本篇節(jié)選自《馴龍高手》原著，由譯者：學(xué)有所長(zhǎng)無(wú)償漢化，僅供參考，請(qǐng)酌情引用譯文。未經(jīng)譯者授權(quán)禁止轉(zhuǎn)載譯文。

作者信息

作者：克蕾西達(dá)·考威爾（原著）

譯者：學(xué)有所長(zhǎng)??

譯文：

過(guò)了兩分鐘，奇怪的事情發(fā)生了。

蛋周?chē)幕覡a變成了淺黃綠色，蛋也開(kāi)始顫動(dòng)，有一個(gè)蛋振動(dòng)猛烈得從灰里滾了出來(lái)然后又掉到地面上去了。無(wú)牙驚叫一聲，把它又推回灰燼里，小聲說(shuō)著：“還沒(méi)好呢！你還沒(méi)好呢！”

但是他剛把一個(gè)蛋退了回去埋進(jìn)灰里，另一個(gè)蛋就朝完全不同的方向滾了出去。無(wú)牙很困惑，他尖叫著追了過(guò)去，然后又去追另一個(gè)蛋。他用翅膀把它們鏟回火里，就像對(duì)付不聽(tīng)話的小雞的雞媽媽一樣。但是蛋一直不停地滾出去，不一會(huì)兒無(wú)牙就累得喘不過(guò)氣來(lái)了。他氣呼呼的，渾身都是灰。

終于，他第五次把一個(gè)蛋從房間另一邊退了回去，然后貼心地把它和它的小伙伴們埋在一起。終于三個(gè)蛋都安靜地躺在那里了，就像蛋應(yīng)該的樣子?！昂谩昧?。”無(wú)牙滿意地哼了一聲——然后突然三個(gè)蛋同時(shí)劇烈晃動(dòng)起來(lái)，就好像它們用什么方式偷偷交流了一樣。它們猛烈地從火焰之床里晃了出來(lái)，然后在大廳里瘋狂亂滾繞圈。

無(wú)牙困惑地一屁股坐在了火力，把最后一點(diǎn)火焰坐滅了。他的視線追蹤著這些蛋，看著它們?cè)诖髲d里瘋狂亂滾，越滾越快。

“什——什么情況？”無(wú)牙叫道，“不要?jiǎng)?，乖乖?tīng)話！”

食物不應(yīng)該像這樣子亂跑。食物應(yīng)該好好呆著不要?jiǎng)?，等著變熟，就像每一個(gè)自尊自愛(ài)的胡蘿卜和香腸那樣。食物不該像有自我思想一樣在房間里亂跑，還在椅子腿之間鉆來(lái)鉆去，像炫耀自己有多靈活一樣。

有一個(gè)蛋靠在凳子腿上停了下來(lái)。無(wú)牙矮下身，慢慢地潛伏到蛋的旁邊，就好像捕獵一樣。蛋沒(méi)有動(dòng)。無(wú)牙感到更有勇氣了一些，他靠得更近了一點(diǎn)。蛋還是沒(méi)動(dòng)。無(wú)牙定住身，準(zhǔn)備起跳，他的須微微顫抖，渾身每根肌肉都繃緊了。蛋還是像一個(gè)蛋一樣一動(dòng)不動(dòng)。

無(wú)牙跳了起來(lái)……就在這一刻，蛋晃了晃然后繞了開(kāi)來(lái)，滾到了范圍之外，可憐的無(wú)牙什么都沒(méi)有抓到，而且因?yàn)閼T性，他一直飛向前，然后鼻子撞在了桌腿上。

“嗷嗚……”無(wú)牙就像被扯了尾巴的貓一樣發(fā)出了一聲痛苦的嚎叫。

然后從蛋那里傳來(lái)了“嘻~哈~哈~哈~哈……”的聲音，蛋輕輕搖動(dòng)著。無(wú)牙發(fā)誓它絕對(duì)是在偷笑。房間另一頭的另外兩個(gè)蛋里也傳來(lái)了含糊的譏笑聲。

這下可怕的無(wú)牙被徹底嚇壞了。他夾著尾巴，可憐地哭泣著。

“鬧——鬧——鬧鬼的蛋！”可憐的無(wú)牙呻吟道。也許，這是被無(wú)牙這么多年里偷竊的午餐的陰魂給附體了。說(shuō)實(shí)話，無(wú)牙偷了真不少。

這是唯一的解釋了。無(wú)牙開(kāi)始退后，他背上的刺就像豪豬的刺一樣顫抖著。這時(shí)突然，傳來(lái)了巨大的一聲咔嚓！

……然后在蛋的黃綠色表面上，出現(xiàn)了無(wú)數(shù)細(xì)小的折線。

咔嚓！咔嚓！咔嚓！

一個(gè)堅(jiān)硬的小腦袋從蛋殼里探了出來(lái)（因?yàn)辇埖牡皻そ咏幸焕迕缀?，所以龍的頭必然很堅(jiān)硬）。一只小小的龍，鼻尖上有一個(gè)黑點(diǎn)，瞪著大大的黃眼睛，朝著震驚的無(wú)牙眨了眨眼。

然后又發(fā)生了一件事情，讓無(wú)牙震驚地思考了一分鐘到底是什么情況。

“爸爸！”這只小小的斑點(diǎn)龍叫道，“爸爸！爸爸！爸爸！”

原文：?

After about two minutes, something strange happened.

The ash around the eggs turned lime-green, and the eggs themselves began to shake, and one of them shook so hard that it wobbled itself right out of the ash and rolled on to the floor again. Squeaking with alarm, Toothless shepherded it back into the ash again, muttering, ‘n-n-not ready yet! You’re not ready’

But no sooner had he got one egg safely back and buried in the ash, then another rolled off in a completely different direction. Squealing and baffled. Toothless swooped after one, and then the other, scooping them back into the fire with his wings, like an anxious mother hen with her disobedient chicks. But they kept on rolling out again, and before long Toothless was out of breath, and indignant and covered with ash.

Finally, he manoeuvred one of the eggs all the way back from the other side of the room for the fifth time, and buried it lovingly next to its fellows, and there was a brief moment when all three lay still, as they should be. ‘Th-th-there,’ said Toothless with a grunt of satisfaction - and all three gave a violent tremble at the same time, as if they were in secret communication with one another, and rocked fiercely out of the fire-bed, bowling around the room in wild wandering circles.

Toothless sat down heavily in the fire, in his bewilderment, putting out the last remains of the flames with his bottom. He followed the lunatic progress of the eggs with his eyes as they looped crazily around the dust of the Great Hall, gathering speed as they went. ‘W-W-what’s going on?’ squeaked Toothless. Stay h-h-here and do as you’re told!’

Food shouldn’t run away like this. It should stay still, and let itself be cooked, like any self-respecting sausage or carrot. It shouldn’t be running around the room as if it had a mind of its own, weaving its way through the chair legs and generally showing off.

One of the eggs had come to rest against a table leg. Crouching down low, Toothless stalked the egg slowly, as if it were prey. The egg did not move. Feeling braver, Toothless edged a little closer. The egg remained motionless. Toothless froze, ready to pounce, whiskers quivering faintly, every muscle tense. The egg was egg-ily still.

Toothless sprang... and just at the last minute the egg wobbled wildly to life, swerving out of the way and skittering out of reach, so that poor Toothless’s paws closed on nothing, and the momentum carried him forward, and he bashed his nose on the table leg.

‘R^rreeeowww...’ Toothless let out a strangled meowing nose like a cat that has 4-9 had its tail pulled.

And ‘Tee-hee-hee-hee-hee...’ came the sound, from the egg, gently vibrating on the spot. Toothless could have sworn it was tittering. Muffled giggling noises came from the two other eggs, on the other sides of the room.

Now poor Toothless was thoroughly terrified. He stuck his tail between his legs and whimpered pathetically.

‘H-H-H-HAUNTED eggs!’ moaned poor Toothless. Probably inhabited by the ghosts of vengeful suppers that Toothless had burgled over the years, and let’s face it, there were loads of those.

It was the only explanation. Just as he was backing away, the spines on his back quivering like porcupine needles, there was a loud CRACK!

... and crooked little lines appeared all over the lime-green surface of the egg.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

A hard little head punched its way through the egg-shell (it had to be hard for the shells of dragon eggs are nearly a centimetre thick). A tiny little dragon, with huge yellow eyes and a black smudge on the end of its nose, blinked back at an astonished Toothless.

And after a gob-smacked minute while Toothless digested this latest surprising development;

‘Papa!’ squeaked the little smudgy dragon. ‘Papa! Papa! Papa!’