80 THE FUTURE

CHAPTER 80 THE FUTURE Our story ends at dawn. The eastern sky was growing brighter, and the last few stars were fading fast. Around the island, animals were heading for the Great Meadow. After months without a Dawn Truce, they had resumed their old tradition. Bears and frogs and owls and beavers and turtles and hares and moose and groundhogs and squirrels and woodpeckers and otters and foxes and mice and badgers and snakes and deer and weasels and vultures and many other creatures were going to meet up with their friends. But on this particular day, they were mostly going to say good-bye. You see, the geese were about to leave on their winter migration. The meadow buzzed with excitement as families of geese crowded together. While the adults discussed the travel plan, the youngsters discussed how to properly fly as a group. By sunrise, the flock was ready, but their leader had one last thing to do. Brightbill gathered Glimmer and the goslings, and they all waddled over to Roz. The family members

第八十章未来我们的故事在黎明结束。 东方的天空越来越亮，最后的几颗星星正在迅速消失。 在岛上，动物们都向大草原进发。 在没有黎明休战的几个月后，他们恢复了他们的旧传统。 熊、青蛙、猫头鹰、海狸、乌龟、野兔、驼鹿、土拨鼠、松鼠、啄木鸟、水獭、狐狸、老鼠、獾、蛇、鹿、黄鼠狼、秃鹫和许多其他的动物都要和它们的朋友见面。 但在这个特殊的日子里，他们主要是要说再见。 你看，这些鹅正准备开始它们的冬季迁徙。 一群群的鹅聚集在一起，草地上充满了兴奋的嗡嗡声。 当大人们在讨论旅行计划时，年轻人在讨论如何正确地作为一个团体飞行。 太阳升起时，鸟群已经准备好了，但它们的领袖还有最后一件事要做。 布莱特比尔召集了微光和小鹅，他们都摇摇摆摆地向罗兹走去。 家庭成员

hugged each other tight and wished each other well. Then the geese waddled back to the flock. It was time to fly. Brightbill took a deep breath and honked loudly, and suddenly all the geese were flapping. A cloud of feathers floated down as the flock rose into the sky. At first, they flew in a disorganized jumble, but each goose slowly drifted into place until the flock was flying in perfect V formation, with Brightbill at the point. On the ground, everyone watched and waved as the flock turned to the south. And then Roz started walking, and then trotting, and then running. Following the flock, she raced across the meadow and into the forest. She ducked under branches and hopped over shrubs, catching glimpses of the flock through the treetops. She burst out from the forest and ran as far as she could go, to the very edge of the island, where a small cliff dropped down to the rocky coast. Our robot stood there as the flock grew smaller and smaller and vanished into the distance. In the weeks to come, the geese would fly above oceans and mountains and farms and cities. There was a big, beautiful, complicated world beyond the horizon. When the time was right, when the island had recovered, the wild robot would venture out again.

他们紧紧地拥抱在一起，互相祝福。 然后大雁摇摇摆摆地回到了群中。 是时候飞了。布莱特比尔深吸了一口气，大声地叫了一声，突然所有的鹅都在拍动。 当鸟群飞向天空时，一团羽毛飘了下来。 起初，它们杂乱无章地乱飞，但每只鹅都慢慢地各就其位，直到一群鹅排成完美的V字形飞行，Brightbill站在最前面。 在地面上，每个人都看着，并挥手，因为羊群转向南方。 然后罗兹开始走路，然后小跑，然后跑。 她跟着羊群跑过草地，跑进了森林。 她躲在树枝下，跳过灌木，透过树梢瞥见羊群。 她冲出森林，尽她所能跑到岛的边缘，在那里有一个小悬崖延伸到岩石海岸。 我们的机器人站在那里，鸟群越来越小，消失在远处。 在接下来的几个星期里，大雁将飞越海洋、高山、农场和城市。 在地平线的那一边，有一个巨大、美丽、复杂的世界。 当时机成熟，当岛屿恢复原状时，这个狂野的机器人会再次冒险出去。

A NOTE ABOUT THE STORY Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd ever make another Wild Robot book. The second book has a very satisfying ending, and for a while I thought it might be best to leave things there and focus on creating other stories. But my imagination kept coming back to Roz. She's such an intriguing character, and through her I can explore so many fascinating subjects, that I couldn't stop myself from writing more about her. There are a number of important themes running through the Wild Robot books, and one of the most important is the idea of home. In the first book, Roz makes a home for herself on the wild island. In the second book, Roz escapes from her new life and finds a way back to her island home. When I started working on this third book, I knew only that it would involve Roz protecting her home. But protect it from what? Humans? Other robots? Something else entirely? After considering many possibilities, I set out to write a thrilling adventure in which the wild robot goes to extraordinary lengths to protect her home from a mysterious form of pollution, known to the animals as

说实话，我不确定我是否还会再写一本《野生机器人》。 第二本书有一个非常令人满意的结局，有一段时间我想最好还是把事情放在这里，专注于创造其他故事。 但我的想象力不断回到罗兹身上。 她是一个如此迷人的角色，通过她，我可以探索许多迷人的主题，我无法阻止自己写更多关于她的东西。 《野生机器人》系列书贯穿了许多重要的主题，其中最重要的主题之一就是家的概念。 在第一本书中，罗兹在荒岛上为自己建立了一个家。 在第二本书中，罗兹逃离了她的新生活，找到了回到岛上的家的路。 当我开始写第三本书的时候，我只知道罗兹会保护她的家。 但是保护它不受什么伤害呢？人类? 其他的机器人吗?完全不同的东西？ 在考虑了许多可能性之后，我开始写一个惊险刺激的冒险故事，在这个故事中，野生机器人竭尽全力保护她的家不受一种神秘的污染的影响，动物们称之为

the poison tide. From the beginning, I had big plans for this story. I wanted to show the interconnectedness of life in the water and on land and in the air. I wanted to introduce a new cast of animal characters and show how they struggled in different ways with their changing environments. I wanted to show Roz methodically solving what seems like an unsolvable problem. Above all, I wanted to make readers care deeply about everything that was happening, and to do that the story had to be believable. There could be no easy solutions and no clear villains. Real life is complicated, and this story needed to reflect that truth. The toughest challenge was finding balance. There would have to be lessons woven into this story, and yet I didn't want it to feel moralistic. It would deal with heavy subjects, so I had to make sure there were also moments of lightness. It would include a variety of unfamiliar technology and settings and situations, but everything had to make sense to readers of all ages. I have to admit, this book was surprisingly difficult to make. But after several years of researching, thinking, planning, writing, sketching, illustrating, and a whole lot of revising, the story finally took shape. I sincerely hope you enjoyed The Wild Robot Protects.

毒潮。从一开始，我对这个故事就有很大的计划。 我想展示水中、陆地和空中生命的相互联系。 我想引入一组新的动物角色，展示它们如何以不同的方式与不断变化的环境作斗争。 我想向罗兹展示如何有条不紊地解决一个看似无法解决的问题。 最重要的是，我想让读者深切关注正在发生的一切，为了做到这一点，故事必须可信。 不可能有简单的解决方案，也没有明确的罪魁祸首。 现实生活是复杂的，这个故事需要反映这一事实。 最艰难的挑战是找到平衡。 这个故事必须包含一些教训，但我不想让它显得过于说教。 它会处理沉重的主题，所以我必须确保也有轻松的时刻。 它将包含各种不熟悉的技术、背景和情境，但所有内容都必须对所有年龄段的读者都有意义。 我得承认，这本书写起来出奇地困难。 但经过几年的研究、思考、计划、写作、素描、插图以及大量的修改，这个故事终于成型了。 我真诚地希望你喜欢《野生机器人保护》。