食腐者 Scavenger
As
I began to fall, Burroughs grabbed me by the scruff of my collar and
shook me violently. "You really want to feed some thresher, don't
you, al-Hazir?" he asked. "What, haven't you seen scavengers
before?"
當我正要跌倒的時候，巴勒斯(Burroughs)抓住我的後頸衣領把我提了起來並且粗暴的晃動著。「你真的很想去下去餵飽長尾蜥是嗎，阿哈茲(al-Hazir)？」他問道。「什麼？你以前沒有見過食腐者？」
I had indeed seen scavengers: small, burrowing creatures that feed
upon carrion. Unlike most animals of this type, however, they are
extremely aggressive and will not hesitate to attack those
unfortunate enough to encounter them. Scavengers have powerful legs
which they use for swift springing attacks, striking at vulnerable
faces and throats. Their anatomy bears a striking resemblance to
that of the leapers of the Aranoch desert, and thus, many
researchers classify the two groups as part of the same family of
creatures. An ensorcelled (some say demonic) variant is known to
have plagued adventurers in the Tristram region twenty-odd years ago
as well. Scavengers were also the cause of an extremely distressing
episode during my youth, which I need not relate at this juncture.
我以前其實見過食腐者：是一種體型小，善於挖洞的生物，專吃屍體的腐肉。與大多數同樣食腐的動物不同的是，它們非常具有攻擊性，會毫不猶豫的攻擊那些不幸遇到它們的人。食腐者擁有一對有力的腿，藉此它們可以發動快速的跳躍攻擊，目標瞄準毫無防備的臉和喉嚨。它們的骨骼結構和阿瑞納曲(Aranoch)沙漠的跳躍者有明顯的相似點。而正因如此，許多研究者把這兩個物種歸為生物學上同一個科目的兩個不同的分支。二十多年前，一個令人感到困惑的(有人說是受惡魔力量影響的)異變同樣使崔斯特瑞姆地區的探險者受到了感染。而食腐者也是我童年時期一個令人痛苦的事件的起因。但在這緊要關頭，我就不需要再詳述這個童年的痛苦回憶了。
"Yep. Burrowers to catch a burrower," he said. He then took the
lengths of rope hanging from the cage and impaled them on the ground
using a heavy pike. He also attached what looked like long knives to
the sides of his heavy, scarred boots, and drove the blades into the
ground.
「對。用會掘洞的怪物去抓同樣會掘洞的怪物，」他說。然後他拉住從籠中垂吊出來的繩子，用一個沉重的矛頭把繩頭牢牢的釘在地上。同時緊緊綁在他那沉重、佈滿傷痕的靴子邊上的長刀模樣的刀子，之後用力把刀刃打入地面。
"You'd better get out of the way." And with that, while holding onto
the ropes, he undid the latching mechanism on the side of the cage.
He then threw it out onto the sand. The cage exploded outward with
the scavengers' frantic attempts to escape their confines. I barely
had time to wonder how Burroughs had been able to get the collars
(that the ropes were attached to) around the scavengers' necks
before the vicious beasts had burrowed into the soft ground.
「你最好別擋路。」他抓著繩子說，同時打開了籠子邊上的閘門機關。之後他把籠子扔到了沙地上。籠子因為食腐者試圖逃出籠子的瘋狂掙扎而炸開了。我還來不及去想巴勒斯(Burroughs)是怎麼把項圈（那些繩子就綁在這些項圈上）套到食腐者的脖子上的，這些邪惡的野獸就已經鑽進了柔軟的地面。
I was extremely tense by this point. I felt naked and exposed. What
insanity had convinced me that coming out here was a good idea?
這時我極度的緊張，我感到我完全赤身裸體，毫無防備。當初是不是我精神錯亂了？我竟然會覺得來這裡是一個好主意。
I looked out over the wastes in the fading light, trying to detect
the telltale horned fins of the thresher cutting through the surface
of the sand.
我望著昏暗月光下的荒野，試著尋找長尾蜥那塊刺穿沙面的帶刺的鰭。而這樣的鰭表示著長尾蜥的到來。
With absolutely no warning, the dune thresher violently broke the
surface, all three scavengers caught in his horrifying maw. There
was a massive explosion of sand as the thresher dove back into the
ground with its prize. The ropes immediately snapped taut, and I
thought Burroughs would be pulled to his death. I didn't understand
how he thought he could reel in a monster that huge, but he wasn't
even trying – just holding on.
完全沒有任何的預警，沙丘長尾蜥粗暴的打碎了地面，這三隻食腐者都被它那駭人的大顎牢牢咬住。長尾蜥帶著他的戰利品重新潛入地面，激起了一場巨大的沙爆。所有的繩子瞬間被咬的直直繃緊，我以為巴勒斯(Burroughs)會被活活拖下去死掉。我不明白他為何會認為自己可以拉起這麼大的怪物，不過他沒有嘗試往回拉，只是站在原地堅持著。
After several tense seconds that stretched towards eternity, the
rope began making weird jerking motions.
這是令人緊張得難以呼吸的幾秒種，這幾秒鐘彷彿就像人的一生那樣漫長。這幾秒鐘過去之後，繩子開始不可思議的扭動起來。
"Ah. The little buggers are doing their work." He smiled a ghastly
smile. "Shouldn't be long now."
「啊，小傢伙們開始工作了。」他露出了可怕的微笑。「應該不會太久。」
A few more moments of this strangeness passed, and the thrashing of
the ropes became less and less. Finally, he began to haul his catch
in. When it was partially on the rocks, I could see what had
happened. The thresher had swallowed the scavengers whole, and they,
in turn, had begun eating their way out of the thresher's stomach
before the beast's digestive juices had killed them. One scavenger
still clung to life, but barely. It had actually dug itself halfway
out of the thresher, clawing at the air as its skin was slowly eaten
away. I vomited.
繩子持續的扭動一會兒，之後繩子的扭動變得越來越微弱。最後，他開始往回拉手中的繩子。當長尾蜥身體的一部分被拉到岩石上之後，我終於能夠明白剛才發生了什麼。長尾蜥把食腐者活活吞了下去，之後，在食腐者被長尾蜥的消化液殺死之前，這些食腐者把長尾蜥的胃吃穿了，跑了出去。一隻食腐者還依附在長尾蜥的活體中，不過就快出來了。它實際上正從長尾蜥體內往外挖，已經挖到了一半。長尾蜥的爪子痛苦的在空氣中亂抓，它的皮膚正一點一點的被吃掉。我嘔吐了起來。
Burroughs, laughing at me once again as he cut off the beast's
triangular head, began lecturing me on the amazing dune thresher:
the dynamics of its jutting, angular lower jaw, which cuts a path
through the soil; the way this jaw design enables the thresher to
swim effortlessly beneath the sand with unimaginable swiftness; and
much more that I didn't care to hear just then. I nodded my head
weakly and wondered how long it would be before I could politely get
myself home and crawl into bed.
巴勒斯(Burroughs)割下長尾蜥三角形的頭，同時又一次的嘲笑我。之後他給我上了一堂關於沙丘長尾蜥，這種令人驚異的生物的課：長尾蜥能用它突起的，帶角的下顎在土裡掘出一條通道；這個由大自然鬼斧神工製造出來的下顎令長尾蜥能夠在沙子下面毫不費力的游動，靈活得令人無法想像；還有其它許多的內容，可是當時我實在是聽不進去。我虛弱的點點頭，然後開始盤算我還要花多少時間才能安穩的回到自己的家，然後爬到舒適的床上去。
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abd al-Hazir is a renowned gentleman, historian, and scholar. He has
recently taken up the unprecedented task of investigating,
researching, and compiling information about the unique locales and
denizens of our world.
作者簡介
阿卜杜勒‧阿哈茲(Abd
al-Hazir)是一個著名的紳士、歷史學家和學者。他對我們世界所有相關的獨特語言環境和居民們採取了前所未有的調查、研究和編制工作。
