第六章：此刻，在海洋深处

与此同时，在海洋深处，在离伯克岛不远的地方，就像老爷子说的那样，有一条真正的海龙躺在海床上睡觉，体型大得难以形容。 它在那里呆了很长时间，让它几乎成了海底的一部分，就像一座巨大的海底山，上面覆盖着贝壳和藤壶，他的一些肢体埋在沙子里。
一代又一代的小寄居蟹，在这条龙的耳朵里诞生和死去。 几百年来，它一直在沉睡，因为它吃了一顿丰盛的大餐。 他很幸运地遇到了一个在悬崖峭壁上露营的罗马军团——那里完全与世隔绝，它花了一个愉快的下午狼吞虎咽地吃掉了从指挥官到二等兵的所有人。 马匹，战车，盾牌，长矛，所有东西都被吞进了这只贪婪的爬行动物的食道里。 而且，虽然像金色战车和轮子这样的东西，是种额外的食物纤维，但那些营养确实需要一些时间来消化。
那条龙爬进了海洋深处，陷入睡眠昏迷。 龙可以永远处于这种状态，半死半活，被冰冷的海水淹没。 六七个世纪以来，这条龙一动不动。
但就在一周前，一只追逐着海豹的虎鲸意外地发现，那条龙的右眼上眼睑有轻微的跳动。 祖先的记忆在那只鲸鱼的脑海中激荡，它以身体能承受的速度飞快地游离了那里。 一个星期后，那条龙周围的海域（以前这里到处都是螃蟹、龙虾、浅滩和鱼群）变成了一个巨大的水下沙漠。 此时没有一只软体动物在移动，也没有扇贝在那栖息。

千里之内唯一的生命迹象，就是龙的眼睑在急速地上下跳动，好像那条龙突然进入了浅度睡眠，在做什么可怕的梦。
Chapter6 MEANWHILE, DEEP IN THE OCEAN...
Meanwhile, deep in the ocean, but not so very far from the Isle of Berk, a real Sea Dragon such as Old Wrinkly had been describing lay sleeping on the sea-bed. He was indescribably large. He had been there so long that he almost seemed to be part of the ocean floor itself, a great underwater mountain, covered in shells and barnacles, some of his limbs half-buried in the sand.

Generation after generation of little hermit crabs had been born and had died in this Dragon's ears. Hundreds and hundreds of years he'd slept, because he'd had rather a large meal. He'd had the luck to catch a Roman Legion camping on a clifftop -- they were completely cut off and he had spent an enjoyable afternoon wolfing down the whole lot of them, from commanding officer to lowliest private. Horses, chariots, shields, and spears, the entire lot went down the ravenous, reptilian gullet. And, while things such as golden chariot wheels are an additional source of fiber to a Dragon's diet, they do take some time to digest.

The Dragon had crawled down into the depths of the ocean and gone into a Sleep Coma. Dragons can stay in this suspended state for eternity, half-dead, half-alive, buried under fathom after fathom of icy-cold seawater. Not a muscle of this particular Dragon had moved for six or seven centuries.
But the previous week, a Killer Whale who had chased some seals unexpectedly deep was surprised to notice a slight movement in the upper eyelid of the dragon's right eye. An ancestral memory stirred in the whale's brain and he swam away from there as fast as his fins could carry him. And, a week later, the sea around the Dragon Mountain -- which had previously been teeming with crabs and lobsters and shoals and shoals of fish -- was a great, underwater desert. Not a mollusk stirred, not a scallop shimmied.

The only sign of life for miles and miles was the rapid jerking of both the Dragon's eyelids, fluttering up and down as if the Dragon had suddenly gone into a lighter sleep and was dreaming who knows what dark dreams.