Chapter 2-2

CHAPTER TWO Florizella finds safety but has rather a horrid feeling about it The entrance to the cave was a little patch of grass and one rock leaning against another to make a doorway. Florizella dropped to her hands and knees and squeezed through. The roof of the cave was higher inside and Florizella was able to stand up and feel her way along the wall towards the back. She sat down in the darkness and

第二章 弗洛里泽拉找到了安全的地方，却有种相当不妙的感觉 洞穴的入口处是一小块草地，一块石头斜靠在另一块石头上，搭出了一道门。 弗洛里泽拉手脚着地，挤了进去。 洞穴里面的顶更高，弗洛里泽拉可以站起身，摸着岩壁往洞穴深处走。 她在黑暗里坐下，

thought that she was lucky to be safe and out of the rain. Then she stopped feeling lucky, and felt instead… a Horrid Feeling. It is the feeling you get when you think you are in a room on your own, and you suddenly know that someone else is there. That sort of Horrid Feeling. It is the feeling you get when you play games like What's the Time, Mister Wolf? or Cat and Mouse, or Grandmother's Footsteps, when you turn your back, and the other people creep quietly, quietly up on you. You don't need to turn round to see your friends coming closer and closer in those games. You can feel them sneaking up. It was that kind of feeling for Florizella. She knew that she was not alone in the cave. She knew that there was something else in the cave too. She knew it was sneaking up on her. As she stayed very still and listened, she could hear it breathing. She was scared then, all right.

心想自己真幸运，既安全又淋不到雨。 可很快她就不觉得幸运了，反而有种……很不妙的感觉。 这种感觉就像你以为房间里只有自己，却突然意识到还有别人在。 就是那种不妙的感觉。 就像你玩“老狼老狼几点了”“猫捉老鼠”或者“奶奶的脚步”这类游戏的时候，你背过身，其他人悄悄、悄悄朝你靠近时的感觉。 玩这些游戏的时候，你不用回头，也能感觉到朋友们离你越来越近。 你能感觉到他们正偷偷摸过来。 弗洛里泽拉现在就是这种感觉。 她知道洞穴里不止她一个。 她知道洞里还有别的东西。 她知道那东西正偷偷朝她靠近。 她一动不动地待着，仔细听，能听见那东西的呼吸声。 这下她可真的害怕极了。

Prince with two s's or not, brave or not, Florizella was very scared then. She could clearly hear soft little breaths. And, what was worse, they were coming from between her and the entrance. Whatever was sharing the cave with her and gently panting, had her trapped. And she did not have a clue what it might be. Florizella froze as still as a statue and listened as hard as she could. Nothing happened for long, scary moments. The princess put her back to the cave wall and looked around in the darkness, straining her eyes to see. Then she felt something extremely soft touch her foot. She very nearly screamed and jumped, but she did not. You might hope this was because she was a brave princess who feared nothing! You might hope that she remembered the Princess Rule, which says that a princess never raises her voice except in the case of fire. But that is not true either. She did not scream and jump, she did not run away, because she was frightened rigid. She let out a tiny little mouse-squeak and stayed as

不管名字里有没有两个s，也不管勇敢不勇敢，弗洛里泽拉当时都吓得不行。 她能清清楚楚听见轻轻的小呼吸声。 更糟的是，那声音就在她和洞口之间的位置。 不管是什么东西和她一起待在洞里，还在轻轻喘气，它都把她的路堵死了。 她完全猜不出那会是什么。 弗洛里泽拉像雕像一样僵在原地，拼尽全力仔细听。 吓人的安静持续了好一会儿，什么都没发生。 公主背贴着洞穴的墙，在黑暗里四处张望，使劲睁大眼睛想看清楚。 接着她感觉到有个软乎乎的东西碰了碰她的脚。 她差一点就尖叫着跳起来，但她忍住了。 你可能会以为这是因为她是个天不怕地不怕的勇敢公主！ 你可能会以为她记着公主守则，里面说公主除非遇到火灾，不然绝不能大声嚷嚷。 但这两种想法都不对。 她没尖叫也没跳起来，更没逃跑，是因为她吓得浑身都僵住了。 她发出了一声像老鼠叫似的细小声音，然后就待在原地，

still as a stone princess. Then she heard a funny little growl and ascuffle, and something warm and heavy tumbled over her other foot. So there were two of IT. And they were small. And they were light, Florizella thought, as light as… puppies. They were puppy-shaped, they made little puppyish noises, they smelled that delicious smell of warm, dry fur and clean paws, and they were playing in the dark with each other. Florizella laughed out loud and put her hand down to her feet to feel for them. As her eyes got used to the darkness she could just see them. One, two, three, four darling little puppies with smooth grey coats and fat little bellies and big black eyes, tumbling over each other and biting each other's tails and paws. Florizella sat down among them and picked them up and put them on her lap. They were adorable. They tumbled on to the floor and they bit the belt on her trousers. They gnawed at the heels of her riding boots, made fierce little attacks on her twiddling fingers, and

一动也不动，像尊石头公主。 接着她听见一声小小的、奇怪的呜咽，还有一阵窸窸窣窣的响动，有个暖乎乎、沉甸甸的东西滚到了她另一只脚上。 原来“那东西”有两只。 它们个头小小的。 而且很轻，弗洛里泽拉心想，轻得就像……小狗狗。 它们的形状像小狗，发出奶乎乎的小狗叫声，身上闻着是暖烘烘的干绒毛和干净小爪子的好闻味道，正在黑暗里互相玩闹呢。 弗洛里泽拉笑出了声，伸手往脚边摸它们。 等眼睛慢慢适应了黑暗，她终于能看清它们了。 一、二、三、四，四只可爱的小奶狗，有着顺滑的灰色皮毛、圆滚滚的小肚子和大大的黑眼睛，正滚作一团，咬着彼此的尾巴和爪子。 弗洛里泽拉坐到它们中间，把它们抱起来放到自己腿上。 它们太招人喜欢了。 它们滚到地上，咬她裤子上的腰带。 它们啃她骑马靴的鞋跟，还凶巴巴地轻轻咬她晃来晃去的手指，还

climbed all over her. Florizella thought that they must belong to a couple of dogs lost by their owners in the forest, or perhaps a dog that had run away from home to have puppies on her own. But she didn't think much about the mother dog at all. And that was a mistake. A very big mistake. Florizella sat on the floor of the cave and played with the puppies as if she were a young silly puppy herself. She didn't think about the mother dog or the father dog once. Until… The entrance to the cave suddenly grew dark as the light was blocked by a great animal coming in. A great animal coming back into its own cave, to feed its young. A huge animal, so big that it had to squeeze in through the cave mouth. It smelled Florizella the moment it was inside, and it looked for her with its fierce orange eyes, and then it growled. And Florizella, silly Florizella, looked up from playing with the puppies and saw the light blocked by the great animal and saw… not a lost

往她身上到处爬。 弗洛里泽拉觉得它们肯定是森林里主人弄丢的狗生的，或者是哪只狗从家里跑出来，自己跑到这儿生的小狗。 可她压根没多想狗妈妈的事。 这可是个大错误。 非常大的错误。 弗洛里泽拉坐在洞穴的地上，和小狗们玩得不亦乐乎，就像她自己也是只傻乎乎的小奶狗似的。 她完全没想过狗妈妈或者狗爸爸的事。 直到……洞口突然暗了下来，光线被一只正往里走的庞大动物挡住了。 那只大动物正回到自己的洞穴里，来喂它的孩子。 它特别大，得挤着才能进洞口。 它刚进来就闻到了弗洛里泽拉的气味，用凶猛的橙色眼睛搜寻她的位置，然后发出了低吼。 而弗洛里泽拉，傻乎乎的弗洛里泽拉，正和小狗们玩得起劲，抬头看见光线被那只大动物挡住，才看见……那不是走丢的

pet dog… but a wolf. Worse than that (twice as bad, to be very precise) she saw two wolves. The mother and the father wolf came into the cave and glared at Florizella sitting on the floor of their cave with their puppies on her knees. Florizella stayed very still. She had no weapon and, anyway, she couldn't fight two wolves at once. No one was going to rescue her as no one knew where she was. If she were going to get out of this adventure alive, she would have to do it all on her own, with skill, and a lot of luck. "Nice wolves," said Florizella nervously into the darkness. "Here are your puppies. See? I was just petting them." Carefully she put them on the floor and they stumbled on their fat feet over to their parents. The mother wolf dropped to the ground with a dead rabbit in her mouth and tore off little bits of meat and skin for the puppies. The father wolf sat on his haunches to guard them and looked at Florizella with his marmalade-coloured eyes. He didn't take his gaze off her once. He didn't even blink.

不是宠物狗……而是一匹狼。 更糟的是（说得准确点，是糟上一倍），她看见了两匹狼。 狼妈妈和狼爸爸走进洞穴，怒视着坐在洞底的弗洛里泽拉，而他们的幼崽正趴在她的膝盖上。 弗洛里泽拉一动也不敢动。 她没有武器，而且无论如何，她也没法同时对付两匹狼。 没人会来救她，因为没人知道她在哪。 要是她想活着逃过这场险境，就只能全靠自己，靠机灵，再加上天大的好运。 “好狼狼，”弗洛里泽拉对着黑暗，紧张地开口， “你们的小狼崽在这呢。 你们看？ 我刚才正在摸他们呢。” 她小心翼翼地把小狼崽放到地上，他们迈着圆滚滚的小短腿，跌跌撞撞地朝爸爸妈妈走去。 狼妈妈俯下身，嘴里叼着一只死兔子，撕下一小块一小块的肉和皮喂给小狼崽。 狼爸爸蹲坐在地上守着他们，用他那橘子酱色的眼睛盯着弗洛里泽拉。 他的目光一刻都没从她身上移开过。 他甚至连眼睛都不眨一下。