可能会认为鬼魂穿的那种衣服。 小嗝嗝现在正透过他的手指往外看，突然意识到这根本不是鬼，他倒吸了一口气。 事实上，它比鬼还要可怕得多。 它让英灵殿的不死战士幽灵看起来就像一只毛茸茸的小猫在玩耍。 还是那么惨白，那么苍白，小嗝嗝简直不敢看她一眼。 骨头

close under the skin that it was like staring straight at a skull, tapping fingernails tipped with iron. 'Dear oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear!' exclaimed Hiccup in horror and surprise. 'It's Alvin the Treacherous's mother!' Well might Hiccup be horrified and surprised. For Alvin the Treacherous's mother was a thoroughly unpleasant and powerful witch, and Hiccup had thought that she was dead. If she was alive, that meant that her son Alvin was too, and this was VERY BAD NEWS INDEED, for Alvin the Treacherous was Hiccup's arch-enemy… 'Do you know this ghost, Hiccup?' asked Stoick the Vast in amazement. 'It's not a ghost at all,' said Hiccup. 'It's Alvin the Treacherous's mother, and she's a very dangerous witch.' 'It's not a ghost, guys! It's only a witch!' yelled out Mogadon the Meathead in relief. The dripping witch slithered her way out of the cauldron. In front of their astonished eyes she scuttled across the hall on all fours like a dog or a wolf, her iron fingernails clicking on the stone floor. Oh, it sent

紧挨着皮肤，就像直直地盯着一个头骨，敲打着铁头指甲。 “天哪，天哪，天哪，天哪，天哪！”小嗝嗝惊叫道。 “是背信弃义的阿尔文的母亲！”小嗝嗝很可能会感到恐惧和惊讶。 因为背信弃义的阿尔文的母亲是一个非常令人讨厌和强大的女巫，小嗝嗝以为她已经死了。 如果她还活着，那就意味着她的儿子阿尔文也还活着，而这确实是个非常坏的消息，因为奸猾的阿尔文是嗝嗝的死敌……巨人斯托伊克惊奇地问道。 “根本就不是鬼，”小嗝嗝说。 “是奸诈者阿尔文的母亲，她是一个非常危险的女巫。“这不是鬼，伙计们！”那只是个女巫！笨蛋摩加迪安如释重负地喊道。 湿淋淋的女巫从坩埚里爬了出来。 在他们惊讶的目光面前，她像只狗或狼一样四肢着地，飞快地穿过大厅，铁指甲在石头地板上咔嗒作响。 哦，它发送了

a shiver down the spine, to see the way she moved, like a beetle or an evil thing, not like a human at all. She sat on the chair at the head of the table. She tipped her head to one side, waiting for questions. She got them. 'Madam!' bellowed Stoick the Vast, with a strong sense of injury. 'You owe us an explanation! What on earth are you doing popping out of cauldrons and frightening us at this late hour?' The witch's voice sent chills down the spine, something between a hiss and a whisper, with just that edge of evil to it that makes you sit up straight and check that your soul is still intact, and that she hasn't sucked it out of you while you weren't watching. 'My name is Excellinor, and I am the castle's witch. I do not like,' said the witch, her voice as dry as ice, 'either to pop into or to pop out of cauldrons. However, the castle was invaded by dragons of the most dreadful and dangerous kind. Flashburn and his Warriors were defeated and there were no survivors, apart from myself, for I had the foresight to creep inside this cooking pot, and hide myself just in time…' Hiccup looked around the room. No flame marks, no over-turned chairs, no blood, no sign of

看到她像甲虫或邪恶的东西一样移动的样子，一种脊背上的颤抖，一点也不像人类。 她坐在桌子前面的椅子上。 她把头歪向一边，等着别人提问。 她得到了。“夫人!巨人斯托伊克怒吼道，带着一种强烈的受伤感。 “你欠我们一个解释！”这么晚了，你从坩埚里跳出来吓唬我们，究竟在干什么？”女巫的声音让人脊背发冷，有点像嘶嘶声和耳语，带着那种邪恶的味道，让你坐直身子，检查自己的灵魂是否完好无损，是否在你不注意的时候被她吸走了。 “我叫Excellinor，我是城堡里的女巫。 “我不喜欢，”女巫说，她的声音干得像冰一样，“跳进或跳出大锅。 然而，城堡被最可怕、最危险的龙入侵了。 Flashburn和他的勇士们都被打败了，除了我自己，没有一个人幸存下来，因为我很有先见之明，爬进了这个锅里，及时地藏了起来……” 没有火焰痕迹，没有翻倒的椅子，没有血迹，没有

a struggle of any sort. She lied. But why would the Vikings not believe her? They had just had the most terrible and bloody battle against Rogue dragons themselves. What was more natural than that Flashburn and his Warriors had been carried off by those very same dragons? Uproar in the banqueting hall. Cries of: 'Carried off, by my trousers!' and 'We must avenge!' 'But why?' asked a bewildered Grim-bod. 'Why is this happening? What is going on?' The witch's half-blind eyes gleamed. 'Someone has set free the Dragon Furious from the prison of Berserk, and he is bringing a Dragon Rebellion that will kill us all…' hissed the witch. Gasps of horror from the Viking Tribes. Oh dear, oh dear, OH DEAR… So that WAS the Dragon Furious who attacked us on the cliff, thought Hiccup. 'What you have seen in those dragons is the coming of the Red-Rage,' said the witch. 'And what,' asked Stoick the Vast, not really wanting to know the answer to this question, 'what exactly is the Red-Rage?'

任何形式的斗争。她撒了谎。 但为什么维京人不相信她呢？ 他们刚刚与Rogue龙进行了一场最可怕、最血腥的战斗。 还有什么比Flashburn和他的勇士们被这些龙带走更自然的呢？ 宴会厅里一片嘈杂。 叫着：“被我的裤子拖走了！”和“我们必须报仇！”“可是为什么？”一个愁眉苦脸的人问道。 “为什么会发生这种情况？”发生了什么事？”女巫半瞎的眼睛闪着光。 “有人把暴怒龙从狂暴的监狱里放了出来，他带来了龙族叛乱，会把我们都杀掉……”女巫嘶嘶地说。 维京人部落发出惊恐的喘息声。 哦天哪，哦天哪，哦天哪……这么说，在悬崖上袭击我们的就是暴龙了，小嗝嗝心想。 “你在那些龙身上看到的是红色暴怒的到来，”女巫说。 “那么，”浩瀚的斯托伊克问道，他并不想知道这个问题的答案，“到底是什么？”