本篇节选自《驯龙高手》原著，由译者：学有所长无偿汉化，仅供参考，请酌情引用译文。未经译者授权禁止转载译文。

作者信息

作者：克蕾西达·考威尔（原著）

译者：学有所长  

译文：

过了两分钟，奇怪的事情发生了。

蛋周围的灰烬变成了浅黄绿色，蛋也开始颤动，有一个蛋振动猛烈得从灰里滚了出来然后又掉到地面上去了。无牙惊叫一声，把它又推回灰烬里，小声说着：“还没好呢！你还没好呢！”

但是他刚把一个蛋退了回去埋进灰里，另一个蛋就朝完全不同的方向滚了出去。无牙很困惑，他尖叫着追了过去，然后又去追另一个蛋。他用翅膀把它们铲回火里，就像对付不听话的小鸡的鸡妈妈一样。但是蛋一直不停地滚出去，不一会儿无牙就累得喘不过气来了。他气呼呼的，浑身都是灰。

终于，他第五次把一个蛋从房间另一边退了回去，然后贴心地把它和它的小伙伴们埋在一起。终于三个蛋都安静地躺在那里了，就像蛋应该的样子。“好——好了。”无牙满意地哼了一声——然后突然三个蛋同时剧烈晃动起来，就好像它们用什么方式偷偷交流了一样。它们猛烈地从火焰之床里晃了出来，然后在大厅里疯狂乱滚绕圈。

无牙困惑地一屁股坐在了火力，把最后一点火焰坐灭了。他的视线追踪着这些蛋，看着它们在大厅里疯狂乱滚，越滚越快。

“什——什么情况？”无牙叫道，“不要动，乖乖听话！”

食物不应该像这样子乱跑。食物应该好好呆着不要动，等着变熟，就像每一个自尊自爱的胡萝卜和香肠那样。食物不该像有自我思想一样在房间里乱跑，还在椅子腿之间钻来钻去，像炫耀自己有多灵活一样。

有一个蛋靠在凳子腿上停了下来。无牙矮下身，慢慢地潜伏到蛋的旁边，就好像捕猎一样。蛋没有动。无牙感到更有勇气了一些，他靠得更近了一点。蛋还是没动。无牙定住身，准备起跳，他的须微微颤抖，浑身每根肌肉都绷紧了。蛋还是像一个蛋一样一动不动。

无牙跳了起来……就在这一刻，蛋晃了晃然后绕了开来，滚到了范围之外，可怜的无牙什么都没有抓到，而且因为惯性，他一直飞向前，然后鼻子撞在了桌腿上。

“嗷呜……”无牙就像被扯了尾巴的猫一样发出了一声痛苦的嚎叫。

然后从蛋那里传来了“嘻~哈~哈~哈~哈……”的声音，蛋轻轻摇动着。无牙发誓它绝对是在偷笑。房间另一头的另外两个蛋里也传来了含糊的讥笑声。

这下可怕的无牙被彻底吓坏了。他夹着尾巴，可怜地哭泣着。

“闹——闹——闹鬼的蛋！”可怜的无牙呻吟道。也许，这是被无牙这么多年里偷窃的午餐的阴魂给附体了。说实话，无牙偷了真不少。

这是唯一的解释了。无牙开始退后，他背上的刺就像豪猪的刺一样颤抖着。这时突然，传来了巨大的一声咔嚓！

……然后在蛋的黄绿色表面上，出现了无数细小的折线。

咔嚓！咔嚓！咔嚓！

一个坚硬的小脑袋从蛋壳里探了出来（因为龙的蛋壳接近有一厘米厚，所以龙的头必然很坚硬）。一只小小的龙，鼻尖上有一个黑点，瞪着大大的黄眼睛，朝着震惊的无牙眨了眨眼。

然后又发生了一件事情，让无牙震惊地思考了一分钟到底是什么情况。

“爸爸！”这只小小的斑点龙叫道，“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!’