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：

故事并不总都是遵照事实的……

除了这个。

关于在恐惧龙(Dreader)之日发生了什么，有很多的故事。吟游诗人们在火堆旁边讲述着关于那一天的各种传奇。但是我必须警告你，亲爱的读者或者听众，故事并不总是遵照事实的。吟游诗人很容易讲得太过激动。故事里面很容易加上各种传说，被各种夸张，就是这样，一步步地，一点点地……事实就迷失在了这些过程里。

因此，我要第一次告诉你们真实的故事，关于在那可怕的一天到底发生了什么的事实……

这是真的，我保证。

在一个可怕的冬天里，一只万分恐怖的海龙从大海深处游了上来，就像是索尔的坏脾气一样。他游到了小伯克岛（little Isle of Berk，字面意思是小傻瓜岛）周围的水域里，然后就留在那里黑暗的海泥之中。你看不到他；唯一能看到的只有长长的黑影，水中一片巨大的黑洞，大小甚至有岛那么大。

这只海龙的名字是‘恐惧龙’。

恐惧龙不是普通的海龙。

海洋里每一只龙都害怕恐惧龙。

鲨虫龙（Sharkworms），暗息龙(Darkbreather)和厄牙龙（Doomfangs）看到它都作鸟兽散。甚至大得多的龙，比如强大的海龙巨无霸(Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus)，这种就像水下大山一样的龙，远远看到天边的恐惧龙，都会发出恐惧的惊叫，然后一摆它强力的尾巴，消失在海洋深处。

因为据说恐惧龙拥有一种真正恐怖的力量。

传说中它能吸干猎物身体里每一滴体液，让猎物变得像一张干薄的纸一样。还有说法是它单纯是清除猎物的神志，或者大脑，或者心脏，让猎物陷入疯狂，或者变成一摊死肉。

霍里根人（Hooligans，字面意思为小流氓）因为害怕盘踞在他们的港湾的恐惧龙，而不敢派出任何船或者打猎龙去离岛捕鱼。他们在等待恐惧龙离开。

他们等啊，等啊，等啊。

他们一边等，一边吃干净他们能在伯克岛上找到的所有东西。

他们吃完了吸附在岩石上的大黑贻贝，然后吃完了他们在沙滩上能找到的全部扇贝，牡蛎，还有大大的多汁的蛤蜊。

但是恐惧龙还是没有走。

最终，住在小伯克岛上的霍里根人和他们的龙不可避免地开始感到饥饿……

原文：

Stories do not always tell the truth...

Except for this one.

Many stories have been told about what happened on THE DAY OF THE DREADER. Many sagas have been sung by the bards at the fireside. But I have to warn you, dear reader or listener, stories do not always tell the truth. The bard gets carried away. Legends get added to and exaggerated, and so gradually, gradually... the truth gets lost along the way.

Here, for the very first time, I shall tell you the real story, the truth about what really happened on that dreadful day...

It is the truth, I promise.

One terrible winter, a truly dreadful Seadragon rose up from the depths of the ocean like a bad mood from Thor and swam to the waters surrounding the little Isle of Berk and took root in the dark mud there. You could not see him; all that was visible was a long dark shadow, a deep depression in the water that was so big it was almost as long as the island itself.

The name of that Seadragon was a ‘Dreader’.

The Dreader was no ordinary Seadragon.

Every single dragon in the ocean was frightened of a Dreader.

Sharkworms and Darkbreathers and Doomfangs all scattered like flies at the sight of it. Even a much larger dragon like the mighty Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus, a dragon the size of an underwater mountain, would give a snort of terror when it spotted a Dreader on the horizon, and with one flap of its mighty tail, it would disappear into the depths of the ocean.

For it was said that a Dreader had a power that was truly dreadful indeed.

Legend had it that it sucked out every drop of moisture from its victim’s body, leaving it as thin and desiccated as a ’piece of paper. Or it merely removed its senses, or its brain or its heart, leaving it mad as a box of frogs, or a lifeless lump of flesh.

The Hooligans were so frightened of the Dreader lurking by their shore, that no boats or hunting-dragons could leave the island to hunt fish. They were waiting for the Dreader to go away.

They waited, and waited, and waited.

And as they waited, they ate everything they could find on the little Isle of Berk.

They ate all the fat black mussels that clung to the rocks. They ate all the scallops and oysters and big juicy clams they could find on the beaches.

But the Dreader would not go away.

And slowly but surely, the Hooligans and the dragons on the little Isle of Berk began to starve...