Chapter 2-7

CHAPTER SEVEN In which Courier discovers an unknown island "Y-you're OK?" Florizella stammered. She could hardly believe her eyes. "Courier? You're all right?" Courier grinned at her. "Fell into the sea, swam around for a bit, landed on this island," he said. "Pretty good, eh? For a first solo adventure." "That's m'boy!" said the king proudly. "Hmm, yes," said Florizella. "But before we get on to how clever Prince Courier is, what are we

第七章 信使在这一章发现了一座未知的小岛“你、你没事吧？” 弗洛里泽拉结结巴巴地问。 她简直不敢相信自己的眼睛。 “信使？ 你真的没事？” 信使对着她咧嘴一笑。 “我掉进海里，游了好一阵子，最后在这座岛上上岸啦。”他说。 “挺不错的吧？ 这可是我第一次独自冒险哦。” “好小子！”国王骄傲地说。 “嗯，是啊。”弗洛里泽拉说。 “不过在我们夸信使王子有多聪明之前，我们得先想想，该怎么

going to do about the pirates?" The king and the queen had a brief chat. "We're going to let them go, if they promise not to come near the Land of the Seven Kingdoms again," the king said finally. "They have said they are sorry." "Extremely sorry," said Five-Fathom Frieda with an eye on the Sea Serpent coils that squeezed just a little, like a gentle hint, and made her ship's timbers crack and creak. "Ready to sail away the moment we're released, my hearties." ""Your Majesties" is the more usual way of addressing us," the queen said quietly as the Good Manner Eagles nodded and looked down their beaks. "So rude!" one whispered to the other. "Ready to sail away the moment we're released, Your Majesties," Five-Fathom Frieda corrected herself. "And the Sea Serpent?" Bennett asked. "The Sea Serpent has been very helpful." "Indispensable," the Sea Serpent claimed. It smiled at the queen, who gave it a long, hard

处置那些海盗呀？” 国王和王后简短地商量了一下。 “只要他们保证再也不靠近七国领地，我们就放他们走。”国王最后说道。 “他们已经知道错了。” “非常抱歉。”五寻深弗里达一边说，一边瞟了瞟海蛇的身体——那些线圈似的身子又稍微收紧了一点，像个温和的提醒，挤得她船的木料吱呀作响。 “等我们一被放了，马上就开船走，我的心肝宝贝们。” “称呼我们的时候，说‘国王陛下、王后陛下’更合规矩哦。”王后平静地开口，这时懂礼的老鹰们纷纷点着头，用尖喙往下瞥了瞥。 “太没礼貌啦！” 一只老鹰悄悄对另一只说。 “等我们一被放了，马上就开船走，国王陛下、王后陛下。”五寻深弗里达连忙改口。 “那海蛇怎么办呀？” 贝内特问道。 “海蛇这次可帮了大忙了。” “我可是必不可少的。”海蛇自夸道。 它对着王后笑了笑，王后则回了它一个意味深长的严肃

look, as if neither of them had forgotten the three days when they waited for the king to rescue her. "The Sea Serpent is going to guard the coast forever," the queen said. "And we're going to give it a medal." "And a picnic every summer," the Sea Serpent reminded them all. "And now Prince Courier can name his island and claim it for the kingdom," the king said. "Courierland sounds good. Undootedly!" Bennett whispered in Florizella's ear. "Florizella– don't you think there is something a bit funny about Courierland?" "Like it's moving slightly?" Florizella said. "Sort of bobbing." "It must have moved. It must have moved a long way. We fell off the Unscalable Cliffs and Courier must have climbed ashore near there. But now here we are at the Queasy Quays, right round the cliffs on the other side. It's moved a lot. It's practically sailed." "There aren't any trees on that island," Florizella observed. "Not even grass."

眼神，仿佛他俩都没忘记当初她们等国王来营救的那三天时光。 “海蛇以后会永远守卫咱们的海岸。”王后说。 “我们还要给它颁发一枚奖章。” “还有每年夏天的野餐哦。”海蛇赶忙提醒大家。 “现在信使王子可以给你的小岛起名字，把它划入咱们王国的领土啦。”国王说。 “信使国听起来就不错。 绝对棒！” 贝内特凑在弗洛里泽拉耳边小声说。 “弗洛里泽拉——你不觉得这个信使国有点不对劲吗？” “比如它好像在轻轻动？” 弗洛里泽拉说。 “一浮一沉的，像在水里漂。” “它肯定移动过。 还移动了好长一段距离呢。 我们当初从爬不上的悬崖掉下去，信使应该是在那附近爬上岸的。 可现在我们在晕船码头，就在悬崖的另一边呀。 它挪了好远， 简直像自己开船过来的。” “那座岛上一棵树都没有。”弗洛里泽拉留意到。 “连草都不长一根。”

"No sand. Just black rock." "I name this island…" Prince Courier lifted the royal standard to stick it into the ground of his new island.

“也没有沙子。 只有黑石头。” “我给这座岛起名叫……”信使王子举起王室的旗帜，就要把它插进新岛的地面里。

"No!" yelled Bennett, suddenly realising what the island must be. "Stop!" shouted Florizella. But they were too late. As Courier plunged the royal standard into what he thought was earth beneath his feet, an enormous whale, which had been sleeping very sweetly and dreaming interesting dreams, suddenly felt a piercing blow in its head. In shock it let out a plume of water from its blowhole, and dived deep. Whooosh! A great wave swept Courier off the whale's back, down to the depths of the ocean and then washed him back up again on to the quayside where Bennett and Florizella quickly grabbed him so that he couldn't be swept back into the sea again. All the pirate ships bounced up and down in the swirling seas. The whale went down to the very depths of the ocean, and then came up again to blow a huge indignant plume of water into the sky. "What Was That?" it bellowed in an enormously deep loud voice.

“不要！”贝内特大喊，他突然反应过来这座岛到底是什么了。 “住手！”弗洛里泽拉也喊出声。 可他们已经来不及了。 就在信使把王室旗帜插进脚下他以为是泥土的地方时，一头正睡得香、做着美梦的大鲸鱼突然感觉脑袋被狠狠扎了一下。 它吓了一大跳，从喷水孔喷出一道水柱，接着猛地往深海钻去。 哗啦——！ 一道大浪把信使从鲸鱼背上卷下来，沉到了海里，接着又把他冲回了码头边，贝内特和弗洛里泽拉赶紧抓住他，免得他再被冲回海里。 所有海盗船在翻涌的海水里上下颠簸。 鲸鱼潜到了大海最深处，接着又浮上来，气呼呼地往天上喷了好大一柱水。 “刚才那是什么东西？” 它用低沉洪亮的声音吼道。

"An accident," Florizella said quickly. "Very unfortunate. My little brother mistook you for an island." "HOW?" the whale bellowed. "IS HE AN IDIOT?" "Well…" Florizella started. "You're so very big," Bennett said. The whale looked furious, so Bennett carried right on. "And so very handsome. Not a barnacle on you. He thought you were an island of beautiful black marble." The whale let out a little satisfied spout. "Go on," he said. "He didn't!" "He did," Florizella joined in. "I thought you were a jet mountain when I first saw you. I've never seen anything like you before. Huge, black and shining, quite beautiful." "Silly," the whale said, smiling now. "Well, I hope the little minnow isn't hurt?" "No, I'm fine," Courier said, ignoring being called a little minnow, in order not to upset the whale again. "I hope I didn't hurt you with the flag?"

“是个意外。”弗洛里泽拉连忙说。 “特别不巧的误会。 我的小弟弟把你当成一座岛了。” “怎么可能？”鲸鱼吼道。 “他是傻子吗？” “呃……”弗洛里泽拉刚要开口。 “你太大啦。”贝内特说。 鲸鱼看起来气坏了，贝内特赶紧接着说。 “还特别好看。 身上一个藤壶都没有。 他还以为你是一座漂亮的黑大理石做的岛呢。” 鲸鱼满意地喷了个小水柱。 “接着说呀。”它说。 “他真的这么想！” “是真的。”弗洛里泽拉也跟着说道。 “我刚看见你的时候，还以为你是一座黑玉做的山呢。 我以前从来没见过像你这样的东西。 又大又黑，还亮闪闪的，特别漂亮。” “傻话。”鲸鱼说，现在已经笑出来了。 “对了，那个小不点没受伤吧？” “我没事。”信使说，故意装作没听见“小不点”这个称呼，免得又惹鲸鱼不高兴。 “希望刚才的旗子没有戳疼你吧？”