※ 這活動兩周，一到七天就是輪流那些圖、那種進度條，所以第八天起我就不截圖只留文章喔！
圖源：論壇
Holiday 2014 Event（2014年聖誕活動）
A violent winter storm has unexpectedly swept down from the mountains. If the blizzard is not stopped, it will rage forever, trapping all of Galsreim in an endless winter. You must work together with everyone else—both dragon and human—to gather enough mana to halt the storm’s advance. Mana crystals may be found throughout the site, or conjured using alchemy. Once everyone has gathered enough mana, the story will advance, bringing you a step closer to victory over the bitter cold. Fill up your personal mana bar for entries in the Holiday raffle (details to be announced later).
一場嚴峻的暴風雪毫無預警地席捲了山脈。如果這場暴雪不停歇下來，它將會永遠狂囂著將整個加斯瑞大陸變成永無止盡的冰天雪地。你必須和大家──龍跟人──一起同心協力，收集足夠的魔力水晶來阻止暴風雪變強。魔力水晶可在龍洞網站的各處找到，或著你也可以使用煉金術召喚出來。一旦大家收集了足夠的魔力水晶，故事就會有所進展，使你離解除永冬魔咒的成功更近一步。為了聖誕故事的進行，把自己的魔力條填滿吧！（細節會在後續公布）
冬青龍傑努斯
Chapter 1 - Unsettling Portents（不安之兆）
You trudge doggedly through the ever-deepening snow, turning your hood up against bitter, relentless winds. The storm struck without warning: it seems as though only hours ago the sun shone clear and bright overhead, with the coming of winter only a chilly promise on the breeze.
你頑強地跋涉過不斷變深的雪堆，掀起兜帽來面對毫不停歇的刺苦寒風。暴風雪毫無預警地突然襲來：幾小時前還陽光普照，只有一點刺骨的寒風會讓你覺得冬天已經到來。
Now, the world is a howling wall of white.
現在，世界卻像是一面在咆哮的白色牆壁。
A faint glow pierces the haze in your path and you pause, wary. Is it merely another trick of this unforgiving weather? But the glow persists, bobbing rhythmically like a pale lantern in the distance, growing larger and brighter with each second, until -
一道微弱的光束穿越陰霾，照到你面前的路上使你停下了腳步，警惕四周。這是否僅僅只是這個無情天氣的另一個小把戲呢？但是這道光卻沒有滅掉，頻率躍動的模樣就像是有遠處有一盞蒼白的燈籠光，每秒都在不斷地變大變亮，直到──
A Solstice dragon bursts through the pelting snowfall before you, landing with a toss of her golden-crowned head and flooding the air around you with startlingly warm light. “Thank goodness you’re safe!” she exclaims, her telepathic voice ringing clearly in your mind despite the vicious winds. “Come with me; the others have begun to gather in a clearing nearby.”
一頭冬至龍在狂嘯的降雪中出現在你面前，落地時牠轉了轉那金色王冠的頭並讓你身周的空氣充滿不可思議的溫暖光芒。「謝天謝地，你沒事！」牠驚嘆，心電感應傳達的聲音在狂風肆虐之下也能夠清楚地在你腦海中響蕩。「跟我來吧，其他龍都已經在附近空地集合起來了。」
Mantling her gilded wings to shield you from the storm along the way, the Solstice dragon explains, “My name is Aurora. This blizzard has spread across all of Galsreim, and I and the other holiday spirits do not have the strength to hold it at bay. However, if we all work together to harvest enough mana, then perhaps we will be able to identify the cause of this dreadful storm and protect both dragon and mortal alike from harm.”
一路上冬至龍用牠的鍍金翅膀給你遮蔽風雪，病說：「我叫極光。這場暴雪肆虐了整個加斯瑞大陸，而我和其他的聖誕龍沒有足夠的力量去控制這場災難。然而，若我們全員能齊心協力收集足夠的魔力水晶的話，或許我們能夠找到這場致命暴雪的起因，保護其他的龍與生靈度過災難。」
※ Christmas Spirit 暫時翻譯成「聖誕使者」，他的原意就是指說聖誕節精神。
Epilogue（尾聲）
You reach the clearing, adding the mana you managed to gather to a growing pile watched over by a weary-looking pair of magi dragons, and Aurora takes wing in a flurry of snow to join the other Holiday dragons at its center.
你來到預定用來收集養育魔力水晶，由一對面露倦容的魔法龍來看守的空地，添加了些水晶進去。極光急沖沖地從雪幕中闖出，加入了空地中央集合著的聖誕龍。
Looking around, you are struck by how many other people have made it here in the storm–and how few dragons. Several have taken shelter in a heap on the lee side of a massive stone dragon, but it is obvious at a glance that many dragons are still lost in the storm. Still, in the presence of the assembled spirits of winter, you find it hard to despair.
你環顧四周，被這裡究竟有多少人是從暴雪中闖出的給震驚到──還有龍的數量是多麼的稀少。有不少龍是直接躲在一頭巨大石龍身下的背風處來禦寒，但就這麼一瞥你也知道仍有很多龍受困在暴雪之中。不過，因為各種聖誕龍的存在，你認為處境並沒有那麼糟糕。
You turn to watch as the assembled group of Holiday dragons–seven in all, standing wingtip to wingtip in a wide, colorful circle–draw upon the magic of the gathered mana crystals, bathing the entire clearing in radiant, magical light. After several eerily silent moments the glow fades; Aurora, the Solstice dragon, takes flight and hovers over the other six, projecting her telepathic voice now to everyone present.
你轉過去看那一群聖誕龍組成的小團體──總共有七頭龍，翅碰翅地圍成一色彩繽紛的巨大圈──牠們驅使著收集來的魔力水晶中的法力，使整個空地沐浴在閃亮的魔力光線之中。一陣詭異的沉默後，光芒褪去。冬至龍極光圍繞著其他六頭龍飛了起來，並將牠的心靈感應聲音傳達給在場的各位。
“This is no natural disaster, my friends. If we do not uncover the source of this fell magic and put an end to the storm, Galsreim may forever be trapped in a harsh, unforgiving winter!”
「大家，這不是一場天災。若我們不找出這法術的源頭，終結掉暴風雪的話，加斯瑞大陸可能永遠都要陷在這嚴峻冷酷的冬天之中！」
尤爾巴克龍里德
Chapter 2 - The Maw of Winter（冬日之胃）
“Adventurer,” a bright voice intrudes into your thoughts. Turning, you find yourself face to face with the Winter Magi and startle badly enough nearly to drop your scrolls into the snow. He croons in what can only be described as dragon laughter before continuing.
「冒險者，」一道宏亮的聲音在你腦海中響起。你轉過身，發現自己正和一頭冬日魔法師對視，這嚇壞了你並使你弄掉了手中的捲軸。牠發出了用你的話來形容就是「龍的笑聲」的聲音輕哼了下後，才繼續對話。
“I am Godsibb. I and the other Holiday spirits are grateful for your help so far, but the blizzard has not relented and many dragons and their eggs are yet in danger. With your help, I might be able to hold the storm at bay long enough for everyone to seek warmth and safety.”
「我是戈德席夫。我和另一位聖誕龍對你目前提供的幫助十分感謝，但暴風雪並未緩和下來，許多龍及牠們的蛋仍處於危急之中。有你的協助，我或許能夠穩住一下暴風雪，讓大家有足夠的時間去尋找溫暖安全的地方。」
※ 這邊是採音譯，Godsibb是龍洞玩家birdzgoboom替自己的冬日魔法師取的名字。
Epilogue（尾聲）
The pile of mana crystals has grown significantly with the combined efforts of you and your allies. The two magi dragons, now rested, can’t resist occasionally rolling in the precious gems, much to your amusement.
成堆的魔力水晶在你和你盟友的努力下顯著成長。兩頭歇息中的魔法師龍不能自己地在寶石堆中打滾起來，這大大地娛樂了你。
The Winter Magi stands proudly in the center of the clearing, drawing upon his control over the weather in an attempt to tame the blizzard that continues to rage far and wide. This ritual goes on far longer than before and your heart begins to sink as time passes with no apparent change in the weather. Finally exhausted, the Winter Magi slumps down into the snow, the concerned Ribbon Dancer flitting to his side in a symphony of jingling scales.
冬日魔法師驕傲地佇立在空地中央，試圖去控制天氣，好讓仍在狂風暴吹的暴風雪緩和下來。這個儀式比之前的還要漫長，隨著時間流逝，天氣沒有顯著的變化，而你的心也跟著沉到谷底。最終，精疲力盡的冬日魔法師倒在了雪中，掛心著牠的緞帶舞者以聖誕叮噹音階的交響樂曲節奏，在牠身邊來回飛行。
“It is done,” he manages at length. “My fellow Winter Magi have set out to help protect those still at the blizzard’s mercy and bought us time to identify and reverse this accursed storm, but I fear our strength will not hold forever.”
「行了。」牠試著說清楚些。「我的夥伴冬日魔法師成功地保護了那些受暴雪威脅的傢伙，並讓我們擁有足夠的時間去辨識、扭轉這個該死的暴風雪，但我擔心我們的力量不足以將之永遠控制住。」
雪天使龍裘伊
Chapter 3 - Seeking the Source（尋找源頭）
You, like many of the other humans and dragons assembled about the clearing, have discovered exactly how pleasantly warm it is in the stone dragon’s shadow. After some heated, gestured negotiations with a family of Neotropicals that found their way here thanks to the Winter Magi’s spell, you’ve found a moment to pore over your scrolls and make some much-needed additions to your dragon encyclopedia.
你，如大多數聚集在空地裡的其他人類跟龍一樣，發現石龍的陰影處是多麼令人愉快地溫暖。在有些熱絡地和一家新熱帶龍比手畫腳交流後，你發現牠們是因為冬日魔法師的魔咒才能順利抵達此處。你終於找到一個空歇可以仔細研讀你的魔法捲軸，並做一些必要的註記到你的龍族百科上。
As you absently scratch one of the Neotropicals under the chin, a Snow Angel flops down beside you, smothering you with one gold-feathered wing. Her mirthful presence in your mind is almost infectious. “Wonderful weather we’re having, isn’t it?”
當你心不在焉地搔刮著一頭新熱帶龍的下巴時，一頭雪天使龍拍著翅膀落到你的身旁，牠金色的羽翅使你覺得有些悶熱，但牠這令人歡喜的存在使你的心情也跟著好了起來。「真是美好的天氣啊，哼？」
You stare at her from underneath the wing you were in the process of laboriously removing from your head, and after a moment she blinks. “Because I’m a snow...angel...you know what? Let’s move on. Godsibb’s recovered his strength, and we think we know how to pinpoint the cause of this awful weather. However, the magi dragons told me that the last spell drained our mana supply. The others are already out collecting more, but we could always use extra help.”
你停下費力挪開自己頭上翅膀的動作，仰頭望去，過了一會，牠眨了下眼睛。「因為我是個雪……天使……算了，我們繼續剛剛的話題吧。戈德席夫已經恢復了體力，而我們認為我們已經查明了這可怕氣候的起因。然而，魔法師龍跟我說，剛剛最後一道魔法已經用光了我們的魔力存貨。其他幾位都已經出去收集更多的魔力水晶了，但多點人手肯定是更好的。」
The Snow Angel leaps to her feet with a more artful flourish, turning to add before taking flight, “Name’s Joy, by the way.”
雪天使用牠的四肢巧妙地華麗一躍，在起飛前轉過頭來補上一句：「喔對了，我叫裘伊。」
※ 這邊Joy也是採音譯。
Epilogue（尾聲）
Owing in part to your redoubled efforts, the cache of depleted mana gems has been replenished. More and more dragons have found their way safely through the storm and sought refuge in the relative safety of the clearing. Again the seven spirits of winter have assembled in a circle, this time with a curious artifact at their center.
在你的加倍努力之下，一度被消耗掉的魔力水晶得到了補充。越來越多頭龍得以安全穿越暴風雪，在空地這找了個相對安全的點當避難所。七頭聖誕龍又一次圍成了圈，不過這次在牠們中間有一個奇特的東西。
As the dragons begin to channel, you sit back, preparing for another lengthy ordeal, but no sooner have you gotten comfortable than you hear a chorus of shocked and disgusted snarls echoing from the scrying circle.
當牠們開始引導魔力時，你往後坐了些，為下一場漫長的考驗做準備，但你剛放鬆下來沒多久，就聽見小圈圈那迴響起驚愕與厭惡的咆哮聲。
Turning toward the uneasy spectators, the jingling of her ribbon-like scales only just audible over the constant dull roar of the storm, Graciella the Ribbon Dancer exclaims, “This blizzard could only have been conjured by the Avatar of Change!”
緞帶舞者葛榭菈轉過來面對不安的觀眾，身上緞帶般的鱗片發出的叮噹聲響只是替外面傳來的暴雪咆哮聲增添點音色。牠說：「這場暴風雪可能是變幻化身召喚出來的！」
※ 這邊Graciella 採用音譯。
Chapter 4 - A Matter of Scale（與麟有關）
The Yulebuck is the first to break the scrying circle after reaching a silent accord, picking you out instantly in your place of ‘honor’ sitting atop one of the stone dragon’s toenails. One may begin to wonder if the old beast harbored any resentments over being turned into furniture, but fear not: she is quite comfortable and soundly asleep.
尤爾巴克龍在沉寂中第一個從占卜圈退出來，立刻將你從原本位置拎出來，置放在「榮譽座位」──某頭石龍腳趾上。一般來說可能要開始擔憂這頭老龍會不會因為被當成家具而心懷怨恨，但無須擔憂：石龍覺得很舒服，甚至還想打個瞌睡。
“Quickly, little one–climb on my back! We’re going to stop the Avatar of Change.”
「小傢伙，快──爬上我的背！我們要去阻止變幻化身！」
You rush to gather your belongings, glancing around to see a few other adventurers clambering up onto the backs of the Snow Angel, Holly, and Solstice dragons.
你迅速拿好自己的東西，四處張望的時候發現有其他的冒險者也爬上了雪天使龍、冬青龍和冬至龍的背上。
“All right, friends,” Aurora says, her telepathic voice projected only to those gathered for the search party. “The storm is still too violent for us to fly, so we must seek out the Avatar on foot. Godsibb, Graciella, and Nikolaus will remain in the clearing to maintain the wards and continue gathering mana. Reed,” the Yulebuck stands to attention, “you and your rider make a path. Janus, follow behind and make sure none of us gets lost.”
「好了，朋友們，」極光的心靈感應聲音只傳達給探索隊的人，「暴雪目前來說還是嚴峻到讓我們難以飛行，所以我們只能用走的方式去找化身。戈德席夫、葛榭菈和尼古拉斯會留下來看守空地並累積魔力。里德，」尤爾巴克龍起身注意，「你和你的夥伴開路。傑努斯，你負責殿後，並確保沒有誰走丟了。」
※ Reed 採用音譯。
The stately old Holly dragon growls his assent. As you and the rest of the party turn toward the howling storm, Reed the Yulebuck’s voice fills your mind once more. “I will protect you as well as I can from the cold, but I am no red dragon. Hold on tight!”
莊嚴的老冬青龍以吼聲表示同意。在其他隊伍也跟著轉向面對狂嘯的暴雪時，尤爾巴克龍里德的聲音在你腦中響起：「我會盡可能保護你不受凍寒，但我不是紅龍。抓緊點！」
※ 紅龍本身是火魔力，能噴火。
And with that, the four dragons and their passengers charge headlong into the freezing wind.
然後，四頭龍跟牠們的夥伴頭也不回地踏入寒風之中。
Epilogue（尾聲）
You imagine the fact that you can still feel your fingers–or still even have fingers–isn’t far from a miracle. While you and the rest of the search party are thankful that the relentless knives of wind grow calmer the nearer you draw to the Avatar’s mountain lair, that observation has also made you uneasy.
你假裝自己還能感受到自己的手指──如果手指還在的話──但這也不是什麼天方夜譚。在你和其他搜查隊的人慶幸越靠近化身所在的山，如刀刺骨的寒風就越發緩和時，你也同樣為了這件事情感到不安。
Has the Avatar of Change gone mad? The stony path up the mountainside feels almost balmy with an otherworldly springtime heat, and a low, rhythmical rumbling reverberates through the very stones all around you, and you cling just a bit more tightly to Reed’s mane at the thought that he might be plotting to age everyone instantly to dust the moment they set foot on his rise.
變幻化身是瘋了嗎？沿著上山的石頭小徑走，你感受到彷若來自另一個世界的春天的溫暖，有節奏的低音轟隆隆地響徹你身周的石頭，你想到牠可能正在密謀要讓大家一落地就瞬間白髮蒼蒼，化為齏粉，就又抓緊了點里德的鬃毛。
Ultimately, it is Janus who volunteers to investigate the Avatar’s lair. With a methodical air that seems like actual calm, a stark contrast to the discomfort of the human clinging to his back, the scarlet dragon dips first his long neck and then half of his body into the cave’s yawning darkness, then -.
最終，傑努斯自願去調查化身的巢穴。猩紅色的龍有條不紊，看上去十分冷靜，跟緊抱著牠的不安人類形成鮮明的對比；牠先是伸長脖子，然後是半個身子探入洞穴張牙舞爪的黑暗中──
“I think he’s...snoring.”
「我想，牠……牠在打呼。」
The dumbfounded expressions of you and the rest of the party are cut off by Joy’s bubbling, telepathic laughter.
你和其他人瞠目結舌的表情被來自裘伊的電波版哄堂大笑給打斷。
“O great Avatar,” Janus posits with a shrug of his emerald wings, “we seek your wise counsel!”
「喔，偉大的化身啊！」傑努斯用牠的翡翠綠翅膀做出了聳肩的動作，「我們前來尋求您的智慧。」
The rhythmical rumbling ceases all at once, casting the precipice into eerie, soul-swallowing silence. The presence that fills your mind immediately after is awesome in both its headache-inducing power and its undeniable obliviousness. “...Just...five more weeks...mmm....”
本來有規律的轟隆聲戛然而止，導致斷崖這邊陷入可怕的死寂，而下一秒出現在你腦內的就只有牠震耳欲聾的聲音，及無法忽視的粗枝大葉。「再……再睡個五周……呼……」
“Well, I never!” Aurora huffs, deftly unseating her passenger and plunging headlong into the cavern, the glowing orb between her antlers barely more than a mote in that vast blackness. A moment later the ground shakes with the force of an indignant snarl and a massive dragon more or less spills out into the light, dazzling in his iridescence and all but filling the entire space. In his wake flaps a still-bristling Solstice dragon, who pauses in the air over the groggy Avatar’s head just long enough to bat him a few times with the down-strokes of her gilded wings.
「喂，不准！」極光怒吼，靈巧地將身上的乘客放下後一個急速俯衝來到了洞口，牠鹿角間的發光球體在這廣袤的黑暗中彷若微光。過了一陣子，大地伴隨著一聲怒吼震動，一頭巨龍現身，發出充滿整個空間的炫目虹光。在牠完全清醒的期間，冬至龍就停在牠頭上扇動自己鍍金的翅膀，打了這傻呼呼的化身的頭幾下。
“What is the meaning of this?” the Avatar whines, his voice a shockwave inside your skull. “The magics are balanced, the seasons are in order.”
「這是在做什麼？」化身嗚咽問，牠的分貝大到對你全身的骨頭產生了衝擊。「魔力平衡，四季有序。」
“They certainly are not,” Reed interjects as Aurora weighs the satisfaction of heckling the Avatar further against the potential consequences when he regains enough of his senses to take offense. “Your blizzard has gone wild and trapped all of Galsreim in what may very well be an endless winter.”
「才怪。」里德插嘴，同時極光掌握著質問對方的尺度，避免讓化身取回理智發怒，「你造成的暴雪像瘋了似的，讓整個加斯瑞大陸可說是陷入了永冬之中。」
“My blizzard?” The Avatar scoffs indignantly, nearly unseating Janus from his perch on the mountainside, drawing a startled yelp from his rider, as he spun around to regard each dragon and its mortal companion in turn.
「我造成的暴雪？」化身怒笑，讓傑努斯差點從山道上掉下去，也讓傑努斯背上的人小叫了聲。然後化身轉身細細掃視每條龍及其人類夥伴。
“You mean you didn’t conjure it?” Aurora’s passenger shouts, emboldened.
「你說你沒有變出這場暴雪？」極光的人類夥伴勇敢地吼問。
He snorts disdainfully in reply, as though the answer were self-evident. “I’ve been resting since the equinox. What reason would I have to upset the balance of seasons?” Pausing, the Avatar flattens his crest with sudden discomfort. “I say, does anyone else feel a draft?”
牠輕蔑地哼了聲，以示答案不言而喻。「我自春分起歇息至今，何須擾亂時令？」化身停頓了下，鼓起的胸膛因不適而平收回去，「等等，你們有沒有感到哪裡怪怪的？」
The assembled dragons and their riders shoot mystified glances at one another as the colossus cranes his neck and lifts his wing in a vain attempt to study his haunch.
聚集起來的龍跟牠們的人類夥伴困惑地看著彼此，同時巨龍伸長脖子，抬起雙翼，徒勞地想要看自己的臀部。
“Is something amiss?” Janus remarks, wary of venturing down from his new, higher seat.
「有什麼不對的嗎？」傑努斯問，不敢從自己的這更高的新座位冒險移動。
Aurora, already aloft, flits around the massive dragon to get a better look. As she did so, she lets out a chortling gasp. “He’s missing a scale!”
本來就在高處的極光繞著巨龍轉起，仔細觀察，然後牠驚呼：「牠少了片鱗片！」
Chapter 5 - Ice to Meet You（有冰認識）
※ 原句為「Nice to meet you」，這邊就是把 nice 改 ice。
“The Avatar of Change may not have caused this storm, but whoever did used that scale to do it,” Reed says. You and the other mortals are part of the Holiday dragon circle now–with the exception of the Solstice, who has not yet gotten her fill of scolding the thoroughly-cowed draconic demigod.
「或許這場暴風雪真的不是變幻化身造成的，但肯定是那個拿走牠鱗片的人做的。」里德說，而你和其他人類也加入了這次的聖誕龍小圈圈──不過冬至龍不在其中，牠還沒痛罵夠那頭被嚇到的嚴肅半神龍。
“So what do we do?” you ask.
「那我們該怎麼辦？」你問。
The Holly dragon huffs thoughtfully. “We find it. The Avatar of Change is magic incarnate; I imagine he can sense an object of such magical power as his own scale at a great distance. Then he need only point us in the right direction.”
冬青龍帶著怒氣地若有所思。「有了。變幻化身本身就是魔力的具現化，我想就連自己遠在天涯的鱗片也多少能有所感應，那麼只要讓牠來指引我們方向就行了。」
At long last, the Solstice dragon rejoins the group. “He will help us find the scale,” she says wryly, “but the Avatars honor the Guardian of Nature’s desire to preserve balance and neutrality, so we’ll have to bring it back ourselves.”
終於，冬至龍回來了。「牠會幫我們找到鱗片的。」牠語帶挖苦，「但這些化身都奉自然守護者那套維持平衡、不偏不倚為圭臬，所以我們只能自己去把鱗片找回來。」
“Of course.”
「那是必然的。」
You turn to watch as the Avatar settles back on his haunches, flaring his wings and baring the multitude of gem-like scales lining his belly scutes and embedded in his wing membranes. They gleam brightly for an instant before their light sinks in glittering whorls into the depths of each gem. Fighting back the urge to ask him how the gems work, you climb upon the Yulebuck’s back.
你轉頭望去，看見化身一屁股坐在地上，翅膀燃燒著，袒露展示自己腹部及翅膀薄膜處井然有序鑲嵌著的寶石般鱗片。那些鱗片在一瞬發出燦光後，光線就迅速地轉個圈收回鱗片之中。為了不脫口問出這些寶石的奧秘，你爬上了尤爾巴克龍的背。
Without moving, the Avatar says flatly (and, you think, with a tinge of lingering embarrassment), “I have marked the path for you, travelers; it isn’t far. Please return my scale to me.” Ruffling his wings, he turns back and vanishes into the dark, gaping maw of his cave. The dragons set off down the mountain path once more, their passengers in tow.
化身在原地語調平靜地開口（雖然你聽出了一絲尷尬）：「旅行者，我已為你們標出了道路，距離此處不遠。請將我的鱗片歸還於我。」牠搧了搧翅膀，然後轉身，消失在伸手不見五指的黑暗洞穴之中。聖誕龍們則帶著牠們的人類夥伴下山。
Epilogue（尾聲）
It becomes clear very quickly what the Avatar meant when he said he had marked the path. Several times one dragon or another attempts to stray from the main path in search of more certain footing, only to be stricken with a grave and gnawing sense of unease. Following along the path, narrow and winding as it is, you feel confident, even giddy. It’s the first time since the blizzard hit that you find yourself imagining Galsreim delivered from the clutches of this terrible storm.
你們很快就明白化身口中的「標出了道路」是什麼意思。每當有龍想要偏離主幹道，找找有沒有更明確的立足點時，牠們就會感受到一股令人不快的莊嚴威壓。在沿著這蜿蜒窄徑前進的同時，你充滿信心到有些飄飄然，甚至在這場暴雪降臨後首次產生了加斯瑞大陸能逃出其魔爪的念頭。
Abruptly, something sweeps Reed’s talons out from under him, sending you sprawling into the waist-deep snow and nearly causing a pile-up of the other dragons following behind.
突然間，有什麼東西從里德的腿下掃過，導致你難看地摔進了有你腰這麼高的雪地中，身後還跟了一排同樣慘烈的龍。
“We have arrived,” Janus muses sagely.
「我們到了。」傑努斯英明地做出結論。
You sit up and wipe the snow from your face, squinting to get a better look at the obstacle over which your mount stumbled. “It’s a...dragon.” At that moment, the dragon rolled over and stretched luxuriously, catlike in its contented laziness. “An ice hatchling!”
你坐起身來，抹掉臉上的雪，瞇著眼試圖看清到底是什麼東西絆倒你身下的龍。「是……頭龍。」那頭龍這時轉了個身，慵懶地伸了個懶腰，全身散發著懶洋洋的貓的氣息。「是頭冰龍幼龍！」
Materializing through a wall of windblown ice, a Frostbite dragon greets the party with a throaty roar, her telepathic call raucous and booming. “Welcome to the party, pals!”
在穿過一道由風吹起的冰牆後，一頭寒霜龍用著嘶啞的吼聲迎接隊伍的到來，她的心靈感應聲音低沉而嘶啞。「我的朋友們，歡迎前來參加這場盛宴！」
Dragons and mortals alike turn their heads as one. “The party?!”
龍人面面相聚。「盛宴？！」
Chapter 6 - Festivus Interruptus（中止偽節）
※ Festivus是個在12/23的假節日，用來諷刺過度商業化的聖誕節。另外用google搜尋這個單字的話會在畫面左邊出現一跟豎立的光禿鋁棍，諷刺根本沒有聖誕節該有的氛圍存在。
“The party, yes! Did nobody tell you?”
「沒錯，盛宴！沒人通知你們？」
“Well, not in so many words,” Reed remarks sourly. His warning, like yours and anyone else’s, was sudden biting winds and roiling clouds giving way to endless sheets of snow.
「這個嘛，牠沒說清楚。」里德語帶挖苦，而牠和你們其他人一樣，腦中的警報從本來的刺骨寒風跟陰鬱天氣轉變為無盡大雪。
“N-never mind that,” you interject, not much enjoying the thought of a battle breaking out involving the dragon you happen to be riding. “What’s the occasion?”
「算、算了吧。」你插嘴，並一點也不希望你身下的龍在載著你的時候跟對方開戰。「現在是什麼情況？」
The Frostbite dragon grins, a plume of cold vapor spilling out of her mouth even in this bitterly frigid air. Her voice drips with reverence as she recounts the tale. “Winter, of course. But not just any winter–no, it has been foretold that this shall be the Winter of Ice Dragons! With her mystical stone, our great clan leader shall lead us into a golden age of frozen glory!”
寒霜龍咧嘴一笑，在這霜寒天氣下吐出一股冰寒的氣息。接下來，牠用極為虔誠的聲音說：「當然是冬天了，但這可不是什麼一般的冬天──根據預言，這將是一場冰系龍種歡慶的冬天！在那顆神秘石頭的引領下，我們偉大的族長將帶領我們進入冰封榮耀的黃金歲月！」
“That’s -.”
「那是──」
“Fantastic,” Joy pipes up, cutting you off with a wink. “We’re kind of ice dragons too, you know. I for one would love to meet this clan leader of yours.”
「那真是太好了，」裘伊突然說，朝你眨了個眼暗示你保持沉默。「你看，我們也算是冰系龍種。我可想見見你們的族長了。」
Epilogue（尾聲）
With the Frostbite dragon’s gushing over her clan leader (and she had prattled on at great length, with little urging from anyone), you have understandably high expectations. However, after wading past group after group of ice dragons of all shapes and sizes frolicking ecstatically through the snow, your group’s guide leads you to a simple stony outcropping upon which a rather large ice dragon, festooned with jewelry and accoutrements fashioned crudely out of shards of ice, lay with all the pride of a queen.
由於寒霜龍對牠們族長的高度評價（雖然牠滔滔不絕地誇個不停，但你們也沒什麼人想催牠就是了），你理所當然地對那位族長帶有極高的期望。然而在穿過一群在雪中狂歡慶祝的各種外觀體型的冰系龍種後，你們的導遊帶著你們來到了一座凸出地面的簡單石台，上面的巨大冰龍戴滿各式珠寶及用冰粗糙製出的配件，展現出女王的氣勢。
The Frostbite dragon offers her clan chieftain a private word before excusing herself back to the festivities. Leaving you and your new friends to the leader’s appraising eye. “Isn’t it wonderful?” she crowed. “When I found the stone, I thought about using it to build a giant ice palace into the mountainside, but it seemed a bit pretentious, if you ask me. Now, a blizzard–nothing says winter like a good old-fashioned snow storm.”
寒霜龍跟族長說了些話後就告退回去參加宴會，留下你跟你的新朋友們給對方打量。「這不是再好不過了嗎？」牠說，「在我發現這塊石頭的時候，我只是想說可以在山腰蓋座大大的冰殿，但要我說的話，它似乎有些超規格了。現在這場暴風雪──沒有什麼比來場復古大風雪的冬天還棒了。」
“Certainly,” Aurora counters, growling, “but this old-fashioned snow storm you’ve conjured for your clan is threatening to bury all of Galsreim in a perpetual winter.”
「話是這麼說，」極光咆哮反擊，「但這場你給你族人招來的復古大風雪，已經變成會將加斯瑞大陸埋葬在永恆冬季之中的威脅了。」
“What do you mean?”
「什麼意思？」
You clear your throat, digging through the stacks of vellum stuffed haphazardly into your haversack. “That stone you found isn’t a stone at all. It’s a dragon scale imbued with immensely powerful magic, and by using it you’ve spawned a storm even you cannot hope to control. Our best hope to protect Galsreim is to return the scale to its rightful owner.”
你清了清喉嚨，在你那塞滿卷軸東西的背包裡翻找。「你找到的那個並不是石頭，而是片充滿巨大魔力的龍麟，而你根本無法控制這場用它引發的暴雪。而最能保護加斯瑞大陸的方法就是把這鱗片物歸原主了。」
The ice queen looks aghast at you for a long, tense moment, opening her mouth to object.
冰龍女王震驚地看了你許久，氣氛劍拔弩張，牠張嘴想要反駁。
“And if you think it isn’t your problem because you’re Ice dragons, what do you think you’re going to eat next year when everything’s frozen solid?”
「如果你覺得反正自己是冰龍，這事與你無關的話，那麼請問你來年打算在冰封大地的情況下以什麼賴以為生呢？」
Her mouth clicks shut, swallowing a low growl. You see out of the corner of your eye that her long, wicked claws are digging deeper into the earth, but you dare not break eye contact despite your fear.
牠又閉上了嘴，把一聲低吼吞回了肚子。你用眼角瞟到牠那邪惡的長爪正深深地刨進泥土中，但你也不因害怕而停止與牠的對視。
Janus breaks the silence. “You must admit, our little friend has a point.”
傑努斯打斷沉寂。「你得承認，我們的小朋友說到了點上。」
“Yes,” the Ice queen concedes, grinding her teeth unpleasantly, then continues with a long sigh, “I suppose so. Perhaps I would have done better to settle for the palace after all. Nothing bad ever comes of building gaudy, enviable fortresses to flaunt one’s unimaginable wealth and power. Wait here; I shall retrieve the sto- the scale.”
「是的。」冰龍女王咬牙不情願地承認，然後長嘆一聲：「的確。早知道我就蓋一座城堡了，反正蓋一座雄偉、令人羨慕的城堡來炫耀財富跟力量也不會招來什麼壞事。你們在這等一下，我去把石頭，不，鱗片拿來。」
Dragging her considerable girth along the rock face, the chieftain locates a nearly-invisible crevice barely wide enough to admit one of her taloned paws and reaches inside. Suddenly, her eyes widen.
族長拖著龐大身軀來到石壁前，將手爪伸入了一道窄得快要看不見的裂縫之中。突然，牠雙眼圓瞪。
Pulling her paw out of the crevice, she shows the assembled group her empty talons.
牠將手從裂縫中收回，向大家展示了空無一物的掌心。
“It’s gone!”
「不見了！」
Chapter 7 - High Altitude, High Jinks（高處狂歡）
“Could one of you do something to stop her unbearable wailing before the whole clan hears and thinks we’ve killed her?” Reed asks, pawing plaintively through your pack. Exasperated, you tie it shut and throw it over your shoulder before he manages to tear your scrolls.
「你們有沒有誰，能在牠那些族人誤以為我們殺了牠之前讓牠別再鬼吼鬼叫了？」里德邊問，邊悲憤地用牠的爪趾撥弄著你的包包。你趕在牠把你的卷軸弄裂前生氣地把包包繫上口，甩回肩上。
The ice queen remains where she flopped in the throes of her tantrum, shrieking curses to the gale winds at her misfortune with tears frozen solid on both cheeks. In spite of her strident cries and Reed’s mounting irritation, Janus maintains his usual air of composure and reflection, studying the area from where he sits.
冰龍女王仍趴在牠盛怒時拍打王座的位置，尖聲詛咒帶給牠不幸的大風，雙頰上還帶有眼淚凍結成的印子。儘管女王鬼哭神號，里德煩惱徒增，傑努斯卻維持著牠一貫的沉著反應，研究著自己所在位置。
It is a poor spot for footprints, even in the blizzard–and, perhaps, because of the blizzard. What ground isn’t solid rock is quickly scrubbed clean of marks by the wind, and even the dragons’ trail into the ice queen’s makeshift court has long since been filled in with snow. Joy bounds lightly across the snow’s surface as only a Snow Angel can, hunting for any faint scents or signs to follow.
這裡是就算暴雪也難以留下足跡的地點──而且，可能就是因為這場暴雪，地面並非結實泥地，風一吹就會洗掉所有痕跡，就連通往冰龍女王臨時王座的道路都是被雪覆蓋已久的情況。裘伊以雪天使才能辦到的輕靈在雪上跳躍，搜尋是否有什麼能用來追蹤的微小氣味或痕跡。
You sigh. Even the warm glow from Aurora’s crown doesn’t seem to be enough to cut through the raging blizzard and your darkening mood. Without so much as a broken twig to point the way, you feel the weight of hopelessness begin to creep in once more.
你長嘆一口氣。儘管極光的王冠散發出了溫暖的光芒，也無法驅走狂暴的風雪跟你越發陰暗的心情。前途迷茫，絕望的沉重感在一次攀上你的心頭。
Epilogue（尾聲）
“We could always go back to the Avatar,” you offer with a helpless shrug, raising your voice to be heard over both the Ice dragon’s keening and the wind. Not for the first time since setting out, you wish that you could communicate telepathically, too.
「反正我們還能回去找化身。」你放棄地聳聳肩，聲音放大到能蓋過冰龍的呻吟跟風聲。自你踏上旅行後，你又一次希望自己也能夠用心靈感應來交流了。
“It’d waste precious time we don’t know that we can afford. Best keep that only as a last resort.” Aurora’s eyes are shut tight, her muzzle turned into the wind. Solstice dragon whiskers are sensitive to the weather, you know, but you’ve never really been able to figure out how.
「不，這樣會浪費寶貴的時間，我們不知道能不能承擔這個風險。還是把這個當作最後手段吧。」極光閉上了眼，用口鼻處感應起風向。你一直都知道冬至龍的龍鬚對天氣變化很敏感，但你從未真的搞清楚過那是怎麼運作的。
“Look there!” one of your mortal companions cries, pointing frantically into the endless wall of white.
「看那邊！」你們的一名人類夥伴大叫，瘋狂指向無盡頭的白色區域。
Eight pairs of eyes–for the ice queen had cried herself into an exhausted stupor–strain to pierce the pelting snow, and for a moment you swear nobody so much as breathes. Then, an unnaturally radiant glint, like bottled starlight, cuts through the gloom, fades, and shines out again. With a whoop you bound over to Reed and scramble onto his back, followed in short order by your companions as you charge toward the irregular glimmer in the distance.
八雙眼睛──其中一雙是已經哭嚎光力氣的冰龍女王的麻木雙眼──看向那片微不足道的平凡雪地，有那麼一瞬間，你敢發誓大家都憋住了呼吸。然後，一道不自然、像是一瓶星光的光芒四射，劃破黑暗，退散，然後又一次發出光芒。你呼叫一聲衝向里德，爬上牠的背，而你的同伴在你們衝向遠處那不規則光點的時候緊跟在後。
It takes little to cover the intervening distance, and when you draw near you can’t help but let out loud peals of laughter.
要趕上這段距離並不困難，但在你接近之後，你無法抑制自己的大笑出來。
Three Nilia pygmies, sinking all the way to their necks in the snow with every step they take, are squabbling loudly and valiantly for control of a brilliantly iridescent scale easily twice their size.
三頭每跨一步都會讓自己埋到只有頭露出雪地的尼利亞侏儒龍正大聲爭吵，爭取著有自己身形兩倍大的絢麗虹光鱗片的所有權。
Chapter 8 - Pint-sized Pilferer（小小偷兒）
“Hey you,” you call out, gripping Reed’s mane tightly as you lean over to pluck the scale away from the thieving pygmies. It takes a couple of extra shakes to dislodge the most tenacious of the three from the scale, and when you straighten back up on the Yulebuck’s back you look down to see three pairs of bright golden eyes glaring hatefully up at you. “Sorry! It’s important.”
「喂！」你大聲斥喝，緊抓著里德的鬃毛，身體前傾奪走了那些小偷侏儒龍手中的鱗片。三頭龍中有頭特別頑強，讓你多搖了幾下才成功拿走鱗片。當你在尤爾巴克龍背上重新坐直身體後，低頭就看到三對金眼睛正憤恨地瞪著你。「抱歉！這很重要。」
“I don’t think I would want them knowing where I sleep,” Joy smirks.
「我覺得我也不想讓牠們知道我平常睡在哪，」裘伊哂笑。
You reach into your haversack and produce three large, faintly-glowing mana crystals that you made earlier in anticipation of rejoining the refugees in the clearing and toss each one into the snow by the pygmies. They dive into the deep drift, one surfacing with two gems before being tackled by the one that came up empty-mouthed.
你手伸向後背包，掏出了之前因為認為會有更多受難者加入，而製造出來的三個發光的大魔力水晶，一個個丟到了那些侏儒龍身邊的雪地。落下的水晶陷入雪中，有兩塊只露出個頭，剩下的一顆則深陷凹處。
Your would-be murderers thus distracted, you take the chance to examine the scale more closely. It is denser than you expected and seems to almost thrum at your touch, shining a bright, iridescent gold in spite of the dark and dreary skies.
那些本打算殺了你的傢伙們因此分了心，給了你空檔仔細檢查鱗片。它比你預想的密度還要高，且幾乎是以你觸摸的頻率，在這陰沉的天氣下散發出亮而炫目的金虹光芒。
“Let us away,” Janus’ telepathic voice cuts through the almost entrancing hum of the scale against your palms, “before Her Majesty has a change of heart. Aurora, do you remember the way?”
「我們該走了，」傑努斯的心靈感應聲音打斷了你掌心中彷彿在狂喜高歌的鱗片，「不然女王要回心轉意了。極光，你還記得路嗎？」
She nods silently in answer and sets off at a brisk pace through the snow, the other dragons and their passengers following the glow she leaves in her wake as they circle wide around the Ice dragon revelries and make for the Avatar’s lair.
極光無聲點頭示意，輕快一踏飛離雪地，其他龍和人跟在牠亮起的光芒後方，繞過狂歡著的冰系龍種，前往化身的巢穴。
Epilogue（尾聲）
This time, when your party reaches the Avatar’s den, the distant rumble of his snoring is not there to greet you. The blizzard’s winds have begun to penetrate whatever protective wards the dragon set to protect his home; this, at least, makes you frown.
這次，在你們這個隊伍抵達化身巢穴的時候，沒有遙遠的轟隆鼾聲迎接你們。狂風暴雪已經開始穿透了龍為守護自家而設下的魔法屏障，這讓你皺起眉頭。
Holding the scale high above your head, you shout, “O great Avatar, we have come to return what was stolen from you!”
你將鱗片高舉過頭，大吼：「偉大的化身，我們來歸還您被盜走的事物了！」
The Avatar of Change steps out into the dreary daylight, towering proudly over your expedition force, all traces of his earlier embarrassment gone. “Ah,” he says, his telepathic gravitas undeniable, “well done. Thank you.”
變幻化身踏入陰沉的白天之下，高傲地面對著你們這支探險隊，一點也沒有之前面對你們的尷尬。「啊，」牠莊嚴的心靈感應聲音不容置疑，「你們做得很好，謝謝。」
“Can you stop the storm now?” Joy pipes up, hopeful.
「那你能停下這場暴風雪嗎？」裘伊語帶希冀地插嘴問。
“I cannot interfere–however,” he adds with wry amusement as Aurora’s expression darkens. The gems along his belly scutes glow brightly again as he closes his eyes. The scale in your hands thrums more energetically for a moment and then goes still, its otherworldly sheen fading and leaving it seeming almost...empty. The iridescence remains–veritably, any who did not get to see it before would never know the lack–but that spark of power is gone. “The scale is depleted,” the Avatar explains, “and without it the storm cannot persist indefinitely.”
「我無權干涉──不過，」牠在極光表情黯淡之時，語帶譏嘲地補上一句。牠腹部麟甲上的寶石在牠和上眼時再次發出光芒。你手中的鱗片跟著更加有活力地躍動著，隨即陷入沉寂，其超脫世俗的光彩褪去，顯得其像是……空了一樣。虹光依舊──確實，任何在這之前沒見過鱗片的都不會注意到少了什麼──但帶魔力的光輝已經不再。「這鱗片的魔力已經耗盡，」化身解釋，「少了它，這場暴雪就無法永久持續下去。」
Janus and Aurora bare their teeth in what you imagine passes among dragons as a grin.
傑努斯和極光用你想像中龍微笑的樣子，露出了牙齒。
“Rejoin your companions below; tame the savage winds. But beware–without its master, the storm will be more violent and unforgiving than ever until it wears itself out.”
「去和你下面的夥伴會合吧。去馴服這野蠻的狂風吧。但要小心──沒有了操控者，這場暴雪只會變得更加殘暴，更加毫不留情，直到它連自身都摧毀掉。」
You nod, drawing your cloak more tightly about yourself and taking a firmer hold on Reed’s mane, and once again the eight of you set off down the mountain path and back into the howling storm.
你點了點頭，捉緊裹住自己的斗篷，並更堅定地抓緊里德的鬃毛。你們八位又一次沿著山徑離去，重返哭號的暴雪之中。
Chapter 9 - A Light in Dark Places（暗處之光）
You thought the blizzard was harsh before, but as the Avatar’s final words echo in your mind and you cling doggedly to Reed’s neck in a vain effort to shield yourself from the biting wind, you realize you had no idea. Straight-line gusts threaten to rip you from your mount and you can hardly even see his candy-striped legs through the dense snowfall.
你本以為暴雪已經夠殘暴了，但在化身說的最後一個字迴盪在你心中時，你頑強地趴在里德的脖子上，徒勞地抵禦刺骨寒風。你這才明白你之前輕忽了。垂直而上的陣風幾乎要把你從你的位置上吹下來，而你連透過濃密降雪看到里德糖果造型的腿都有難度
Chancing a look over your shoulder, you can easily make out the soft glow of Aurora’s orb and the faint golden glint of Joy’s feathered wings, mantled to shield her rider against the worst of the storm, but Janus’ large silhouette is nearly impossible to make out.
你抓緊時機回頭一看，可以輕鬆認出來自極光那顆球的柔光，和裘伊羽翅的微弱金光正護著牠的人類夥伴不受險惡暴雪侵襲，但傑努斯的巨大身影就幾乎無法認清了。
“Slow down!” you shout into Reed’s ear, hoping that the tempest doesn’t simply snatch the words away. “We’re getting split up!”
「慢點！」你對著里德的耳朵大叫，祈禱暴風不會遮擋掉你的話語：「我們快要走散了！」
Reed pauses, fluttering his holly-leaf wings with consternation. Aurora catches up, followed in short order by fleet-footed and somehow still high-spirited Joy. Janus, hampered as he is by his greater size and advanced age, joins the group a few minutes later, noticeably winded.
里德停了下來，驚愕地搧動著自己冬青葉式的翅膀。極光追了上來，緊跟著是腳步輕快，心情不知為何也很輕快的裘伊。傑努斯因為其龐大的身軀及高齡，晚幾分鐘才氣喘吁吁地加入大部隊。
“Are we getting close?” his rider calls out.
「快到了嗎？」他背上的人類吼問。
“Do we even know where we are?” Joy adds, ruffling her feathers as her passenger begins to shiver harder.
「有誰知道我們在哪嗎？」裘伊追問，在牠背上的人類抖得更厲害時，把自己的毛弄得更蓬鬆了些。
Reed bristles at the veiled accusation. “We’re headed in the right direction,” he retorts, “but it’s hard to see anything in this accursed blizzard.”
里德因這隱晦指控氣得毛都立起。「我們方向是對的，」牠回頂一句，「但在這場該死的暴雪中我們難以看清事物。」
Aurora’s rider sits up higher on her withers, his face illuminated by the softly-glowing orb between her antlers. “We’re lost, aren’t we?”
極光的人類夥伴往前挪坐到了牠的馬肩隆處，面色被極光鹿角間發出柔光的球體照亮。「我們迷路了，對吧？」
Epilogue（尾聲）
“Calm down, everyone,” Janus says, “we’ll get nowhere if we lose our heads, and everyone is counting on us to get back to the refuge. Joy, you are the most nimble of us. You and your rider go behind us and make sure none of us wanders off course. Reed, I will cut a path for you to follow. Aurora, do you think you can sense Godsibb’s weather wards from here?”
「大家都冷靜下來。」傑努斯說，「我們若像隻無頭蒼蠅的話，哪都去不了，且大家都還等著我們回避難所。裘伊，你是我們之中最靈敏的，你和你的夥伴走在隊伍最後，確保我們沒有誰走丟。里德，我走你前面。極光，你能從這裡感應到戈德席夫的氣候屏障嗎？」
The Solstice dragon tilts her head, her tufted tail switching concernedly across the snow’s powdery surface. “I think so–yes, faintly.”
冬至龍歪著頭，膨簇的尾毛擔憂地在掃起一波地上粉雪。「我想可以──有了，很微弱。」
“Then lead the way, if you please.”
「方便的話，就由你帶路了。」
Reed chimes in, a bit of his good humor returning. “Aurora with your orb so bright, won’t you guide our -.”
里德插嘴，帶上了些牠本有的幽默感：「既然極光你的球這麼亮，能否由你來──」
※ 這話是改編自聖誕歌曲《Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer（紅鼻子馴鹿魯道夫）》的歌詞「Rudolph with your nose so bright Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?（既然魯道夫你鼻子這麼亮，今晚能否由你來替我拉雪橇？）」而來。
“Finish that sentence,” she growls, brandishing her golden horns as she takes her place at the head of the procession, “I dare you.” You slap the Yulebuck’s neck in a good-humored scolding gesture.
「說完啊。」牠咆哮著，在換位子到隊伍最前方時晃著頭上的金角，「你敢的話。」你用責備好笑話的手勢拍了拍尤爾巴克龍的脖子。
With freshly renewed spirits, you set off once more on your corrected course, and before long you begin to see a light beyond the soft glow of Aurora’s crown.
重整精神後，你們朝著矯正過的方向再次出發，且不久後你就能看見極光冠下的柔光了。
Chapter 10 - Ending the Storm（暴雪終結）
“Look!” a young balloon dragon cries from his vantage point drifting over the others’ heads. The colossal stone dragon, now very much aware of the small city of activity going on around her flanks, rolls one lazy eye in the indicated direction as dragons of all shapes and sizes flock to see the commotion.
「快看！」一頭氣球幼龍大叫一聲，從原本利於觀察的位置飄到了其他人頭上。龐大的石龍因在乎身側聚集的「小城市」，所以只是轉了轉疲憊的眼睛，和所有龍一起看向該處發生了什麼騷動。
The pile of mana gems has continued to grow in your absence, and when you set eyes on the glittering pile of crystals you find yourself dazzled nearly as much as when you saw the Avatar’s magical scale. Its magi dragon guard has grown as well, bolstered by an Arsani and a diligent pair of Soulpeace dragons who seem oblivious to the burst of activity as they set about inspecting each newly-added mana gem for imperfections.
那堆魔力水晶在你離開的期間已大量增長，而且當你看向那些閃閃發光的結晶堆時，你只感受到跟看向的化身魔法鱗片一樣的暈眩感。守著它的護衛也多了一頭阿莎妮龍和一對辛勤的靈魂平靜龍──牠們對騷動毫不在意，認真地檢查那些新生的魔力水晶是否有缺陷。
When you reach the clearing at last, a cloud of newly-fledged hatchlings flaps and chitters excitedly around you and the other members of the expedition, their racing thoughts impossible to understand. Only the soft crooning of their Frill dragon governess manages to call the hyperactive flock away.
在你們終於抵達空地後，一群新生的幼龍興奮地在你和其他探險隊成員身邊蹦跳，牠們過快的反應讓你們理解不能。只有身為牠們保母的褶傘龍的低吟聲能趕走這些過洞的小傢伙。
Graciella swoops in, making room with a sweep of her jingling, ribboned tail. “We feared you had perished in the storm!” she exclaims as you and your companions dismount, stretching stiff and weary limbs. “Tell me, did you stop the Avatar?”
葛榭菈撲了過來，用牠那條綁著緞帶、叮噹作響的尾巴清出了空間。「我們還以為你們死在這場暴雪裡了！」牠在你們從龍身爬下來，伸展僵硬又疲倦的四肢時說：「快說，你們成功阻止化身了嗎？」
“The Avatar was not involved,” Janus says.
「化身與此事無關。」傑努斯說。
You hold up the depleted scale in lieu of a lengthy explanation. “He wouldn’t calm the storm, but now that this is drained we should be able to put an end to it together.”
你以高舉耗盡魔力的鱗片來代為解釋。「化身不會停止這場暴雪，但既然這東西已經沒魔力了，我們應該能一起解決掉。」
“Ah, that,” Nikolaus says, his arrival timed almost perfectly. The Wrapping-Wing’s garishly-patterned wings flutter against his sides with consternation. “We have continued to gather mana in anticipation of your return, but I fear even all we have accrued will not be sufficient to tame this wild tempest.”
「噢，那個啊，」彩紙雙翼龍尼古拉斯掐準時機到來，華麗的翅膀因驚愕而在身側拍動著。「因為想著你們會回來而有再持續收集魔力水晶，但我擔心的是就算這樣還不能平息風暴。」
“Then we’ll just have to get more,” Aurora’s rider muses, dusting off his cloak.
「那我們就再去找。」極光的夥伴沉思道，撢了撢自己的斗篷。
“Yeah,” you agree. “Together.”
「對，」你附議，「一起去找。」
Epilogue（尾聲）
Throat dry with awe and anticipation, you gaze tight-jawed at the tableau before you. Every capable dragon and human in the clearing has gathered side by side, forming a vast ring around a far smaller circle of Holiday dragons in the center. In the space between, the magi dragons–with Godsibb’s meticulous guidance–have arranged the hoard of mana crystals into an intricate, scintillating array of arcane runes. To your left stands a majestic golden dragon, his aureate scales glinting with light reflected by the gems; to your right, a Hellfire wyvern.
你口乾舌燥，敬畏又期盼地咬緊下唇，凝視眼前景象。其他的龍和人也跟著肩並著肩，在聖誕龍小圈圈外圍成更大的一個圈。在兩者之中，由冬日魔法師戈德席夫一絲不苟地指揮魔法師龍，將那堆魔力水晶排成一複雜並閃爍著光輝的祕法符文陣。你左手邊站了頭雄偉的金龍，牠的金麟正反射著水晶產生的光芒；右手邊則是頭地獄火翼龍。
Even with the constant muted roar of the wind beyond the weather ward, there is no mistaking her long, low growls. She glowers and bares long, curved teeth when you meet her eye, and hastily you look away.
即使天氣屏障外哭號的風聲持續減弱，牠發出來的低長吼聲仍讓人無法忽視。牠在你看向牠怒目回瞪，並露出了彎長的獠牙，讓你迅速轉移了視線。
An argument could be made for giving wild dragons a wide berth in the future, you think.
你想，之後應該要提案「給野生龍種留大點位置」才對。
“Citizens of Galsreim,” Janus’ words intrude upon your thoughts as he rises up on his haunches, his tone soft and conversational despite reaching out to everyone present. “thanks to your valiant efforts, we finally have the strength to calm the storm that threatens our home.”
「加斯瑞大陸的居民們，」傑努斯起身時的話打斷了你的思緒，儘管聲音溫和，卻確保了每個人都能聽見。「感謝你們的勇氣與努力，讓我們終於能夠結束這場威脅我們家園的暴風雪了。」
“Only one test remains,” Joy chortles eagerly.
「只剩下最後這個考驗。」裘伊迫不急待地得意大笑。
Flaring her metallic golden wings, Graciella follows him in standing up to her full height. “The blizzard has only grown more savage without guidance. If we delay any longer, all of this will be for naught.”
葛榭菈在自己那雙金屬光澤翅膀的照耀下，跟傑努斯一樣盡可能地站直了身：「這場暴雪無人引導的話只會越發難以控制，再拖下去一切就白費了。」
“Do not despair!” Nikolaus cries, leaping to his feet. “We have all proven that we are survivors, strong of will and pure of heart.”
「別灰心！」尼古拉斯跳了一下，大聲說：「我們都已經證明了自己是倖存者，有著堅強的意志和純真的心靈。」
“Now we shall prove our clarity of purpose -“ Reed rears up proudly for a moment, slicing at the air with his talons, “- to ourselves, and to all of Galsreim!”
「現在我們要明確我們的目標──」里德驕傲抬頭，爪子在空中揮舞幾下，「──向我們自己，也向整個加斯瑞大陸！」
Godsibb straightens, adding his voice to the collective. “Now, draw upon the rune of power. Focus your will upon the skies!”
戈德席夫站直了身，跟著發言：「現在，對那些符文施法，對著天空集中精神！」
All around the circle, humans and dragons alike do as they are bidden, each focused will causing the sigil to glow brighter and brighter, burning away the snow dusting its surface. In the center of the rune, barely visible beyond the rune’s kaleidoscopic radiance, the seven Holiday dragons spread their wings wide and add their own might to the incantation.
圍繞著圓圈的所有龍和人都謹遵囑咐，集中注意力使那些符文發出的光益發明亮，甚至融掉覆蓋在上面的白雪。而在被法陣萬花筒般的反射光束弄得幾乎看不見的中心處，七頭聖誕龍展開雙翼，將自己的力量加入咒語中。
A violent pulse of energy erupts from the rune, knocking you and many of the other channelers back and vaporizing what remains of the Winter Magi’s weather wards protecting the clearing. Instinctively you wrap your cloak tightly around yourself, but the wind never comes. The air is silent and still, and after a moment a light snow begins to fall.
一股強大的力量從法陣爆發出來，將你和其他引導者擊退，甚至蒸發了冬日魔法師用來保護空地的天氣屏障。你本能地抓緊包裹自己的斗篷，但預期的寒風卻沒有吹來，天空陷入死寂，過一會兒才有粉雪飄降。
At the sigil’s heart, Aurora launches into the sky with a triumphant, ringing cry. “It is done! Thank you, heroes! The storm has gone silent, and the seasons are in harmony once more.”
在法陣中心的極光飛上天空，用宣示勝利的口吻大聲說：「成功了！英雄們，謝謝你！暴雪停息，四季再次恢復秩序。」
—-
From your vantage point high upon the stone dragon’s flank (sleeping again, now that the excitement is past), you stare down in silent wonderment at the aftermath of the spell. All of the mana gems you collected over the past several days, their stored magic utterly spent, fused together with the rest and embedded into the very rock, even its most delicate ley lines inscribed forever in diamond upon the earth.
你站在石龍側翼的制高點（因為興奮感過了，牠又睡了），震驚且沉默地俯瞰下方法術。你們這些日子以來收集的魔力結晶完全釋放出內含的魔力，悉數融合在一起鑲嵌到岩石之中，甚至最為精緻的地脈都永久刻入了地上的鑽石之中。
Now that the celebrations are over, the masses have begun to disperse, yearning now for home after so many harrowing days and carrying with them the memories of what transpired in this clearing. Eventually you, too, must return to your studies–not on dragonback this time–but not quite yet.
現在慶典已畫下句點，人潮退去，在驚心膽跳這麼多天後開始懷念自己的家，同時也帶著這段在空地的記憶回去。最後，就連你也不得不回去書桌前──而非在龍背上──但不是現在。
You pull a strip of blank parchment and a quill from your haversack with a wistful sigh. As you begin to sketch the runes for your encyclopedia, a familiar voice intrudes.
你苦愁地嘆了口氣，從背包裡拿出一卷空白羊皮紙和羽毛筆。在你開始為你的百科描繪法陣時，一道熟悉的聲音插入。
“Crazy, isn’t it?”
「超瘋狂的，對吧？」
You look up past your drawing to see Aurora’s rider scaling the stone dragon’s side to join you. “Yeah.”
你的視線從繪圖轉向正沿著石龍鱗片爬上來加入你的極光夥伴。「是啊。」
Silence falls for a moment, punctuated only by the scratch of your quill. Your drawing complete, you set about packing up your supplies when he extends one gloved hand. “Name’s Avery.”
氣氛一度安靜，只有你羽毛筆劃紙的聲音。在你畫完，收拾背包的時候，他朝你伸出了帶著手套的手。「我叫艾弗里。」
“Well met,” you say, shaking the proffered hand before turning to go.
「你好。」你回應，在轉身前握了下對方的手。
“I’d keep a hold of that if I were you.” The Avatar of Change’s depleted scale glints from inside your pack. “They’re supposed to be lucky.”
「我是你的話會把那個留下來的。」那片耗盡魔力的變幻化身鱗片在你的背包中閃爍了下，「應該能帶來好運。」
Chuckling, you fasten the haversack more securely. “Absolutely. See you around, Avery.” And with that you descend the stone dragon’s flank and strike out toward your own home, one more adventure behind you and another only just beginning.
你大笑著把背包束緊。「當然。艾弗里，再見了。」你爬下了石龍的側翼，往家的方向衝刺；一場冒險的結束只是另一場的開始。
Chapter 11 - Bonus: A Gift to Share（番外：分享用禮）
“No peeking, Reno!” Ronin snarls, shielding a ragged-looking object in one taloned paw.
「萊諾，不要偷看！」羅尼咆哮，用爪子遮住一個看上去破爛的東西。
※ 這兩位都採用音譯。另外這是頭公龍，兩顆頭理論上都是男的。
The other paw makes a half-hearted swipe at it. “You’ve been at it for hours! How am I supposed to get anything done when you keep hogging our hands?”
另一隻爪子則心不在焉地掃過那個東西。「你這幾個小時都是這樣！我要怎麼在你這樣一直拱我們手的情況下做事啦！」
Any further discourse is abandoned in favor of a chorus of crocodilian hisses and snapping jaws as the Bloodscale dragon’s two heads vent their mounting frustration at one another.
鍍金血鱗龍的兩顆頭發出類似鱷魚的嘶叫及下巴呼嚕的混合聲，讓更多的討論都消散在這對彼此失望的嘆息之中。
For a creature that shares everything with itself, one would not expect the giving of gifts to factor high on a list of holiday traditions, but–now that the heavy snowfall on their volcanic mountainside has lessened to a pleasant dusting–giving is practically the only thing on the dragon’s two minds. Therein lies the problem: the more he tries, the more apparent it becomes that Renronin (as he is known) is not the most adept at keeping secrets from himself.
作為一個所有資訊都跟另一顆頭分享的生物，基本上不會用送禮這種方式來當作慶祝活動，但──因為火山區的大雪讓人開心灰泥大幅減少──現在兩顆龍頭心中都只剩下送禮這個方案了。但問題是：不管怎麼努力，都很難不讓對方知道驚喜是什麼。
※ Renoronin（萊羅尼）是全名，一顆頭是萊諾一顆是羅尼，所以我不一定會把這個全名翻出來。
“Fine,” Ronin concedes with a growl, flaring his gilded fringe and tossing the knick-knack onto a pile of similar items with a clatter, “how would you suggest we do this?”
「好啦。」羅尼咆哮一聲退讓，金色流邊發光，嘩啦一聲，牠把一個小擺設砸到一堆跟它一樣的東西那。「你怎麼會提議這個啊？」
Reno countered, “We should both go pick out a gift–to share.” Before Ronin can voice his assent, he adds: “and this time, I get to fly.”
萊諾回嘴：「我們都該給對方挑一個禮物──分享。」在羅尼能表示肯定之前，牠補充：「所以現在，我要起飛了。」
With one head smug and the other grumbling sourly, the Bloodscale dragon takes wing, circling leisurely above the ever-boiling steam vents as he climbs higher and higher into the sky.
在一顆頭興高采烈，另一顆滿臉不悅的情況下，鍍金血鱗龍展翅，悠哉地盤旋在蒸氣噴口上方，越飛越高。
Epilogue（尾聲）
It would be difficult for Renronin to find decorative treasures for his lair even in pleasant weather. With Ronin’s love of unusual ores and Reno’s fossil fascination, settling down into a cave within a short flight of an exposed quarry was one of the easiest decisions the two-headed dragon ever made, and it’s no surprise when he veers that way now.
即使天氣再好，要讓鍍金血鱗龍給自己家找點精緻飾品也有難度。有鑑於羅尼喜歡非比尋常的礦石，而萊諾對化石情有獨鍾，找個只要非一小段就能抵達開放採石場的洞穴中定居，大概是這兩顆頭做過的最好選擇了；也難怪牠們現在會轉向。
Perhaps with a little luck this will be the day he’ll finally be able to find a nice paleolith preserved in a slab of gold-veined stone.
或許只需要一點小運氣，牠們就能從金礦脈中找到一塊不錯的舊石器吧。
Alas, the scene that greets Renronin’s collective eyes is not a quarry of exposed ore and loose shale, but a deep drift of virgin snow. Crestfallen, Reno lands with a muted crunch in the deep powder at what should be the hollow’s edge, fringe drooping dejectedly. “Oh.”
唉，出現在鍍金血鱗龍眼前的景象並非採石場中暴露的礦石和鬆散的頁岩，而是新雪雪堆。萊諾失落地在本該是採石場空曠邊緣的雪中小聲落地，連邊角都頹了下來。「唉。」
“It’s okay, Reno!” Ronin reassures him, all thought for their squabble only moments ago banished from his mind. “We don’t have to get another pretty stone. The cave is ever so full of them as it is. What about...” Wresting control of their shared body, he lashes out and scoops up a grey streak out of the snow, “...this!”
「萊諾，沒關係的！」羅尼保證，那些口角的記憶在那麼一瞬間都被牠拋到腦後。「我們不需要更多的漂亮石頭了，洞穴裡已經滿滿都是了，還不如來個……」牠突然搶過身體的控制權，重砸地面並從雪中撈出一個灰色條紋的東西，「……這個呢！」
Clawing and chewing impotently at the dragon’s talons, as fluffy as it is furious, is a hissing, spitting, absolutely livid cat.
那東西虛弱地又撓又咬著龍爪，蓬鬆程度就跟牠的脾氣一樣大，這噓聲叫鬧還亂留口水的東西，毫無疑問是頭活生生的貓。
Reno sputters and bites back what might be the beginnings of a laugh, his lips twitching at the corners. His telepathic voice, however, is stubbornly unhappy as he pushes both talons to the snowy ground and releases the bristling animal. “What are we supposed to do with a gamey old cat?”
萊諾的回咬和口水回噴換來了另一方的哈哈大笑，這讓牠嘴角抽蓄。在牠雙爪推著雪地，放開那隻毛都豎起的動物的同時，牠的心靈感應聲音也跟著響起，顯得執拗不快。「我們該拿這隻老野貓怎麼辦？」
“I don’t know,” Ronin shrugs, “I just figured...oh, silly me. Reno, I just realized you’ve already given me a gift worth more than all the fossils and fancy ores in our hoard.”
「我不知道，」羅尼聳聳肩，「我只是想……噢，我真傻。萊諾，我才反應過來，你已經給了我價值勝過那些囤積起來的化石和華麗礦物的禮物了。」
“What?” Reno tilts his head, puzzled.
「什麼？」萊諾不解地歪頭。
“You!”
「喂！」
Reno stares dumbfounded at his other head; then, slowly, his face cracks into a glowing grin. “D’you mean it, Ronin?”
萊諾吃驚地看著牠的另一顆頭；然後，牠的臉上緩緩露出了微笑。「羅尼，你認真？」
“We both know I’m a rotten liar. Now let’s head back to the cave; we can always dig up some more stones for our collection after the weather improves.”
「我們都知道我有多不擅長說謊。回去吧。我們可以等天氣好點了再來找更多石頭當裝飾品。」
Reno nods, and this time when the Bloodscale dragon takes off and banks toward home it is with the concerted efforts of both counterparts, their movements fluid and harmonious as only two creatures bound together since birth can make them.
萊諾點頭。鍍金血鱗龍這次啟程回家，因為兩頭共同努力，動作流暢和諧地唯有出生就綁在一起的兩個生物才能辦到。
※ 然後沒意外的話這貓就是2015年走失的那隻了……吧？
Chapter 12 - Bonus: Winter's Chill（番外：刺骨冬日）
As the wind and snow continue to overwhelm Galsreim, a very eager Nhiostrife struggles to fly his way back home.
在風雪席捲加斯瑞大陸的同時，一頭回家心切的霓紋翼龍正掙扎地飛行著。
“I have to make it before sun down,” he says to himself. “But this wind is brutal...!”
His home, a modest cave in the mountainside, is fairly close. What would usually be only a few minutes’ flight has turned into one that has lasted almost an hour, and his wings are weary. In his large talons he holds something that glimmers even through the blinding whiteness of the storm.
A small break in the storm gives him the chance to take a glimpse of the cave’s entrance in the near distance. Just that sight alone is enough to brighten his mood and he flaps his wings a few times to fly faster.
“It’s so close!” he exclaims, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Another few minutes of strenuous flying later, he finally makes it to his destination— home. He swoops in and lands on the ground, careful not to scrape his already sore wings or crush the object in his talons.
“Orelia!” he calls out with his mind into the darkness of the cave.
The wyvern hears a gentle growl. “Kuno,” a tired voice speaks, weakly resonating in his mind.
Kuno quickly makes his way to the back of the cave where a weary Gold Dragon lies, curled up around a single glimmering egg. Orelia raises her head enough to see Kuno as he enters her line of sight.
“I was worried you were never going to return, you’ve been gone for so long,” she says to him.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “But this weather is doing nothing but getting worse and it’s hard to fly, even with four wings.... how is our egg doing?”
Orelia’s gaze shifts to the egg she has close to her. “It’s so cold, I haven’t felt anything within for hours.”
There is a stunned silence before Kuno approaches his mate and their egg. “I-I’m sorry, I really wouldn’t have left you both here like this for so long... oh no...”
Orelia slowly shakes her head in understanding. “What was it that caused you to leave so suddenly?” she asks him.
He gives her a slightly more relieved expression. “You’ve been struggling with keeping the egg alive. Well, we both have, so I had to go find something to help us,” he explains as he sets the glowing object on the ground and nudges it towards her. “I searched and searched until this kind human gave this to me.”
The Gold female lowers her eyes to the glowing object on the ground. “! This is...?”
“A huge crystal of fire mana,” Kuno finishes. “Maybe with this, we can save our child.”
Epilogue（尾聲）
Only the soft glow of the heated fire mana breaks up the darkness of the cavern. Kuno, the worried father, finds himself constantly going back and forth between the entrance to his home and Orelia. The storm seems to have worsened over the past few hours and though the fire mana is warming the egg, the frigid weather is doing nothing but impeding the process.
“Kuno, you’re tiring yourself out,” Orelia observes as the somewhat frantic Nhiostrife heads over to her once more.
“I can’t help it,” he responds before he sits down in front of the female Gold and their egg. “I don’t know what to do other than pace around. I mean I could always lay over the both of you, but I’m not sure if that would help or just bother you.”
She shakes her head for what seems like the tenth time in the past half an hour. “Sometimes you are a little too considerate,” she responds quietly and gives him a gentle look. “I’m sure your wings would be an even better shield for this cold than mine are.”
The Nhiostrife hesitates before he nods. He scoots up closer to them before draping one large striped wing over them both. “How is this?” he asks.
Orelia simply nods and lowers her head to check on the egg. “I still haven’t felt anything move... you don’t think that it...?”
Kuno shakes his head vigorously. “If anything happened to this baby, I would never forgive myself. We finally have an egg and to let it die in some random tempest? I won’t let it happen.”
Just as Orelia begins to speak, a loud, echoing boom reverberates throughout the sky and cavern as a rush of magical energy charges the air in a wave. Both dragons wince and cover their heads, preparing for the worst.
But the worst never comes.
It is the Nhiostrife that first uncovers his head and peeks out from underneath the edge of his wing. What was once a wall of white outside of the entrance to his home is now a clear view of the landscape outside with small snowflakes drifting through the air. He feels his chest tighten.
“Orelia, the storm is over!” he exclaims.
The rattled Gold dragon opens her eyes and peers out from behind her mate. She lets out a surprised gasp.
“What happened? It suddenly just...ended?” she says with confusion.
Kuno nods. “It seems so,” he says as he slowly raises himself from the cavern floor. “What was that magical pulse just now?”
However, another gasp from Orelia draws him from his thoughts. “Kuno! The egg!” she exclaims as she raises her wing. The wyvern removes his wing as well and looks to their precious egg, noticing the cracks that are beginning to form on its golden shell. A small paw prods against the inside of the shell of the egg and finally pushes through, creating a small hole.
Both parents watch in shock as a small baby Gold dragon wiggles its way through the shell of its egg. It fumbles around slightly against the floor as it tries to find its footing, making small whimpers and growls in the process.
“O-Orelia,” Kuno whispers.
The mother of the newborn begins crying with joy and relief before she nuzzles her head to the smaller Gold dragon. This makes the father smile before he joins in on the nuzzling of the baby with his own head.
Not only has Galsreim been saved by that courageous band of humans and dragons, but a family has been, as well.
Chapter 13 - Bonus: Izquez the Taleteller（番外：故事傳承）
When old Izquez comes to the clan gatherings to share her stories with the hatchlings, everyone gathers around in excitement. Even the more reluctant older dragons find their way to the outskirts of the loose circle of dragonkind.
They say she’s mad, the storyteller, but she remembers simpler times, and her stories captivate minds young and old. With hatchlings sheltered beneath her faded swirled wings, the youngest playing with her wrist frills to keep their attention on her tales, the revered dragoness begins the first tale of many.
“It was a cold winter’s night, much like tonight that we saw the first winter dragons. It was strange, they said — a sight like dragons had never seen before, these drakes from the snows of the mountains arriving in the caves of the land we share. I was just a hatchling myself, like you, little ones, when I first heard this story.”
She blows a gust of the powdery snow piled up around her feet around her, to the amusement of the hatchlings–it’s snowing just for them! As they snap at the falling snowflakes and cavort around her feet happily, she thinks back to the first time she’d been told the tale by one of her clan’s elders.
“It’s a special story, little ones, only to be told on the coldest of nights in close gatherings of clan and friends,” she continues, her telepathic voice tinged with quiet laughter and warning. “Gather close, and keep warm, and I will tell you where they came from, like my elder told me.”
Epilogue（尾聲）
Her tale wound from the frosty mountains down to the warmer vales of the land, and like all the best storytellers, she added a bit of flair to her telling of it. Mischievous flicks of her tail and puffs of her breath kept the snow swirling around the hatchlings nearby, and she changed her mental voice along with the characters in the story.
“Well then,” she concluded, voice gentle enough not to rouse the few hatchlings that had dozed off in a pile of warmth. “What else do you want to hear about, little ones?”
There was a flurry of snow and excitement as a little Red dragon hatchling bounded up to the front of the gathering of youngsters, stumbling over one of his clanmates.
“Where did the first dragons come from?” he asks excitedly, eyes glittering hopefully as he looked up at the storyteller.
“No, no! What about where Stripes got their colors?” asked a curious Pygmy, perched on her Guardian friend’s back.
She took the opportunity to stretch her wings and neck, settling back in for a long night of storytelling, stretching the membranes over the hatchlings at her sides to keep them warm through the night.
“Don’t worry little ones,” Izquez laughed quietly, the tone rich. “I’ll be here all night to tell you all about everything until your guardians come to take you to nest.”
Chapter 14 - Bonus: Feast or Famine（番外：盛宴飢荒）
Hailing from the lush, balmy jungle, Skreega has had little experience (rather, none) weathering the harsh chill of a proper winter. After a few moments of careful consideration–and a lot of shivering and ending up wing-deep in snow–she decided she would much rather never needing to experience it again.
Now that the great blizzard has subsided, she and the rest of the Howler drake troupe find themselves hard at work, digging hungrily for whatever frozen remnants the storm has buried. Skreega doesn’t know famine, either; each time her burrowing exposes naught but a swath of frozen soil, she whines more loudly and plaintively than the last.
One more burrow, surely.
Her claws are chilled thoroughly to the bone, but she hops out of the latest freshly-dug snow hole to start another all the same, shrieking briefly to scare away another Howler that has been staring covetously at the rotted-out tree stump she wants to investigate.
He can find his own tree.
With a bark and a last perfunctory flash of her red-eyed wings at the scattered Howlers nearby, Skreega sets to work excavating around the stump with renewed intensity, snow flying out behind her with each swipe. Before long, streaks of black earth join the spray of snow, until at last she unearths a priceless treasure: a fairy ring of frosty mushrooms, perfectly preserved beneath the ice.
Suddenly, she hears the loud rustle of leather and a deep shadow falls across her back. A telepathic chirp prods at her primitive mind. “Whatcha got there?”
Craning her neck upward, the Howler immediately flares her wings to their full, intimidating width and lets out a blood-curdling banshee scream.
Epilogue（尾聲）
Harley the mischievous young Neotropical dragon ruffles his massive wings and leans away as though pushed back by the force of Skreega’s shriek. “Wow!” he exclaims before straining to see down into the hole again.
Skreega howls again, and by now the entire troupe of Howler drakes are peeking up out of their individual burrows, bristling instinctively at their compatriot’s warning cry. Two more Neotropicals glide down amongst them like windblown leaves, rolling playfully in the powdered snow.
“You gonna eat that?” Harley asks, and Skreega answers with another raucous shriek more insistent than the last. Her voice is joined by others as first one Howler then another is disrupted by the other neotropicals gamboling through the snow.
Emboldened by the green dragon’s hesitation, Skreega, still snarling every few seconds, frantically begins stuffing her mouth with the still-frozen mushrooms, not bothering to savor the taste.
Granted, frostburned as they are, they don’t taste like much.
Harley makes as though he means to join the Howler at her banquet table and she answers with a vicious swipe.
“What a fun game. I love treasure hunts!” With an excited squeak he leaps up off the stump and over her defensively flared wings, bowling into one of the other Neotropicals. All three of them begin rifling through the hard-packed snow, sending loose powder and startled Howlers flying to a chorus of indignant screams. Skreega shrieks as the flying snow buries the remains of her hard-won meal.
At last, the chaotic Neotropicals pause, panting, to admire their work. What had been a sheet of white only moments before is now a patch of loose brown slush littered with toadstools and fat tubers. As they realize what has taken place, the Howlers’ hateful cries become barks and shrieks of joy at their windfall, and within moments the lot of them are feasting on the frozen fare.
Harley lobs a chunk of dirty snow at his clutchmate and catches Skreega’s wary gaze as she gnaws appreciatively on a root, grinning obliviously back at her. Thus famine is turned to feast and, for at least this brief time of good will, staunch ‘enemies’ become friends.
Owing in part to your redoubled efforts, the cache of depleted mana gems has been replenished. More and more dragons have found their way safely through the storm and sought refuge in the relative safety of the clearing. Again the seven spirits of winter have assembled in a circle, this time with a curious artifact at their center.
在你的加倍努力之下，一度被消耗掉的魔力水晶得到了補充。越來越多頭龍得以安全穿越暴風雪，在空地這找了個相對安全的點當避難所。七頭聖誕龍又一次圍成了圈，不過這次在牠們中間有一個奇特的東西。
As the dragons begin to channel, you sit back, preparing for another lengthy ordeal, but no sooner have you gotten comfortable than you hear a chorus of shocked and disgusted snarls echoing from the scrying circle.
當牠們開始引導魔力時，你往後坐了些，為下一場漫長的考驗做準備，但你剛放鬆下來沒多久，就聽見小圈圈那迴響起驚愕與厭惡的咆哮聲。
Turning toward the uneasy spectators, the jingling of her ribbon-like scales only just audible over the constant dull roar of the storm, Graciella the Ribbon Dancer exclaims, “This blizzard could only have been conjured by the Avatar of Change!”
緞帶舞者葛榭菈轉過來面對不安的觀眾，身上緞帶般的鱗片發出的叮噹聲響只是替外面傳來的暴雪咆哮聲增添點音色。牠說：「這場暴風雪可能是變幻化身召喚出來的！」
※ 這邊Graciella 採用音譯。
緞帶舞者葛榭菈
Chapter 4 - A Matter of Scale（與麟有關）
The Yulebuck is the first to break the scrying circle after reaching a silent accord, picking you out instantly in your place of ‘honor’ sitting atop one of the stone dragon’s toenails. One may begin to wonder if the old beast harbored any resentments over being turned into furniture, but fear not: she is quite comfortable and soundly asleep.
尤爾巴克龍在沉寂中第一個從占卜圈退出來，立刻將你從原本位置拎出來，置放在「榮譽座位」──某頭石龍腳趾上。一般來說可能要開始擔憂這頭老龍會不會因為被當成家具而心懷怨恨，但無須擔憂：石龍覺得很舒服，甚至還想打個瞌睡。
“Quickly, little one–climb on my back! We’re going to stop the Avatar of Change.”
「小傢伙，快──爬上我的背！我們要去阻止變幻化身！」
You rush to gather your belongings, glancing around to see a few other adventurers clambering up onto the backs of the Snow Angel, Holly, and Solstice dragons.
你迅速拿好自己的東西，四處張望的時候發現有其他的冒險者也爬上了雪天使龍、冬青龍和冬至龍的背上。
「好了，朋友們，」極光的心靈感應聲音只傳達給探索隊的人，「暴雪目前來說還是嚴峻到讓我們難以飛行，所以我們只能用走的方式去找化身。戈德席夫、葛榭菈和尼古拉斯會留下來看守空地並累積魔力。里德，」尤爾巴克龍起身注意，「你和你的夥伴開路。傑努斯，你負責殿後，並確保沒有誰走丟了。」
※ Reed 採用音譯。
The stately old Holly dragon growls his assent. As you and the rest of the party turn toward the howling storm, Reed the Yulebuck’s voice fills your mind once more. “I will protect you as well as I can from the cold, but I am no red dragon. Hold on tight!”
莊嚴的老冬青龍以吼聲表示同意。在其他隊伍也跟著轉向面對狂嘯的暴雪時，尤爾巴克龍里德的聲音在你腦中響起：「我會盡可能保護你不受凍寒，但我不是紅龍。抓緊點！」
※ 紅龍本身是火魔力，能噴火。
然後，四頭龍跟牠們的夥伴頭也不回地踏入寒風之中。
Epilogue（尾聲）
You imagine the fact that you can still feel your fingers–or still even have fingers–isn’t far from a miracle. While you and the rest of the search party are thankful that the relentless knives of wind grow calmer the nearer you draw to the Avatar’s mountain lair, that observation has also made you uneasy.
你假裝自己還能感受到自己的手指──如果手指還在的話──但這也不是什麼天方夜譚。在你和其他搜查隊的人慶幸越靠近化身所在的山，如刀刺骨的寒風就越發緩和時，你也同樣為了這件事情感到不安。
Has the Avatar of Change gone mad? The stony path up the mountainside feels almost balmy with an otherworldly springtime heat, and a low, rhythmical rumbling reverberates through the very stones all around you, and you cling just a bit more tightly to Reed’s mane at the thought that he might be plotting to age everyone instantly to dust the moment they set foot on his rise.
變幻化身是瘋了嗎？沿著上山的石頭小徑走，你感受到彷若來自另一個世界的春天的溫暖，有節奏的低音轟隆隆地響徹你身周的石頭，你想到牠可能正在密謀要讓大家一落地就瞬間白髮蒼蒼，化為齏粉，就又抓緊了點里德的鬃毛。
Ultimately, it is Janus who volunteers to investigate the Avatar’s lair. With a methodical air that seems like actual calm, a stark contrast to the discomfort of the human clinging to his back, the scarlet dragon dips first his long neck and then half of his body into the cave’s yawning darkness, then -.
最終，傑努斯自願去調查化身的巢穴。猩紅色的龍有條不紊，看上去十分冷靜，跟緊抱著牠的不安人類形成鮮明的對比；牠先是伸長脖子，然後是半個身子探入洞穴張牙舞爪的黑暗中──
「我想，牠……牠在打呼。」
The dumbfounded expressions of you and the rest of the party are cut off by Joy’s bubbling, telepathic laughter.
你和其他人瞠目結舌的表情被來自裘伊的電波版哄堂大笑給打斷。
“O great Avatar,” Janus posits with a shrug of his emerald wings, “we seek your wise counsel!”
「喔，偉大的化身啊！」傑努斯用牠的翡翠綠翅膀做出了聳肩的動作，「我們前來尋求您的智慧。」
The rhythmical rumbling ceases all at once, casting the precipice into eerie, soul-swallowing silence. The presence that fills your mind immediately after is awesome in both its headache-inducing power and its undeniable obliviousness. “...Just...five more weeks...mmm....”
本來有規律的轟隆聲戛然而止，導致斷崖這邊陷入可怕的死寂，而下一秒出現在你腦內的就只有牠震耳欲聾的聲音，及無法忽視的粗枝大葉。「再……再睡個五周……呼……」
「喂，不准！」極光怒吼，靈巧地將身上的乘客放下後一個急速俯衝來到了洞口，牠鹿角間的發光球體在這廣袤的黑暗中彷若微光。過了一陣子，大地伴隨著一聲怒吼震動，一頭巨龍現身，發出充滿整個空間的炫目虹光。在牠完全清醒的期間，冬至龍就停在牠頭上扇動自己鍍金的翅膀，打了這傻呼呼的化身的頭幾下。
“What is the meaning of this?” the Avatar whines, his voice a shockwave inside your skull. “The magics are balanced, the seasons are in order.”
「這是在做什麼？」化身嗚咽問，牠的分貝大到對你全身的骨頭產生了衝擊。「魔力平衡，四季有序。」
「才怪。」里德插嘴，同時極光掌握著質問對方的尺度，避免讓化身取回理智發怒，「你造成的暴雪像瘋了似的，讓整個加斯瑞大陸可說是陷入了永冬之中。」
“My blizzard?” The Avatar scoffs indignantly, nearly unseating Janus from his perch on the mountainside, drawing a startled yelp from his rider, as he spun around to regard each dragon and its mortal companion in turn.
「我造成的暴雪？」化身怒笑，讓傑努斯差點從山道上掉下去，也讓傑努斯背上的人小叫了聲。然後化身轉身細細掃視每條龍及其人類夥伴。
「你說你沒有變出這場暴雪？」極光的人類夥伴勇敢地吼問。
He snorts disdainfully in reply, as though the answer were self-evident. “I’ve been resting since the equinox. What reason would I have to upset the balance of seasons?” Pausing, the Avatar flattens his crest with sudden discomfort. “I say, does anyone else feel a draft?”
牠輕蔑地哼了聲，以示答案不言而喻。「我自春分起歇息至今，何須擾亂時令？」化身停頓了下，鼓起的胸膛因不適而平收回去，「等等，你們有沒有感到哪裡怪怪的？」
聚集起來的龍跟牠們的人類夥伴困惑地看著彼此，同時巨龍伸長脖子，抬起雙翼，徒勞地想要看自己的臀部。
「有什麼不對的嗎？」傑努斯問，不敢從自己的這更高的新座位冒險移動。
Aurora, already aloft, flits around the massive dragon to get a better look. As she did so, she lets out a chortling gasp. “He’s missing a scale!”
本來就在高處的極光繞著巨龍轉起，仔細觀察，然後牠驚呼：「牠少了片鱗片！」
冬日魔法師戈德席夫
※ 原句為「Nice to meet you」，這邊就是把 nice 改 ice。
“The Avatar of Change may not have caused this storm, but whoever did used that scale to do it,” Reed says. You and the other mortals are part of the Holiday dragon circle now–with the exception of the Solstice, who has not yet gotten her fill of scolding the thoroughly-cowed draconic demigod.
「或許這場暴風雪真的不是變幻化身造成的，但肯定是那個拿走牠鱗片的人做的。」里德說，而你和其他人類也加入了這次的聖誕龍小圈圈──不過冬至龍不在其中，牠還沒痛罵夠那頭被嚇到的嚴肅半神龍。
“So what do we do?” you ask.
「那我們該怎麼辦？」你問。
The Holly dragon huffs thoughtfully. “We find it. The Avatar of Change is magic incarnate; I imagine he can sense an object of such magical power as his own scale at a great distance. Then he need only point us in the right direction.”
冬青龍帶著怒氣地若有所思。「有了。變幻化身本身就是魔力的具現化，我想就連自己遠在天涯的鱗片也多少能有所感應，那麼只要讓牠來指引我們方向就行了。」
At long last, the Solstice dragon rejoins the group. “He will help us find the scale,” she says wryly, “but the Avatars honor the Guardian of Nature’s desire to preserve balance and neutrality, so we’ll have to bring it back ourselves.”
終於，冬至龍回來了。「牠會幫我們找到鱗片的。」牠語帶挖苦，「但這些化身都奉自然守護者那套維持平衡、不偏不倚為圭臬，所以我們只能自己去把鱗片找回來。」
“Of course.”
「那是必然的。」
You turn to watch as the Avatar settles back on his haunches, flaring his wings and baring the multitude of gem-like scales lining his belly scutes and embedded in his wing membranes. They gleam brightly for an instant before their light sinks in glittering whorls into the depths of each gem. Fighting back the urge to ask him how the gems work, you climb upon the Yulebuck’s back.
你轉頭望去，看見化身一屁股坐在地上，翅膀燃燒著，袒露展示自己腹部及翅膀薄膜處井然有序鑲嵌著的寶石般鱗片。那些鱗片在一瞬發出燦光後，光線就迅速地轉個圈收回鱗片之中。為了不脫口問出這些寶石的奧秘，你爬上了尤爾巴克龍的背。
Without moving, the Avatar says flatly (and, you think, with a tinge of lingering embarrassment), “I have marked the path for you, travelers; it isn’t far. Please return my scale to me.” Ruffling his wings, he turns back and vanishes into the dark, gaping maw of his cave. The dragons set off down the mountain path once more, their passengers in tow.
化身在原地語調平靜地開口（雖然你聽出了一絲尷尬）：「旅行者，我已為你們標出了道路，距離此處不遠。請將我的鱗片歸還於我。」牠搧了搧翅膀，然後轉身，消失在伸手不見五指的黑暗洞穴之中。聖誕龍們則帶著牠們的人類夥伴下山。
Epilogue（尾聲）
It becomes clear very quickly what the Avatar meant when he said he had marked the path. Several times one dragon or another attempts to stray from the main path in search of more certain footing, only to be stricken with a grave and gnawing sense of unease. Following along the path, narrow and winding as it is, you feel confident, even giddy. It’s the first time since the blizzard hit that you find yourself imagining Galsreim delivered from the clutches of this terrible storm.
你們很快就明白化身口中的「標出了道路」是什麼意思。每當有龍想要偏離主幹道，找找有沒有更明確的立足點時，牠們就會感受到一股令人不快的莊嚴威壓。在沿著這蜿蜒窄徑前進的同時，你充滿信心到有些飄飄然，甚至在這場暴雪降臨後首次產生了加斯瑞大陸能逃出其魔爪的念頭。
Abruptly, something sweeps Reed’s talons out from under him, sending you sprawling into the waist-deep snow and nearly causing a pile-up of the other dragons following behind.
突然間，有什麼東西從里德的腿下掃過，導致你難看地摔進了有你腰這麼高的雪地中，身後還跟了一排同樣慘烈的龍。
“We have arrived,” Janus muses sagely.
「我們到了。」傑努斯英明地做出結論。
You sit up and wipe the snow from your face, squinting to get a better look at the obstacle over which your mount stumbled. “It’s a...dragon.” At that moment, the dragon rolled over and stretched luxuriously, catlike in its contented laziness. “An ice hatchling!”
你坐起身來，抹掉臉上的雪，瞇著眼試圖看清到底是什麼東西絆倒你身下的龍。「是……頭龍。」那頭龍這時轉了個身，慵懶地伸了個懶腰，全身散發著懶洋洋的貓的氣息。「是頭冰龍幼龍！」
Materializing through a wall of windblown ice, a Frostbite dragon greets the party with a throaty roar, her telepathic call raucous and booming. “Welcome to the party, pals!”
在穿過一道由風吹起的冰牆後，一頭寒霜龍用著嘶啞的吼聲迎接隊伍的到來，她的心靈感應聲音低沉而嘶啞。「我的朋友們，歡迎前來參加這場盛宴！」
Dragons and mortals alike turn their heads as one. “The party?!”
龍人面面相聚。「盛宴？！」
彩紙雙翼龍尼古拉斯
Chapter 6 - Festivus Interruptus（中止偽節）
※ Festivus是個在12/23的假節日，用來諷刺過度商業化的聖誕節。另外用google搜尋這個單字的話會在畫面左邊出現一跟豎立的光禿鋁棍，諷刺根本沒有聖誕節該有的氛圍存在。
“The party, yes! Did nobody tell you?”
「沒錯，盛宴！沒人通知你們？」
“Well, not in so many words,” Reed remarks sourly. His warning, like yours and anyone else’s, was sudden biting winds and roiling clouds giving way to endless sheets of snow.
「這個嘛，牠沒說清楚。」里德語帶挖苦，而牠和你們其他人一樣，腦中的警報從本來的刺骨寒風跟陰鬱天氣轉變為無盡大雪。
“N-never mind that,” you interject, not much enjoying the thought of a battle breaking out involving the dragon you happen to be riding. “What’s the occasion?”
「算、算了吧。」你插嘴，並一點也不希望你身下的龍在載著你的時候跟對方開戰。「現在是什麼情況？」
The Frostbite dragon grins, a plume of cold vapor spilling out of her mouth even in this bitterly frigid air. Her voice drips with reverence as she recounts the tale. “Winter, of course. But not just any winter–no, it has been foretold that this shall be the Winter of Ice Dragons! With her mystical stone, our great clan leader shall lead us into a golden age of frozen glory!”
寒霜龍咧嘴一笑，在這霜寒天氣下吐出一股冰寒的氣息。接下來，牠用極為虔誠的聲音說：「當然是冬天了，但這可不是什麼一般的冬天──根據預言，這將是一場冰系龍種歡慶的冬天！在那顆神秘石頭的引領下，我們偉大的族長將帶領我們進入冰封榮耀的黃金歲月！」
“That’s -.”
「那是──」
“Fantastic,” Joy pipes up, cutting you off with a wink. “We’re kind of ice dragons too, you know. I for one would love to meet this clan leader of yours.”
「那真是太好了，」裘伊突然說，朝你眨了個眼暗示你保持沉默。「你看，我們也算是冰系龍種。我可想見見你們的族長了。」
Epilogue（尾聲）
With the Frostbite dragon’s gushing over her clan leader (and she had prattled on at great length, with little urging from anyone), you have understandably high expectations. However, after wading past group after group of ice dragons of all shapes and sizes frolicking ecstatically through the snow, your group’s guide leads you to a simple stony outcropping upon which a rather large ice dragon, festooned with jewelry and accoutrements fashioned crudely out of shards of ice, lay with all the pride of a queen.
由於寒霜龍對牠們族長的高度評價（雖然牠滔滔不絕地誇個不停，但你們也沒什麼人想催牠就是了），你理所當然地對那位族長帶有極高的期望。然而在穿過一群在雪中狂歡慶祝的各種外觀體型的冰系龍種後，你們的導遊帶著你們來到了一座凸出地面的簡單石台，上面的巨大冰龍戴滿各式珠寶及用冰粗糙製出的配件，展現出女王的氣勢。
The Frostbite dragon offers her clan chieftain a private word before excusing herself back to the festivities. Leaving you and your new friends to the leader’s appraising eye. “Isn’t it wonderful?” she crowed. “When I found the stone, I thought about using it to build a giant ice palace into the mountainside, but it seemed a bit pretentious, if you ask me. Now, a blizzard–nothing says winter like a good old-fashioned snow storm.”
寒霜龍跟族長說了些話後就告退回去參加宴會，留下你跟你的新朋友們給對方打量。「這不是再好不過了嗎？」牠說，「在我發現這塊石頭的時候，我只是想說可以在山腰蓋座大大的冰殿，但要我說的話，它似乎有些超規格了。現在這場暴風雪──沒有什麼比來場復古大風雪的冬天還棒了。」
“Certainly,” Aurora counters, growling, “but this old-fashioned snow storm you’ve conjured for your clan is threatening to bury all of Galsreim in a perpetual winter.”
「話是這麼說，」極光咆哮反擊，「但這場你給你族人招來的復古大風雪，已經變成會將加斯瑞大陸埋葬在永恆冬季之中的威脅了。」
“What do you mean?”
「什麼意思？」
You clear your throat, digging through the stacks of vellum stuffed haphazardly into your haversack. “That stone you found isn’t a stone at all. It’s a dragon scale imbued with immensely powerful magic, and by using it you’ve spawned a storm even you cannot hope to control. Our best hope to protect Galsreim is to return the scale to its rightful owner.”
你清了清喉嚨，在你那塞滿卷軸東西的背包裡翻找。「你找到的那個並不是石頭，而是片充滿巨大魔力的龍麟，而你根本無法控制這場用它引發的暴雪。而最能保護加斯瑞大陸的方法就是把這鱗片物歸原主了。」
The ice queen looks aghast at you for a long, tense moment, opening her mouth to object.
冰龍女王震驚地看了你許久，氣氛劍拔弩張，牠張嘴想要反駁。
“And if you think it isn’t your problem because you’re Ice dragons, what do you think you’re going to eat next year when everything’s frozen solid?”
「如果你覺得反正自己是冰龍，這事與你無關的話，那麼請問你來年打算在冰封大地的情況下以什麼賴以為生呢？」
Her mouth clicks shut, swallowing a low growl. You see out of the corner of your eye that her long, wicked claws are digging deeper into the earth, but you dare not break eye contact despite your fear.
牠又閉上了嘴，把一聲低吼吞回了肚子。你用眼角瞟到牠那邪惡的長爪正深深地刨進泥土中，但你也不因害怕而停止與牠的對視。
Janus breaks the silence. “You must admit, our little friend has a point.”
傑努斯打斷沉寂。「你得承認，我們的小朋友說到了點上。」
“Yes,” the Ice queen concedes, grinding her teeth unpleasantly, then continues with a long sigh, “I suppose so. Perhaps I would have done better to settle for the palace after all. Nothing bad ever comes of building gaudy, enviable fortresses to flaunt one’s unimaginable wealth and power. Wait here; I shall retrieve the sto- the scale.”
「是的。」冰龍女王咬牙不情願地承認，然後長嘆一聲：「的確。早知道我就蓋一座城堡了，反正蓋一座雄偉、令人羨慕的城堡來炫耀財富跟力量也不會招來什麼壞事。你們在這等一下，我去把石頭，不，鱗片拿來。」
Dragging her considerable girth along the rock face, the chieftain locates a nearly-invisible crevice barely wide enough to admit one of her taloned paws and reaches inside. Suddenly, her eyes widen.
族長拖著龐大身軀來到石壁前，將手爪伸入了一道窄得快要看不見的裂縫之中。突然，牠雙眼圓瞪。
Pulling her paw out of the crevice, she shows the assembled group her empty talons.
牠將手從裂縫中收回，向大家展示了空無一物的掌心。
“It’s gone!”
「不見了！」
冬至龍極光
Chapter 7 - High Altitude, High Jinks（高處狂歡）
“Could one of you do something to stop her unbearable wailing before the whole clan hears and thinks we’ve killed her?” Reed asks, pawing plaintively through your pack. Exasperated, you tie it shut and throw it over your shoulder before he manages to tear your scrolls.
「你們有沒有誰，能在牠那些族人誤以為我們殺了牠之前讓牠別再鬼吼鬼叫了？」里德邊問，邊悲憤地用牠的爪趾撥弄著你的包包。你趕在牠把你的卷軸弄裂前生氣地把包包繫上口，甩回肩上。
The ice queen remains where she flopped in the throes of her tantrum, shrieking curses to the gale winds at her misfortune with tears frozen solid on both cheeks. In spite of her strident cries and Reed’s mounting irritation, Janus maintains his usual air of composure and reflection, studying the area from where he sits.
冰龍女王仍趴在牠盛怒時拍打王座的位置，尖聲詛咒帶給牠不幸的大風，雙頰上還帶有眼淚凍結成的印子。儘管女王鬼哭神號，里德煩惱徒增，傑努斯卻維持著牠一貫的沉著反應，研究著自己所在位置。
It is a poor spot for footprints, even in the blizzard–and, perhaps, because of the blizzard. What ground isn’t solid rock is quickly scrubbed clean of marks by the wind, and even the dragons’ trail into the ice queen’s makeshift court has long since been filled in with snow. Joy bounds lightly across the snow’s surface as only a Snow Angel can, hunting for any faint scents or signs to follow.
這裡是就算暴雪也難以留下足跡的地點──而且，可能就是因為這場暴雪，地面並非結實泥地，風一吹就會洗掉所有痕跡，就連通往冰龍女王臨時王座的道路都是被雪覆蓋已久的情況。裘伊以雪天使才能辦到的輕靈在雪上跳躍，搜尋是否有什麼能用來追蹤的微小氣味或痕跡。
You sigh. Even the warm glow from Aurora’s crown doesn’t seem to be enough to cut through the raging blizzard and your darkening mood. Without so much as a broken twig to point the way, you feel the weight of hopelessness begin to creep in once more.
你長嘆一口氣。儘管極光的王冠散發出了溫暖的光芒，也無法驅走狂暴的風雪跟你越發陰暗的心情。前途迷茫，絕望的沉重感在一次攀上你的心頭。
Epilogue（尾聲）
“We could always go back to the Avatar,” you offer with a helpless shrug, raising your voice to be heard over both the Ice dragon’s keening and the wind. Not for the first time since setting out, you wish that you could communicate telepathically, too.
「反正我們還能回去找化身。」你放棄地聳聳肩，聲音放大到能蓋過冰龍的呻吟跟風聲。自你踏上旅行後，你又一次希望自己也能夠用心靈感應來交流了。
“It’d waste precious time we don’t know that we can afford. Best keep that only as a last resort.” Aurora’s eyes are shut tight, her muzzle turned into the wind. Solstice dragon whiskers are sensitive to the weather, you know, but you’ve never really been able to figure out how.
「不，這樣會浪費寶貴的時間，我們不知道能不能承擔這個風險。還是把這個當作最後手段吧。」極光閉上了眼，用口鼻處感應起風向。你一直都知道冬至龍的龍鬚對天氣變化很敏感，但你從未真的搞清楚過那是怎麼運作的。
“Look there!” one of your mortal companions cries, pointing frantically into the endless wall of white.
「看那邊！」你們的一名人類夥伴大叫，瘋狂指向無盡頭的白色區域。
Eight pairs of eyes–for the ice queen had cried herself into an exhausted stupor–strain to pierce the pelting snow, and for a moment you swear nobody so much as breathes. Then, an unnaturally radiant glint, like bottled starlight, cuts through the gloom, fades, and shines out again. With a whoop you bound over to Reed and scramble onto his back, followed in short order by your companions as you charge toward the irregular glimmer in the distance.
八雙眼睛──其中一雙是已經哭嚎光力氣的冰龍女王的麻木雙眼──看向那片微不足道的平凡雪地，有那麼一瞬間，你敢發誓大家都憋住了呼吸。然後，一道不自然、像是一瓶星光的光芒四射，劃破黑暗，退散，然後又一次發出光芒。你呼叫一聲衝向里德，爬上牠的背，而你的同伴在你們衝向遠處那不規則光點的時候緊跟在後。
It takes little to cover the intervening distance, and when you draw near you can’t help but let out loud peals of laughter.
要趕上這段距離並不困難，但在你接近之後，你無法抑制自己的大笑出來。
Three Nilia pygmies, sinking all the way to their necks in the snow with every step they take, are squabbling loudly and valiantly for control of a brilliantly iridescent scale easily twice their size.
三頭每跨一步都會讓自己埋到只有頭露出雪地的尼利亞侏儒龍正大聲爭吵，爭取著有自己身形兩倍大的絢麗虹光鱗片的所有權。
Chapter 8 - Pint-sized Pilferer（小小偷兒）
“Hey you,” you call out, gripping Reed’s mane tightly as you lean over to pluck the scale away from the thieving pygmies. It takes a couple of extra shakes to dislodge the most tenacious of the three from the scale, and when you straighten back up on the Yulebuck’s back you look down to see three pairs of bright golden eyes glaring hatefully up at you. “Sorry! It’s important.”
「喂！」你大聲斥喝，緊抓著里德的鬃毛，身體前傾奪走了那些小偷侏儒龍手中的鱗片。三頭龍中有頭特別頑強，讓你多搖了幾下才成功拿走鱗片。當你在尤爾巴克龍背上重新坐直身體後，低頭就看到三對金眼睛正憤恨地瞪著你。「抱歉！這很重要。」
“I don’t think I would want them knowing where I sleep,” Joy smirks.
「我覺得我也不想讓牠們知道我平常睡在哪，」裘伊哂笑。
You reach into your haversack and produce three large, faintly-glowing mana crystals that you made earlier in anticipation of rejoining the refugees in the clearing and toss each one into the snow by the pygmies. They dive into the deep drift, one surfacing with two gems before being tackled by the one that came up empty-mouthed.
你手伸向後背包，掏出了之前因為認為會有更多受難者加入，而製造出來的三個發光的大魔力水晶，一個個丟到了那些侏儒龍身邊的雪地。落下的水晶陷入雪中，有兩塊只露出個頭，剩下的一顆則深陷凹處。
Your would-be murderers thus distracted, you take the chance to examine the scale more closely. It is denser than you expected and seems to almost thrum at your touch, shining a bright, iridescent gold in spite of the dark and dreary skies.
那些本打算殺了你的傢伙們因此分了心，給了你空檔仔細檢查鱗片。它比你預想的密度還要高，且幾乎是以你觸摸的頻率，在這陰沉的天氣下散發出亮而炫目的金虹光芒。
“Let us away,” Janus’ telepathic voice cuts through the almost entrancing hum of the scale against your palms, “before Her Majesty has a change of heart. Aurora, do you remember the way?”
「我們該走了，」傑努斯的心靈感應聲音打斷了你掌心中彷彿在狂喜高歌的鱗片，「不然女王要回心轉意了。極光，你還記得路嗎？」
She nods silently in answer and sets off at a brisk pace through the snow, the other dragons and their passengers following the glow she leaves in her wake as they circle wide around the Ice dragon revelries and make for the Avatar’s lair.
極光無聲點頭示意，輕快一踏飛離雪地，其他龍和人跟在牠亮起的光芒後方，繞過狂歡著的冰系龍種，前往化身的巢穴。
Epilogue（尾聲）
This time, when your party reaches the Avatar’s den, the distant rumble of his snoring is not there to greet you. The blizzard’s winds have begun to penetrate whatever protective wards the dragon set to protect his home; this, at least, makes you frown.
這次，在你們這個隊伍抵達化身巢穴的時候，沒有遙遠的轟隆鼾聲迎接你們。狂風暴雪已經開始穿透了龍為守護自家而設下的魔法屏障，這讓你皺起眉頭。
Holding the scale high above your head, you shout, “O great Avatar, we have come to return what was stolen from you!”
你將鱗片高舉過頭，大吼：「偉大的化身，我們來歸還您被盜走的事物了！」
The Avatar of Change steps out into the dreary daylight, towering proudly over your expedition force, all traces of his earlier embarrassment gone. “Ah,” he says, his telepathic gravitas undeniable, “well done. Thank you.”
變幻化身踏入陰沉的白天之下，高傲地面對著你們這支探險隊，一點也沒有之前面對你們的尷尬。「啊，」牠莊嚴的心靈感應聲音不容置疑，「你們做得很好，謝謝。」
“Can you stop the storm now?” Joy pipes up, hopeful.
「那你能停下這場暴風雪嗎？」裘伊語帶希冀地插嘴問。
“I cannot interfere–however,” he adds with wry amusement as Aurora’s expression darkens. The gems along his belly scutes glow brightly again as he closes his eyes. The scale in your hands thrums more energetically for a moment and then goes still, its otherworldly sheen fading and leaving it seeming almost...empty. The iridescence remains–veritably, any who did not get to see it before would never know the lack–but that spark of power is gone. “The scale is depleted,” the Avatar explains, “and without it the storm cannot persist indefinitely.”
「我無權干涉──不過，」牠在極光表情黯淡之時，語帶譏嘲地補上一句。牠腹部麟甲上的寶石在牠和上眼時再次發出光芒。你手中的鱗片跟著更加有活力地躍動著，隨即陷入沉寂，其超脫世俗的光彩褪去，顯得其像是……空了一樣。虹光依舊──確實，任何在這之前沒見過鱗片的都不會注意到少了什麼──但帶魔力的光輝已經不再。「這鱗片的魔力已經耗盡，」化身解釋，「少了它，這場暴雪就無法永久持續下去。」
Janus and Aurora bare their teeth in what you imagine passes among dragons as a grin.
傑努斯和極光用你想像中龍微笑的樣子，露出了牙齒。
“Rejoin your companions below; tame the savage winds. But beware–without its master, the storm will be more violent and unforgiving than ever until it wears itself out.”
「去和你下面的夥伴會合吧。去馴服這野蠻的狂風吧。但要小心──沒有了操控者，這場暴雪只會變得更加殘暴，更加毫不留情，直到它連自身都摧毀掉。」
You nod, drawing your cloak more tightly about yourself and taking a firmer hold on Reed’s mane, and once again the eight of you set off down the mountain path and back into the howling storm.
你點了點頭，捉緊裹住自己的斗篷，並更堅定地抓緊里德的鬃毛。你們八位又一次沿著山徑離去，重返哭號的暴雪之中。
Chapter 9 - A Light in Dark Places（暗處之光）
You thought the blizzard was harsh before, but as the Avatar’s final words echo in your mind and you cling doggedly to Reed’s neck in a vain effort to shield yourself from the biting wind, you realize you had no idea. Straight-line gusts threaten to rip you from your mount and you can hardly even see his candy-striped legs through the dense snowfall.
你本以為暴雪已經夠殘暴了，但在化身說的最後一個字迴盪在你心中時，你頑強地趴在里德的脖子上，徒勞地抵禦刺骨寒風。你這才明白你之前輕忽了。垂直而上的陣風幾乎要把你從你的位置上吹下來，而你連透過濃密降雪看到里德糖果造型的腿都有難度
Chancing a look over your shoulder, you can easily make out the soft glow of Aurora’s orb and the faint golden glint of Joy’s feathered wings, mantled to shield her rider against the worst of the storm, but Janus’ large silhouette is nearly impossible to make out.
你抓緊時機回頭一看，可以輕鬆認出來自極光那顆球的柔光，和裘伊羽翅的微弱金光正護著牠的人類夥伴不受險惡暴雪侵襲，但傑努斯的巨大身影就幾乎無法認清了。
“Slow down!” you shout into Reed’s ear, hoping that the tempest doesn’t simply snatch the words away. “We’re getting split up!”
「慢點！」你對著里德的耳朵大叫，祈禱暴風不會遮擋掉你的話語：「我們快要走散了！」
Reed pauses, fluttering his holly-leaf wings with consternation. Aurora catches up, followed in short order by fleet-footed and somehow still high-spirited Joy. Janus, hampered as he is by his greater size and advanced age, joins the group a few minutes later, noticeably winded.
里德停了下來，驚愕地搧動著自己冬青葉式的翅膀。極光追了上來，緊跟著是腳步輕快，心情不知為何也很輕快的裘伊。傑努斯因為其龐大的身軀及高齡，晚幾分鐘才氣喘吁吁地加入大部隊。
“Are we getting close?” his rider calls out.
「快到了嗎？」他背上的人類吼問。
“Do we even know where we are?” Joy adds, ruffling her feathers as her passenger begins to shiver harder.
「有誰知道我們在哪嗎？」裘伊追問，在牠背上的人類抖得更厲害時，把自己的毛弄得更蓬鬆了些。
Reed bristles at the veiled accusation. “We’re headed in the right direction,” he retorts, “but it’s hard to see anything in this accursed blizzard.”
里德因這隱晦指控氣得毛都立起。「我們方向是對的，」牠回頂一句，「但在這場該死的暴雪中我們難以看清事物。」
Aurora’s rider sits up higher on her withers, his face illuminated by the softly-glowing orb between her antlers. “We’re lost, aren’t we?”
極光的人類夥伴往前挪坐到了牠的馬肩隆處，面色被極光鹿角間發出柔光的球體照亮。「我們迷路了，對吧？」
Epilogue（尾聲）
“Calm down, everyone,” Janus says, “we’ll get nowhere if we lose our heads, and everyone is counting on us to get back to the refuge. Joy, you are the most nimble of us. You and your rider go behind us and make sure none of us wanders off course. Reed, I will cut a path for you to follow. Aurora, do you think you can sense Godsibb’s weather wards from here?”
「大家都冷靜下來。」傑努斯說，「我們若像隻無頭蒼蠅的話，哪都去不了，且大家都還等著我們回避難所。裘伊，你是我們之中最靈敏的，你和你的夥伴走在隊伍最後，確保我們沒有誰走丟。里德，我走你前面。極光，你能從這裡感應到戈德席夫的氣候屏障嗎？」
The Solstice dragon tilts her head, her tufted tail switching concernedly across the snow’s powdery surface. “I think so–yes, faintly.”
冬至龍歪著頭，膨簇的尾毛擔憂地在掃起一波地上粉雪。「我想可以──有了，很微弱。」
“Then lead the way, if you please.”
「方便的話，就由你帶路了。」
Reed chimes in, a bit of his good humor returning. “Aurora with your orb so bright, won’t you guide our -.”
里德插嘴，帶上了些牠本有的幽默感：「既然極光你的球這麼亮，能否由你來──」
※ 這話是改編自聖誕歌曲《Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer（紅鼻子馴鹿魯道夫）》的歌詞「Rudolph with your nose so bright Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?（既然魯道夫你鼻子這麼亮，今晚能否由你來替我拉雪橇？）」而來。
“Finish that sentence,” she growls, brandishing her golden horns as she takes her place at the head of the procession, “I dare you.” You slap the Yulebuck’s neck in a good-humored scolding gesture.
「說完啊。」牠咆哮著，在換位子到隊伍最前方時晃著頭上的金角，「你敢的話。」你用責備好笑話的手勢拍了拍尤爾巴克龍的脖子。
With freshly renewed spirits, you set off once more on your corrected course, and before long you begin to see a light beyond the soft glow of Aurora’s crown.
重整精神後，你們朝著矯正過的方向再次出發，且不久後你就能看見極光冠下的柔光了。
Chapter 10 - Ending the Storm（暴雪終結）
“Look!” a young balloon dragon cries from his vantage point drifting over the others’ heads. The colossal stone dragon, now very much aware of the small city of activity going on around her flanks, rolls one lazy eye in the indicated direction as dragons of all shapes and sizes flock to see the commotion.
「快看！」一頭氣球幼龍大叫一聲，從原本利於觀察的位置飄到了其他人頭上。龐大的石龍因在乎身側聚集的「小城市」，所以只是轉了轉疲憊的眼睛，和所有龍一起看向該處發生了什麼騷動。
The pile of mana gems has continued to grow in your absence, and when you set eyes on the glittering pile of crystals you find yourself dazzled nearly as much as when you saw the Avatar’s magical scale. Its magi dragon guard has grown as well, bolstered by an Arsani and a diligent pair of Soulpeace dragons who seem oblivious to the burst of activity as they set about inspecting each newly-added mana gem for imperfections.
那堆魔力水晶在你離開的期間已大量增長，而且當你看向那些閃閃發光的結晶堆時，你只感受到跟看向的化身魔法鱗片一樣的暈眩感。守著它的護衛也多了一頭阿莎妮龍和一對辛勤的靈魂平靜龍──牠們對騷動毫不在意，認真地檢查那些新生的魔力水晶是否有缺陷。
When you reach the clearing at last, a cloud of newly-fledged hatchlings flaps and chitters excitedly around you and the other members of the expedition, their racing thoughts impossible to understand. Only the soft crooning of their Frill dragon governess manages to call the hyperactive flock away.
在你們終於抵達空地後，一群新生的幼龍興奮地在你和其他探險隊成員身邊蹦跳，牠們過快的反應讓你們理解不能。只有身為牠們保母的褶傘龍的低吟聲能趕走這些過洞的小傢伙。
Graciella swoops in, making room with a sweep of her jingling, ribboned tail. “We feared you had perished in the storm!” she exclaims as you and your companions dismount, stretching stiff and weary limbs. “Tell me, did you stop the Avatar?”
葛榭菈撲了過來，用牠那條綁著緞帶、叮噹作響的尾巴清出了空間。「我們還以為你們死在這場暴雪裡了！」牠在你們從龍身爬下來，伸展僵硬又疲倦的四肢時說：「快說，你們成功阻止化身了嗎？」
“The Avatar was not involved,” Janus says.
「化身與此事無關。」傑努斯說。
You hold up the depleted scale in lieu of a lengthy explanation. “He wouldn’t calm the storm, but now that this is drained we should be able to put an end to it together.”
你以高舉耗盡魔力的鱗片來代為解釋。「化身不會停止這場暴雪，但既然這東西已經沒魔力了，我們應該能一起解決掉。」
“Ah, that,” Nikolaus says, his arrival timed almost perfectly. The Wrapping-Wing’s garishly-patterned wings flutter against his sides with consternation. “We have continued to gather mana in anticipation of your return, but I fear even all we have accrued will not be sufficient to tame this wild tempest.”
「噢，那個啊，」彩紙雙翼龍尼古拉斯掐準時機到來，華麗的翅膀因驚愕而在身側拍動著。「因為想著你們會回來而有再持續收集魔力水晶，但我擔心的是就算這樣還不能平息風暴。」
“Then we’ll just have to get more,” Aurora’s rider muses, dusting off his cloak.
「那我們就再去找。」極光的夥伴沉思道，撢了撢自己的斗篷。
“Yeah,” you agree. “Together.”
「對，」你附議，「一起去找。」
Epilogue（尾聲）
Throat dry with awe and anticipation, you gaze tight-jawed at the tableau before you. Every capable dragon and human in the clearing has gathered side by side, forming a vast ring around a far smaller circle of Holiday dragons in the center. In the space between, the magi dragons–with Godsibb’s meticulous guidance–have arranged the hoard of mana crystals into an intricate, scintillating array of arcane runes. To your left stands a majestic golden dragon, his aureate scales glinting with light reflected by the gems; to your right, a Hellfire wyvern.
你口乾舌燥，敬畏又期盼地咬緊下唇，凝視眼前景象。其他的龍和人也跟著肩並著肩，在聖誕龍小圈圈外圍成更大的一個圈。在兩者之中，由冬日魔法師戈德席夫一絲不苟地指揮魔法師龍，將那堆魔力水晶排成一複雜並閃爍著光輝的祕法符文陣。你左手邊站了頭雄偉的金龍，牠的金麟正反射著水晶產生的光芒；右手邊則是頭地獄火翼龍。
Even with the constant muted roar of the wind beyond the weather ward, there is no mistaking her long, low growls. She glowers and bares long, curved teeth when you meet her eye, and hastily you look away.
即使天氣屏障外哭號的風聲持續減弱，牠發出來的低長吼聲仍讓人無法忽視。牠在你看向牠怒目回瞪，並露出了彎長的獠牙，讓你迅速轉移了視線。
An argument could be made for giving wild dragons a wide berth in the future, you think.
你想，之後應該要提案「給野生龍種留大點位置」才對。
“Citizens of Galsreim,” Janus’ words intrude upon your thoughts as he rises up on his haunches, his tone soft and conversational despite reaching out to everyone present. “thanks to your valiant efforts, we finally have the strength to calm the storm that threatens our home.”
「加斯瑞大陸的居民們，」傑努斯起身時的話打斷了你的思緒，儘管聲音溫和，卻確保了每個人都能聽見。「感謝你們的勇氣與努力，讓我們終於能夠結束這場威脅我們家園的暴風雪了。」
“Only one test remains,” Joy chortles eagerly.
「只剩下最後這個考驗。」裘伊迫不急待地得意大笑。
Flaring her metallic golden wings, Graciella follows him in standing up to her full height. “The blizzard has only grown more savage without guidance. If we delay any longer, all of this will be for naught.”
葛榭菈在自己那雙金屬光澤翅膀的照耀下，跟傑努斯一樣盡可能地站直了身：「這場暴雪無人引導的話只會越發難以控制，再拖下去一切就白費了。」
“Do not despair!” Nikolaus cries, leaping to his feet. “We have all proven that we are survivors, strong of will and pure of heart.”
「別灰心！」尼古拉斯跳了一下，大聲說：「我們都已經證明了自己是倖存者，有著堅強的意志和純真的心靈。」
“Now we shall prove our clarity of purpose -“ Reed rears up proudly for a moment, slicing at the air with his talons, “- to ourselves, and to all of Galsreim!”
「現在我們要明確我們的目標──」里德驕傲抬頭，爪子在空中揮舞幾下，「──向我們自己，也向整個加斯瑞大陸！」
Godsibb straightens, adding his voice to the collective. “Now, draw upon the rune of power. Focus your will upon the skies!”
戈德席夫站直了身，跟著發言：「現在，對那些符文施法，對著天空集中精神！」
All around the circle, humans and dragons alike do as they are bidden, each focused will causing the sigil to glow brighter and brighter, burning away the snow dusting its surface. In the center of the rune, barely visible beyond the rune’s kaleidoscopic radiance, the seven Holiday dragons spread their wings wide and add their own might to the incantation.
圍繞著圓圈的所有龍和人都謹遵囑咐，集中注意力使那些符文發出的光益發明亮，甚至融掉覆蓋在上面的白雪。而在被法陣萬花筒般的反射光束弄得幾乎看不見的中心處，七頭聖誕龍展開雙翼，將自己的力量加入咒語中。
A violent pulse of energy erupts from the rune, knocking you and many of the other channelers back and vaporizing what remains of the Winter Magi’s weather wards protecting the clearing. Instinctively you wrap your cloak tightly around yourself, but the wind never comes. The air is silent and still, and after a moment a light snow begins to fall.
一股強大的力量從法陣爆發出來，將你和其他引導者擊退，甚至蒸發了冬日魔法師用來保護空地的天氣屏障。你本能地抓緊包裹自己的斗篷，但預期的寒風卻沒有吹來，天空陷入死寂，過一會兒才有粉雪飄降。
At the sigil’s heart, Aurora launches into the sky with a triumphant, ringing cry. “It is done! Thank you, heroes! The storm has gone silent, and the seasons are in harmony once more.”
在法陣中心的極光飛上天空，用宣示勝利的口吻大聲說：「成功了！英雄們，謝謝你！暴雪停息，四季再次恢復秩序。」
—-
From your vantage point high upon the stone dragon’s flank (sleeping again, now that the excitement is past), you stare down in silent wonderment at the aftermath of the spell. All of the mana gems you collected over the past several days, their stored magic utterly spent, fused together with the rest and embedded into the very rock, even its most delicate ley lines inscribed forever in diamond upon the earth.
你站在石龍側翼的制高點（因為興奮感過了，牠又睡了），震驚且沉默地俯瞰下方法術。你們這些日子以來收集的魔力結晶完全釋放出內含的魔力，悉數融合在一起鑲嵌到岩石之中，甚至最為精緻的地脈都永久刻入了地上的鑽石之中。
Now that the celebrations are over, the masses have begun to disperse, yearning now for home after so many harrowing days and carrying with them the memories of what transpired in this clearing. Eventually you, too, must return to your studies–not on dragonback this time–but not quite yet.
現在慶典已畫下句點，人潮退去，在驚心膽跳這麼多天後開始懷念自己的家，同時也帶著這段在空地的記憶回去。最後，就連你也不得不回去書桌前──而非在龍背上──但不是現在。
You pull a strip of blank parchment and a quill from your haversack with a wistful sigh. As you begin to sketch the runes for your encyclopedia, a familiar voice intrudes.
你苦愁地嘆了口氣，從背包裡拿出一卷空白羊皮紙和羽毛筆。在你開始為你的百科描繪法陣時，一道熟悉的聲音插入。
“Crazy, isn’t it?”
「超瘋狂的，對吧？」
You look up past your drawing to see Aurora’s rider scaling the stone dragon’s side to join you. “Yeah.”
你的視線從繪圖轉向正沿著石龍鱗片爬上來加入你的極光夥伴。「是啊。」
Silence falls for a moment, punctuated only by the scratch of your quill. Your drawing complete, you set about packing up your supplies when he extends one gloved hand. “Name’s Avery.”
氣氛一度安靜，只有你羽毛筆劃紙的聲音。在你畫完，收拾背包的時候，他朝你伸出了帶著手套的手。「我叫艾弗里。」
“Well met,” you say, shaking the proffered hand before turning to go.
「你好。」你回應，在轉身前握了下對方的手。
“I’d keep a hold of that if I were you.” The Avatar of Change’s depleted scale glints from inside your pack. “They’re supposed to be lucky.”
「我是你的話會把那個留下來的。」那片耗盡魔力的變幻化身鱗片在你的背包中閃爍了下，「應該能帶來好運。」
Chuckling, you fasten the haversack more securely. “Absolutely. See you around, Avery.” And with that you descend the stone dragon’s flank and strike out toward your own home, one more adventure behind you and another only just beginning.
你大笑著把背包束緊。「當然。艾弗里，再見了。」你爬下了石龍的側翼，往家的方向衝刺；一場冒險的結束只是另一場的開始。
Chapter 11 - Bonus: A Gift to Share（番外：分享用禮）
“No peeking, Reno!” Ronin snarls, shielding a ragged-looking object in one taloned paw.
「萊諾，不要偷看！」羅尼咆哮，用爪子遮住一個看上去破爛的東西。
※ 這兩位都採用音譯。另外這是頭公龍，兩顆頭理論上都是男的。
The other paw makes a half-hearted swipe at it. “You’ve been at it for hours! How am I supposed to get anything done when you keep hogging our hands?”
另一隻爪子則心不在焉地掃過那個東西。「你這幾個小時都是這樣！我要怎麼在你這樣一直拱我們手的情況下做事啦！」
Any further discourse is abandoned in favor of a chorus of crocodilian hisses and snapping jaws as the Bloodscale dragon’s two heads vent their mounting frustration at one another.
鍍金血鱗龍的兩顆頭發出類似鱷魚的嘶叫及下巴呼嚕的混合聲，讓更多的討論都消散在這對彼此失望的嘆息之中。
For a creature that shares everything with itself, one would not expect the giving of gifts to factor high on a list of holiday traditions, but–now that the heavy snowfall on their volcanic mountainside has lessened to a pleasant dusting–giving is practically the only thing on the dragon’s two minds. Therein lies the problem: the more he tries, the more apparent it becomes that Renronin (as he is known) is not the most adept at keeping secrets from himself.
作為一個所有資訊都跟另一顆頭分享的生物，基本上不會用送禮這種方式來當作慶祝活動，但──因為火山區的大雪讓人開心灰泥大幅減少──現在兩顆龍頭心中都只剩下送禮這個方案了。但問題是：不管怎麼努力，都很難不讓對方知道驚喜是什麼。
※ Renoronin（萊羅尼）是全名，一顆頭是萊諾一顆是羅尼，所以我不一定會把這個全名翻出來。
“Fine,” Ronin concedes with a growl, flaring his gilded fringe and tossing the knick-knack onto a pile of similar items with a clatter, “how would you suggest we do this?”
「好啦。」羅尼咆哮一聲退讓，金色流邊發光，嘩啦一聲，牠把一個小擺設砸到一堆跟它一樣的東西那。「你怎麼會提議這個啊？」
Reno countered, “We should both go pick out a gift–to share.” Before Ronin can voice his assent, he adds: “and this time, I get to fly.”
萊諾回嘴：「我們都該給對方挑一個禮物──分享。」在羅尼能表示肯定之前，牠補充：「所以現在，我要起飛了。」
With one head smug and the other grumbling sourly, the Bloodscale dragon takes wing, circling leisurely above the ever-boiling steam vents as he climbs higher and higher into the sky.
在一顆頭興高采烈，另一顆滿臉不悅的情況下，鍍金血鱗龍展翅，悠哉地盤旋在蒸氣噴口上方，越飛越高。
Epilogue（尾聲）
It would be difficult for Renronin to find decorative treasures for his lair even in pleasant weather. With Ronin’s love of unusual ores and Reno’s fossil fascination, settling down into a cave within a short flight of an exposed quarry was one of the easiest decisions the two-headed dragon ever made, and it’s no surprise when he veers that way now.
即使天氣再好，要讓鍍金血鱗龍給自己家找點精緻飾品也有難度。有鑑於羅尼喜歡非比尋常的礦石，而萊諾對化石情有獨鍾，找個只要非一小段就能抵達開放採石場的洞穴中定居，大概是這兩顆頭做過的最好選擇了；也難怪牠們現在會轉向。
Perhaps with a little luck this will be the day he’ll finally be able to find a nice paleolith preserved in a slab of gold-veined stone.
或許只需要一點小運氣，牠們就能從金礦脈中找到一塊不錯的舊石器吧。
Alas, the scene that greets Renronin’s collective eyes is not a quarry of exposed ore and loose shale, but a deep drift of virgin snow. Crestfallen, Reno lands with a muted crunch in the deep powder at what should be the hollow’s edge, fringe drooping dejectedly. “Oh.”
唉，出現在鍍金血鱗龍眼前的景象並非採石場中暴露的礦石和鬆散的頁岩，而是新雪雪堆。萊諾失落地在本該是採石場空曠邊緣的雪中小聲落地，連邊角都頹了下來。「唉。」
“It’s okay, Reno!” Ronin reassures him, all thought for their squabble only moments ago banished from his mind. “We don’t have to get another pretty stone. The cave is ever so full of them as it is. What about...” Wresting control of their shared body, he lashes out and scoops up a grey streak out of the snow, “...this!”
「萊諾，沒關係的！」羅尼保證，那些口角的記憶在那麼一瞬間都被牠拋到腦後。「我們不需要更多的漂亮石頭了，洞穴裡已經滿滿都是了，還不如來個……」牠突然搶過身體的控制權，重砸地面並從雪中撈出一個灰色條紋的東西，「……這個呢！」
Clawing and chewing impotently at the dragon’s talons, as fluffy as it is furious, is a hissing, spitting, absolutely livid cat.
那東西虛弱地又撓又咬著龍爪，蓬鬆程度就跟牠的脾氣一樣大，這噓聲叫鬧還亂留口水的東西，毫無疑問是頭活生生的貓。
Reno sputters and bites back what might be the beginnings of a laugh, his lips twitching at the corners. His telepathic voice, however, is stubbornly unhappy as he pushes both talons to the snowy ground and releases the bristling animal. “What are we supposed to do with a gamey old cat?”
萊諾的回咬和口水回噴換來了另一方的哈哈大笑，這讓牠嘴角抽蓄。在牠雙爪推著雪地，放開那隻毛都豎起的動物的同時，牠的心靈感應聲音也跟著響起，顯得執拗不快。「我們該拿這隻老野貓怎麼辦？」
“I don’t know,” Ronin shrugs, “I just figured...oh, silly me. Reno, I just realized you’ve already given me a gift worth more than all the fossils and fancy ores in our hoard.”
「我不知道，」羅尼聳聳肩，「我只是想……噢，我真傻。萊諾，我才反應過來，你已經給了我價值勝過那些囤積起來的化石和華麗礦物的禮物了。」
“What?” Reno tilts his head, puzzled.
「什麼？」萊諾不解地歪頭。
“You!”
「喂！」
Reno stares dumbfounded at his other head; then, slowly, his face cracks into a glowing grin. “D’you mean it, Ronin?”
萊諾吃驚地看著牠的另一顆頭；然後，牠的臉上緩緩露出了微笑。「羅尼，你認真？」
“We both know I’m a rotten liar. Now let’s head back to the cave; we can always dig up some more stones for our collection after the weather improves.”
「我們都知道我有多不擅長說謊。回去吧。我們可以等天氣好點了再來找更多石頭當裝飾品。」
Reno nods, and this time when the Bloodscale dragon takes off and banks toward home it is with the concerted efforts of both counterparts, their movements fluid and harmonious as only two creatures bound together since birth can make them.
萊諾點頭。鍍金血鱗龍這次啟程回家，因為兩頭共同努力，動作流暢和諧地唯有出生就綁在一起的兩個生物才能辦到。
※ 然後沒意外的話這貓就是2015年走失的那隻了……吧？
Chapter 12 - Bonus: Winter's Chill（番外：刺骨冬日）
As the wind and snow continue to overwhelm Galsreim, a very eager Nhiostrife struggles to fly his way back home.
在風雪席捲加斯瑞大陸的同時，一頭回家心切的霓紋翼龍正掙扎地飛行著。
“I have to make it before sun down,” he says to himself. “But this wind is brutal...!”
His home, a modest cave in the mountainside, is fairly close. What would usually be only a few minutes’ flight has turned into one that has lasted almost an hour, and his wings are weary. In his large talons he holds something that glimmers even through the blinding whiteness of the storm.
A small break in the storm gives him the chance to take a glimpse of the cave’s entrance in the near distance. Just that sight alone is enough to brighten his mood and he flaps his wings a few times to fly faster.
“It’s so close!” he exclaims, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Another few minutes of strenuous flying later, he finally makes it to his destination— home. He swoops in and lands on the ground, careful not to scrape his already sore wings or crush the object in his talons.
“Orelia!” he calls out with his mind into the darkness of the cave.
The wyvern hears a gentle growl. “Kuno,” a tired voice speaks, weakly resonating in his mind.
Kuno quickly makes his way to the back of the cave where a weary Gold Dragon lies, curled up around a single glimmering egg. Orelia raises her head enough to see Kuno as he enters her line of sight.
“I was worried you were never going to return, you’ve been gone for so long,” she says to him.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “But this weather is doing nothing but getting worse and it’s hard to fly, even with four wings.... how is our egg doing?”
Orelia’s gaze shifts to the egg she has close to her. “It’s so cold, I haven’t felt anything within for hours.”
There is a stunned silence before Kuno approaches his mate and their egg. “I-I’m sorry, I really wouldn’t have left you both here like this for so long... oh no...”
Orelia slowly shakes her head in understanding. “What was it that caused you to leave so suddenly?” she asks him.
He gives her a slightly more relieved expression. “You’ve been struggling with keeping the egg alive. Well, we both have, so I had to go find something to help us,” he explains as he sets the glowing object on the ground and nudges it towards her. “I searched and searched until this kind human gave this to me.”
The Gold female lowers her eyes to the glowing object on the ground. “! This is...?”
“A huge crystal of fire mana,” Kuno finishes. “Maybe with this, we can save our child.”
Epilogue（尾聲）
Only the soft glow of the heated fire mana breaks up the darkness of the cavern. Kuno, the worried father, finds himself constantly going back and forth between the entrance to his home and Orelia. The storm seems to have worsened over the past few hours and though the fire mana is warming the egg, the frigid weather is doing nothing but impeding the process.
“Kuno, you’re tiring yourself out,” Orelia observes as the somewhat frantic Nhiostrife heads over to her once more.
“I can’t help it,” he responds before he sits down in front of the female Gold and their egg. “I don’t know what to do other than pace around. I mean I could always lay over the both of you, but I’m not sure if that would help or just bother you.”
She shakes her head for what seems like the tenth time in the past half an hour. “Sometimes you are a little too considerate,” she responds quietly and gives him a gentle look. “I’m sure your wings would be an even better shield for this cold than mine are.”
The Nhiostrife hesitates before he nods. He scoots up closer to them before draping one large striped wing over them both. “How is this?” he asks.
Orelia simply nods and lowers her head to check on the egg. “I still haven’t felt anything move... you don’t think that it...?”
Kuno shakes his head vigorously. “If anything happened to this baby, I would never forgive myself. We finally have an egg and to let it die in some random tempest? I won’t let it happen.”
Just as Orelia begins to speak, a loud, echoing boom reverberates throughout the sky and cavern as a rush of magical energy charges the air in a wave. Both dragons wince and cover their heads, preparing for the worst.
But the worst never comes.
It is the Nhiostrife that first uncovers his head and peeks out from underneath the edge of his wing. What was once a wall of white outside of the entrance to his home is now a clear view of the landscape outside with small snowflakes drifting through the air. He feels his chest tighten.
“Orelia, the storm is over!” he exclaims.
The rattled Gold dragon opens her eyes and peers out from behind her mate. She lets out a surprised gasp.
“What happened? It suddenly just...ended?” she says with confusion.
Kuno nods. “It seems so,” he says as he slowly raises himself from the cavern floor. “What was that magical pulse just now?”
However, another gasp from Orelia draws him from his thoughts. “Kuno! The egg!” she exclaims as she raises her wing. The wyvern removes his wing as well and looks to their precious egg, noticing the cracks that are beginning to form on its golden shell. A small paw prods against the inside of the shell of the egg and finally pushes through, creating a small hole.
Both parents watch in shock as a small baby Gold dragon wiggles its way through the shell of its egg. It fumbles around slightly against the floor as it tries to find its footing, making small whimpers and growls in the process.
“O-Orelia,” Kuno whispers.
The mother of the newborn begins crying with joy and relief before she nuzzles her head to the smaller Gold dragon. This makes the father smile before he joins in on the nuzzling of the baby with his own head.
Not only has Galsreim been saved by that courageous band of humans and dragons, but a family has been, as well.
Chapter 13 - Bonus: Izquez the Taleteller（番外：故事傳承）
When old Izquez comes to the clan gatherings to share her stories with the hatchlings, everyone gathers around in excitement. Even the more reluctant older dragons find their way to the outskirts of the loose circle of dragonkind.
They say she’s mad, the storyteller, but she remembers simpler times, and her stories captivate minds young and old. With hatchlings sheltered beneath her faded swirled wings, the youngest playing with her wrist frills to keep their attention on her tales, the revered dragoness begins the first tale of many.
“It was a cold winter’s night, much like tonight that we saw the first winter dragons. It was strange, they said — a sight like dragons had never seen before, these drakes from the snows of the mountains arriving in the caves of the land we share. I was just a hatchling myself, like you, little ones, when I first heard this story.”
She blows a gust of the powdery snow piled up around her feet around her, to the amusement of the hatchlings–it’s snowing just for them! As they snap at the falling snowflakes and cavort around her feet happily, she thinks back to the first time she’d been told the tale by one of her clan’s elders.
“It’s a special story, little ones, only to be told on the coldest of nights in close gatherings of clan and friends,” she continues, her telepathic voice tinged with quiet laughter and warning. “Gather close, and keep warm, and I will tell you where they came from, like my elder told me.”
Epilogue（尾聲）
Her tale wound from the frosty mountains down to the warmer vales of the land, and like all the best storytellers, she added a bit of flair to her telling of it. Mischievous flicks of her tail and puffs of her breath kept the snow swirling around the hatchlings nearby, and she changed her mental voice along with the characters in the story.
“Well then,” she concluded, voice gentle enough not to rouse the few hatchlings that had dozed off in a pile of warmth. “What else do you want to hear about, little ones?”
There was a flurry of snow and excitement as a little Red dragon hatchling bounded up to the front of the gathering of youngsters, stumbling over one of his clanmates.
“Where did the first dragons come from?” he asks excitedly, eyes glittering hopefully as he looked up at the storyteller.
“No, no! What about where Stripes got their colors?” asked a curious Pygmy, perched on her Guardian friend’s back.
She took the opportunity to stretch her wings and neck, settling back in for a long night of storytelling, stretching the membranes over the hatchlings at her sides to keep them warm through the night.
“Don’t worry little ones,” Izquez laughed quietly, the tone rich. “I’ll be here all night to tell you all about everything until your guardians come to take you to nest.”
Chapter 14 - Bonus: Feast or Famine（番外：盛宴飢荒）
Hailing from the lush, balmy jungle, Skreega has had little experience (rather, none) weathering the harsh chill of a proper winter. After a few moments of careful consideration–and a lot of shivering and ending up wing-deep in snow–she decided she would much rather never needing to experience it again.
Now that the great blizzard has subsided, she and the rest of the Howler drake troupe find themselves hard at work, digging hungrily for whatever frozen remnants the storm has buried. Skreega doesn’t know famine, either; each time her burrowing exposes naught but a swath of frozen soil, she whines more loudly and plaintively than the last.
One more burrow, surely.
Her claws are chilled thoroughly to the bone, but she hops out of the latest freshly-dug snow hole to start another all the same, shrieking briefly to scare away another Howler that has been staring covetously at the rotted-out tree stump she wants to investigate.
He can find his own tree.
With a bark and a last perfunctory flash of her red-eyed wings at the scattered Howlers nearby, Skreega sets to work excavating around the stump with renewed intensity, snow flying out behind her with each swipe. Before long, streaks of black earth join the spray of snow, until at last she unearths a priceless treasure: a fairy ring of frosty mushrooms, perfectly preserved beneath the ice.
Suddenly, she hears the loud rustle of leather and a deep shadow falls across her back. A telepathic chirp prods at her primitive mind. “Whatcha got there?”
Craning her neck upward, the Howler immediately flares her wings to their full, intimidating width and lets out a blood-curdling banshee scream.
Epilogue（尾聲）
Harley the mischievous young Neotropical dragon ruffles his massive wings and leans away as though pushed back by the force of Skreega’s shriek. “Wow!” he exclaims before straining to see down into the hole again.
Skreega howls again, and by now the entire troupe of Howler drakes are peeking up out of their individual burrows, bristling instinctively at their compatriot’s warning cry. Two more Neotropicals glide down amongst them like windblown leaves, rolling playfully in the powdered snow.
“You gonna eat that?” Harley asks, and Skreega answers with another raucous shriek more insistent than the last. Her voice is joined by others as first one Howler then another is disrupted by the other neotropicals gamboling through the snow.
Emboldened by the green dragon’s hesitation, Skreega, still snarling every few seconds, frantically begins stuffing her mouth with the still-frozen mushrooms, not bothering to savor the taste.
Granted, frostburned as they are, they don’t taste like much.
Harley makes as though he means to join the Howler at her banquet table and she answers with a vicious swipe.
“What a fun game. I love treasure hunts!” With an excited squeak he leaps up off the stump and over her defensively flared wings, bowling into one of the other Neotropicals. All three of them begin rifling through the hard-packed snow, sending loose powder and startled Howlers flying to a chorus of indignant screams. Skreega shrieks as the flying snow buries the remains of her hard-won meal.
At last, the chaotic Neotropicals pause, panting, to admire their work. What had been a sheet of white only moments before is now a patch of loose brown slush littered with toadstools and fat tubers. As they realize what has taken place, the Howlers’ hateful cries become barks and shrieks of joy at their windfall, and within moments the lot of them are feasting on the frozen fare.
Harley lobs a chunk of dirty snow at his clutchmate and catches Skreega’s wary gaze as she gnaws appreciatively on a root, grinning obliviously back at her. Thus famine is turned to feast and, for at least this brief time of good will, staunch ‘enemies’ become friends.
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