經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第20章7

‘It’s just that you never mentioned a King,’ shouted Arthur back, in some consternation.

“只不過你從來沒提過什麼王不是嗎？”阿瑟有些迷糊了。

‘What?’ shouted Old Thrashbarg. The thrumming of a thouSand hooves was very hard to hear over, and the old man was concentrating on what he was doing.

“什麼？”老刷希巴喊。耳邊有幾千只蹄子敲打地面的聲響，實在很難再聽到其他人講話，況且老頭還要集中精神幹手裏的活兒。

Still holding the bird aloft, he led the Beast slowly round till it was once more parallel with the motion of its great herd. He moved forward. The Beast followed. He moved forward again. The Beast followed again. At last, the Beast was lumbering forward with a little momentum.

他仍然舉着噼卡鳥，引着絕對正常獸慢慢轉回去，再次跟獸羣行進的方向平齊。他往前走，它跟上，他在往前走，它再跟上。最後，它笨重的動作裏開始有了些衝勁。

‘I said you never mentioned a King!’ shouted Arthur again.

“我說你從來沒提過什麼王！”阿瑟又喊。

‘I didn’t say a King,’ shouted Old Thrashbarg, ‘ I said the King.’

“我沒說什麼王。”老刷希巴喊道，“我說的就是王！”

He drew back his arm and then hurled it forward with all his strength, casting the pikka bird up into the air above the herd. This seemed to catch the pikka bird completely by surprise as it had obviously not been paying any attention at all to what was going on. It took it a moment or two to work out what was happening, then it unfurled its little wings, spread them out, and flew.

他收回胳膊，接着用盡全力往前一甩，把噼卡鳥扔到了獸羣跟前，這招似乎完全出乎噼卡鳥的意料，因爲它顯然根本沒有留意最近都發生了些什麼。它花了一兩秒鐘才弄明白眼下的情況，然後舒展開自己的小翅膀撲騰幾下飛走了。

‘Go!’ shouted Thrashbarg. ‘Go and meet your destiny, Sandwich Maker!’

“去吧！”刷希巴喊道，“去迎接你的命運，三明治大師！”

Arthur wasn’t so sure about wanting to meet his destiny as such. He just wanted to get to wherever it was they were going so he could get back off this creature again. He didn’t feel at all safe up there. The Beast was gathering speed as it followed in the wake of the pikka bird. And then it was in at the fringes of the great tide of animals, and in a moment or two, with its head down, the pikka bird forgotten, it was running with the herd again and rapidly approaching the point at which the herd was vanishing into thin air. Arthur and Ford held on to the great monster for dear life, surrounded on all sides by hurtling mountains of bodies.

阿瑟倒並不那麼確定自己是不是願意去迎接他的命運。他只想趕緊到它們要到的地方去，好讓他可以快點從那傢伙背上下來，在這兒上頭他覺得一點也不安全。他倆的坐騎跟在噼卡鳥尾巴後邊開始加速，然後融入獸羣邊緣，再一兩秒鐘便重新跟同伴一道埋頭跑起來，完全把噼卡鳥拋在了腦後。他們迅速接近了獸羣憑空消失的位置。阿瑟和福特四周全是山一樣的大傢伙，他倆只能死命抓緊不放手。