第九章：邪恶地带

于是，小嗝嗝、史图依克和埃加德向东出发，在超短的时间内，就只剩下他们了，琥珀猎人团的其他成员变成遥远地平线上的一个小斑点。
哦，天哪...
这已经很恐怖了。
没有一只鸟儿在沙滩上鸣叫。一只也没有。为什么会这样？
一定是因为它们感觉到下面有危险。
在沙滩上划着艇是一种可怕的感觉，因为不管什么时候，小嗝嗝都觉得有什么东西可能会出乎意料地伸出来，抓住他的脚踝，就像埃加德的故事里一样。
埃加德也不禁紧张起来，因为每当出现完全人畜无害的吮吸声时，那可能是退潮或扇贝的“扑通”声，她就会对着声音传来的地方咆哮，“ROAR！”她的声音如此响亮，如此突然，差点会把你从沙艇上吼下来。
(可能扇贝也受到了惊吓。)
熊皮外套的兜帽压得太低了，盖住了她的脸，她看不清自己在往哪去。
小嗝嗝独自划艇，他突然注意到埃加德已经朝另一个方向驶去了，所以他必须去让她回到航线上。
最后史图依克放慢了速度，开始寻找琥珀。
小嗝嗝探出身子，从沙子里兜到一个闪闪发光的东西，然后拿起网，看看是什么东西。不，根本不是琥珀的，只是一大块老螃蟹的壳。他把那壳向后扔去。

他叹了口气，警惕地望着周围那些冒泡的沙子，看有没有什么可怕的东西从里面冒出来，然后继续向前驶。半个小时过去了，他只找到了三块琥珀，都很小，没有一颗是龙之宝石 。
他突然被他应该要做的事情的无望压垮了。“我怎么可能，在这片广袤的沙滩里找到一颗小小的宝石？”小嗝嗝小声说。
“你必须用心去寻找，”Wodensfang说，他非常明智，对小嗝嗝也很支持，但老实说，他也有点含糊，这些话并不是特别有帮助。
小嗝嗝叹了口气，继续寻找。
这真是一种很奇怪的情况，和一个不知道你是他儿子的父亲在无边无际的红沙滩上。
“说出去，小嗝嗝。”Wodensfang从小嗝嗝的马甲里给他鼓劲说。“跟你父亲谈谈。告诉他你是谁，你为什么在这里。把你的任务告诉他……”
“没这么容易的，”小嗝嗝小声回应道。
他试图把吐痰鬼对鼻涕粗说‘我为做你的父亲感到羞耻’的记忆从脑海中抹去。
“史图依克不会这么说的，是不是？”
“也许他会的，”小嗝嗝想，他感到有点不舒服。

“首先我要试着了解一下他在想什么，”小嗝嗝决定。“我要去确保他不会对我太生气…”
埃加德在不远处，对着扇贝咆哮，用一根几乎有她两倍长的杆子捡起琥珀。史图依克正在查看几英尺外的一些琥珀。小嗝嗝走到他身后，尽量装作漫不经心地说，“那么，史图依克首领，你真的是小嗝嗝·霍兰德斯·哈道克三世的父亲吗，那个巫婆在西部荒野中寻找的男孩？”
史图依克把一块琥珀扔到肩后。他继续前进，察看了一下周围的沙滩，看有没有什么吓人的东西从沙滩上冒出来，小嗝嗝跟着他。
“你们这些年轻人为什么要问这些问题？”史图依克嘟囔着，他把网舀起琥珀，仔细看了看，又把它甩在肩后。
“好吧！”小嗝嗝哽咽着说，他的声音从粗声粗气变成了尖声尖叫，他最近经常这样失控。“我改变主意了！你不需要回答我的问题！”
但史图依克似乎有话要说。
“我年轻的时候从来没有问过问题，”史图依克低沉地说。“我只是按照别人说的去做，遵循传统，坚守野蛮人准则。我走在我父亲、我父亲的父亲、我父亲的父亲的父亲的道路上。”

他沉默了五分钟，表情冰冷地寻找琥珀。
“我试着用同样的准则来教育我的儿子，”史图依克说。“尽管他是那么与众不同，而且他总是问那么多问题。”史图依克叹了口气，摇了摇头。“但做父母的并不总是那么容易。当然了，也要尽力去做...”
‘我知道他的意思，’小嗝嗝想，他想到训练无牙是多么艰难。
“所以当我儿子问我这个问题：‘父亲，如果你是国王，你会释放那些龙吗？’我告诉了他正确的答案。唯一的答案。一个国王应该给出的答案。释放那些龙？胡说八道！它们闯进了我们的生活，我们成长的世界！”
史图依克怀疑地摇了摇头。
“但是我儿子小嗝嗝做了什么？”他拒绝了我的答案，在斗剑中打败了他的父亲！越过他父亲的等级，自己去要求释放那些龙！”
史图依克狂怒地挥舞着双臂，他走得很快，小嗝嗝发现自己很难跟上他。
“看看发生什么！我们周围的群岛被火焰包围！我的荣誉，我的名声都没了，我的舰船变成了灰烬，我首领的身份也没了。所有村庄都被烧毁，恶龙Furious肆虐猖獗，旧秩序被打破，世界陷入了战争。”

“所有的所有，”史图依克坚定地说，他停了下来，深深地注视着小嗝嗝的眼睛。“都是因为我儿子小嗝嗝和他的那些问题。”
（沉默。）
还顺利吗？都是我的错...都是我的错...“你能怪我生自己儿子的气吗？”
小嗝嗝什么也没说。他只是痛苦地向前走着。
“进展顺利吗？”Wodensfang满怀希望地小声说，因为在风声和马甲的夹缝里，他听不太清他们说了什么。
不，不太顺利。
父亲把一切都怪在他身上……父亲永远不会原谅他……他为小嗝嗝是他的儿子而感到羞耻……
都是我的错“然而……”史图依克望着远处说。
然而。
这个停顿非常、非常长。
“如果你现在问我这个问题，如果我是国王，我会不会释放那些龙，我可能会用完全不同的答案回答你。”史图依克最后说，“我自己做奴隶的经历奇怪地改变了我的想法。”
史图依克开始慢慢地往前走。‘现在我问自己，我儿子小嗝嗝真的这么有勇气提出这个问题吗？他问这个问题对吗？甚至，这是一个值得为之牺牲整个世界的问题？’

“所以，McJelly，我对你问题的答案是，没错，我是小嗝嗝·霍兰德斯·哈道克三世的父亲。我还抱有一丝希望，希望他在外面某个地方安然无恙。我很自豪能够成为他的父亲，”史图依克说。“尽管我并不总是同意他的问题，而且我也不知道为了这些问题而失去我所爱的这个世界是否值得。”
这是史图依克对小嗝嗝说过最长的话了，他甚至不知道自己在跟儿子说话。
六个月来，小嗝嗝的心第一次因为有了一丝微弱的希望而振奋起来。
‘我父亲是说他可能会原谅我吗？他是说他认为我做的是对的吗？’
不知怎么的，在这动情的时刻，这个小嗝嗝碰巧戴着眼罩，散发着恶臭，鼻子尖上还有一颗大假疣，多么典型的事情啊。
小嗝嗝正想说点什么……正要把眼罩拿掉，还有那颗疣……正要说明他是谁……这时发生了两件事打断了他。
PPPAAAARRPPPPPPP !很远的地方传来了号角声。
“ROAR！”埃加德惊讶地咆哮道。
地平线之外是黑心监狱，一个爆炸的东西飞到空中，告诉他们在涨潮之前该回去了。

与此同时，小嗝嗝停下来的沙艇下面的沙粒粉碎了，沙艇在沙土里印出一个凹痕。
小嗝嗝向下看了看，看到了那是什么，他吓了一跳，说道：“父——我是说，史图依克！我想我们应该回到黑心监狱了，不是吗？”
他急忙跳上沙艇，调头，开始以最快的速度向监狱方向驶去。
‘感谢雷神，无牙和埃加德没有看到那东西……’
史图依克把手遮在眼睛上，向外望去，只能看到地平线上闪着微光的潮汐。“我们要快点了，”史图依克说。
他们载有一大堆的琥珀，没有龙之宝石。
但他们必须在涨潮前回到监狱。
他们以最快的速度航行，遇到了其他归来的琥珀猎人。他们现在都迅速地撑杆，在潮湿、滑动的沙滩上以惊人的速度前进，生怕自己会被即将到来的潮水卷走。
他们停下来只是为了接地上的鼻涕粗，尽管他很不值得。
我们把鼻涕粗独自留在了东方沙滩上，你还记得吗？让他自己思考？
那个，在被嫌弃的两个小时里，他想了很多，他的思考使他确信没有人会回来救他。
他一直在泥泞的沙滩上往回跑，尽管他知道这样做是没有希望的，即使他尽可能快地跑，他也永远无法阻挡来袭的潮水。只有沙艇才能让他赶回去。

在途中，他还遭到了三只无脑切腿龙和两只小火箭怒龙的攻击，他必须单独击退它们。所以，总而言之，当他终于看到沙艇回来接他时，他如释重负地哭了。
小嗝嗝从来没有见过鼻涕粗哭过：他不相信这事会有可能发生。
吐痰鬼和高伯停在那个哭泣着、精疲力竭的男孩两边。
“今天的教训是，”高伯说，“你没有做什么值得我们回来救你的事，鼻涕粗。根本就没有。但我们还是要救你，因为也许——只是也许——你将来可能会做些什么。”
鼻涕粗什么也没说。
两名战士在两艘沙艇之间平衡了鼻涕粗，这样他们还能行进得比较快，然后划回监狱。
他们确实是冒着生命危险去救鼻涕粗，因为鼻涕粗把他们的沙艇压得很重，而其余的奴隶已经回到了监狱，焦急地望着即将到来的潮水，在意识到琥珀猎人还没有回来时，他们很是担心。
这时，他们在地平线上看到了琥珀猎人们，他们在逆着潮水飞奔。当他们一个接一个地到达监狱时，奴隶们欢呼起来。他们冲的太快了，很难停下来。
高伯，吐痰鬼和鼻涕粗是最后一个回来的，回来得太迟潮水淹没了沙艇。波浪带着翻倒的沙艇滚滚而来，把他们冲到了城垛上，猛烈地向他们扑着浪花……

现在，视线所及的地方原来是红色的沙子，现在变成了水。
鼻涕粗已经吸取教训了吗？
我们得等等才知道……
鼻涕粗没有像他威胁的那样跟阿尔文和巫婆说兵变和叛国的事，也许这是明智的做法，因为那一对不开心的家伙没有心情听他抱怨。
巫婆和阿尔文手里拿着鞭子在海湾里踱来踱去，察看着每艘从搜寻行动回来的沙艇，失望地叫着，每艘沙艇上都没有龙之宝石。
“在哪里在哪里在哪里？”巫婆嘶嘶地说，贪婪而愤怒跳上每一艘沙艇，当她发现里面并没有宝石时，把里面的东西全都翻到沙滩上。
“我不明白，阿尔文。我在梦中看到过它…骰子告诉我…我将在接下来的几天内手里拿着宝石。”
“明天你们还要到邪恶地带里去！”巫婆尖声叫道。“如果你们没把宝石给我找到，就别费心思回来了！”
小嗝嗝跟着奴隶们来到地牢卧室，他悲伤地想起了他那残破的原计划。他原本要做什么呢？偷偷溜进去，救出鱼脚司和父亲，找到宝石，再偷偷溜出去。
‘这远比我想象的要困难得多。’
他被困在琥珀蓄奴地，他有一种可怕的悲伤感，他感觉永远不会找到宝石，或着可怜的鱼脚司。

但他所能做的就是不停地找，尽管他比以往任何时候都要害怕，现在他知道了琥珀沙滩上潜伏着什么可怕的危险……
因为小嗝嗝没有告诉埃加德和史图依克一个重要的小细节。他甚至没有告诉Wodensfang。
在沙滩上，当号角声响起，埃加德咆哮，他的沙艇倾覆了的时候。他低头一看，发现沙子上的那个凹痕其实是...一条巨龙的脚印。
然后，当他抬起头，他觉得自己只是从眼角瞥了一眼什么东西。一种似乎不可能存在的东西。
一只巨龙的巨手伸出沙滩，每只爪子的末端都长着一只邪恶的龙眼……
注视着…等待着…
小嗝嗝从未见过像这只龙手一样的东西。这简直太可怕了，就像是噩梦里的东西。
小嗝嗝没有告诉埃加德，因为他觉得这会影响士气。
9. THE EVIL REACHES So Hiccup and Stoick and Eggingarde set off to the east, and within a surprisingly short time they were on their own, the other members of the Amber- Hunters Team merely specks on the distant horizon. Oooh dear… Already this was really spooky. No birds called over those sands. Not one. Why was that? It must be because they sensed the danger that was below. It was a horrible feeling, racing over those sands, because any minute Hiccup felt that something might reach out of them unexpectedly, and grab him by the ankle, like in Eggingarde’s story. Eggingarde didn’t help his nerves either, because every time there was a perfectly harmless sucking noise, which was probably the draining of the tide or the ‘glopping’ of a scallop, she would roar at it, ‘ROAR!’, with a loudness and a suddenness that made you practically fall off your sand-yacht. (It probably rather alarmed the scallop too.) The hood of her bearsuit was so low down over her face that she couldn’t see where she was going.

Hiccup would be sledging along and he’d suddenly realise Eggingarde had sailed off in the other direction so he’d have to go and collect her and put her back on course. Eventually Stoick slowed down and started looking for amber. Hiccup leaned out and scooped up something glinting in the sand, and then brought the net up to examine what it was. No, not amber at all, just a big old bit of crab shell. He threw it over his shoulder. He sighed, looked warily around him at those bubbling sands to check there was nothing horrible rising out of them and moved forward. Half an hour passed, and he had found only three pieces of amber, all quite small, and none of them the Dragon Jewel. He was suddenly bowed down by the hopeless ambition of what he was supposed to be doing. ‘How am I, in this whole vast wilderness of sand, supposed to find one single Jewel?’ whispered Hiccup. ‘Your heart must be in your Quest,’ said the Wodensfang, which was all very wise and supportive, but was actually also, to be honest, a little vague and not particularly helpful. Hiccup sighed and carried on hunting. It was quite an odd situation, to be out there on

the endless wilderness of the red sands with a father who doesn’t realise you are his son. ‘Go on, Hiccup,’ whispered the Wodensfang encouragingly from inside Hiccup’s waistcoat. ‘Talk to your father. Tell him who you are, and why you are here. Tell him about your Quest…’ ‘It isn’t so easy,’ Hiccup whispered back. He tried to push out of his mind the memory of Baggybum saying to Snotlout, ‘I am ashamed to be your father.’ Stoick wouldn’t say that would he?

Perhaps he would, thought Hiccup. He felt slightly sick. First I’ll just try and get a sense of what he’s thinking, Hiccup decided. I’ll just check that he’s not too angry with me… Eggingarde was off at a little distance, roaring at scallops and picking up the amber with a pole nearly twice as long as she was. But Stoick was examining some amber a couple of feet away. Hiccup walked up behindhim and said, as casually as he could, as if he were just interested in an off-hand sort of way, ‘So, Chief Stoick, are you really the father of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the boy the witch is searching the Wilderwest for? ’ Stoick threw a piece of amber over his shoulder. He sailed on, checked the sands all around him to see that there was nothing alarming rising out of them, and Hiccup followed him. ‘Why do you young people ask all these questions?’ grumbled Stoick the Vast, putting out his net and scooping up amber, examining it, and throwing it over his shoulder again. ‘OK!’ gulped Hiccup, his voice sliding up from a gruff to a squeak, because it had been behaving in that uncontrolled manner quite a lot recently. ‘I’ve changed

my mind! You don’t need to answer my question!’ But Stoick seemed to need to get something off his chest. ‘When I was young I never asked questions,’ boomed Stoick. ‘I just did what I was told, I followed the traditions, I stuck to the Barbaric Code. I walked in the path of my own father, and my father’s father, and my father’s father’s father.’ For five minutes he worked in silence, seeking the amber, grimly. ‘I tried to bring up my son by the same Code,’ said Stoick. ‘Even though he was so different, and he always asked so many questions.’ Stoick sighed and shook his head. ‘But it is not always easy

being a parent. You do your best, of course…’ I know what he means, thought Hiccup, thinking of how hard it was training Toothless. ‘So when my son asked the question, “Father, if you were King, would you free the dragons?” I told him the right answer. The only answer. The answer a King should give. Free the dragons? Nonsense! It strikes at our very livelihood, the world that we grew up in!’ Stoick shook his head, incredulously. ‘But what does my son Hiccup do? He rejects my answer, beats his father in a swordfight! And goes over his father’s head and asks for freedom for the dragons on his own!’

Stoick was waving his arms around furiously, walking so fast, that Hiccup found it hard to keep up. ‘And see what happens! The Archipelago is in flames around us! My honour, my reputation is gone, the ships I sailed in turned to ashes, my Chiefdom lost. All our villages burnt, the Dragon Furious rampant, the old order broken, the world at war. ‘And all, all,’ said Stoick firmly, coming to a stop, and looking deeply into Hiccup’s eyes. ‘All…

because of my son Hiccup and his questions.’ Silence.
‘Can you blame me for being angry with my son?’ Hiccup did not say anything. He just walked forward miserably. ‘Is it going well?’ whispered the Wodensfang hopefully, because he couldn’t quite hear through the wind and the waistcoat. No. It wasn’t going well. His father blamed him for everything… His father would never forgive him… He was ashamed that Hiccup was his son…
‘And yet…’ said Stoick, looking into the distance. And yet. The pause that followed was very, very long. ‘If you were to ask me now, the question, if I were King, would I free the dragons, I might answer you quite differently,’ said Stoick at last. ‘The experience of being a slave myself has strangely changed my mind.’ Stoick began to walk on, slowly. ‘And now I ask myself…

Was my son Hiccup actually brave to ask this question? Was he right to ask this question? Was it, even, a question worth losing a world for? ‘So the answer to your question, McJelly, is yes, I am the father of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. I am hoping against hope that somewhere out there he is safe and well. And I am proud to be his father,’ said Stoick the Vast. ‘Even though I do not always agree with his questions, and I do not yet know whether they were worth the loss of the world I loved.’ It was the longest speech Stoick had ever made to Hiccup, and he did not even know that he was speaking to his son. For the first time in six months, Hiccup’s heart was lifting with a tiny glimmer of hope.

Is my father saying he might be able to forgive me? Is he even saying that he thought maybe I did the right thing? How typical somehow, that Hiccup happened to be wearing an eye patch, an aromatic smell, and a large fake wart on the end of his nose for this most emotional moment. Hiccup was about to say something… about to take off the eye patch, and the wart…
about to say who he was… when two things happened that
interrupted him from doing it. PPPAAAARRPPPPPPP! came the very distant sound of a bugle. ‘ROAR!’ roared Eggingarde in surprise. Up beyond the horizon where the Prison Darkheart was, one of those exploding Things rocketed into the air to tell them it was time to return before the tide came in. At the same time, the sand crumbled below Hiccup’s stationary sand-yacht, and the yacht tipped into an indentation in the sand. Hiccup looked down, saw what it was, gave a start of horror, and said, ‘Fa— I mean, Stoick the Vast! I think we should be making our way back to Darkheart, don’t you?’ And he hurriedly picked up his yacht, and turned it around, and started sledging as fast as he could in the direction of the prison. Thank Thor Toothless and Eggingarde hadn’t seen that…

Stoick shielded his eyes, and looked out to where you could just see the shining glimmer of the tide on the horizon. ‘We need to move fast now,’ said Stoick. They had plenty of amber, but no Dragon Jewel. But they had to return to the prison, before
the tide came in. Sailing as fast as they could, they met up with the other returning Amber-Hunters. All of them poled swiftly now, reaching astonishing speeds on those wet, sliding sands, afraid that they might yet be caught by that incoming tide. They stopped only to pick up Snotface Snotlout, little though he deserved it. We left Snotface Snotlout all alone on the Eastern Sands, do you remember? Thinking? Well, he thought a great deal over the next two hours, and what he thought made him convinced that nobody was going to come back to save him. He had been running back through that sludgy sand, though he knew that it was hopeless, and even running as fast as he could, he would never be able to out-run the incoming tide. Only a yacht could do that. He was also attacked on the way by three Brainless Leg-Removers, and two smallish Rocket- Rages, which he had to fight off all on his own. So, all in all, when he finally saw the yachts returning to collect him he wept with relief. Hiccup had never seen Snotlout cry: he wouldn’t have believed it possible. Baggybum and Gobber stopped on either side of

the weeping, exhausted boy. ‘The lesson today,’ said Gobber, ‘was that you have done nothing to deserve us coming back to save you, Snotlout. Nothing at all. But we are going to save you nonetheless, because perhaps – just perhaps – you might do something in the future.’ Snotlout said nothing.
The two Warriors balanced Snotlout in between their two yachts, so that they could still go reasonably fast, and paddled back to the prison. They did risk their lives for Snotlout, for he weighed down their yacht, and the rest of the slaves were already back at the prison, looking anxiously out at the incoming tide, worrying when they realised the Amber-Hunters were not back yet. And then they spotted the Amber-Hunters on the horizon, racing against the tide, and cheered them, as one by one they reached the prison, moving so fast that they had difficulty stopping. Gobber, Baggybum and Snotlout were the last in, so late that the tide caught under the yacht. The wave rolled in with the upended sled and carried them right up to the castle battlements, splashing against them with a wild swoosh…

And now, where there had been red sand as far as the eye could see, there was water instead. Has Snotlout learnt his lesson yet? We shall have to wait and see…
Snotlout did not speak to Alvin and the witch about the mutiny and treason as he had threatened to, and perhaps that was wise, because that unpleasant pair were not in the kind of mood to listen to complaints. The witch and Alvin strolled up and down the bay with whips in their hands, examining each yacht returning from the Seeking, and shrieking with disappointment as each one did not contain the Dragon Jewel. ‘Whereisitwhereisitwhereisit?’ hissed the witch, bounding up to each and every yacht with greedy fury, and tumbling the contents out upon the sand when she found that they did not contain the Jewel. ‘I do not understand it, Alvin. I saw it in my dream…

The dice told me… I would be holding the Jewel in my hands within the next few days. ‘YOU WILL GO TO THE EVIL REACHES AGAIN TOMORROW!’ shrieked the witch. ‘AND IF YOU DO NOT BRING ME THE JEWEL, DO NOT BOTHER COMING BACK!’ As Hiccup followed the slaves to the dungeon bedroom, he thought sadly of the ruins of his original plan. What was he going to do? Sneak in, rescue Fishlegs and his father, find the Jewel,
and sneak out again. This is going to be so much more difficult than I thought it was going to be. He was trapped in the Amber Slavelands, and he had this terrible sinking feeling that he was never going to find the Jewel, or poor Fishlegs. But all he could do was keep on looking, even though he was more scared than he had ever been before, now he knew what terrible dangers were lurking out here on the Amber Sands…

Because Hiccup did not tell Eggingarde and Stoick the Vast one small important detail. He didn’t even tell the Wodensfang. Back there, when the bugle rang out, and Eggingarde roared, his sand-yacht had tipped over. And he looked down and realised that the indentation in the sand was in fact… the footprint of a gigantic dragon. And then when he looked up, he thought he just caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. Something so unlikely, that it seemed that it could not possibly exist. The gigantic hand of a dragon sticking out of the sand, and on the end of each taloned finger, an evil dragon eye…

Watching… Waiting… Hiccup had never seen anything quite like this dragon hand. It was absolutely horrible, like something out of a nightmare. Hiccup did not tell Eggingarde because he thought it might be bad for morale.