安静的夜晚 A Quiet Night

The fire was crackling away nicely, spreading a warm glow throughout the forest clearing. Tristana lay on her back with her head pillowed on her pack, watching a comet streak across the starlit sky. The winking lights glittered prettily through a swaying canopy of birch and oak leaves. The humans liked to name the patterns in the stars – she’d seen some in an old book in Heimerdinger’s laboratory – but she decided it would be more fun to give them names of her own invention.

熊熊篝火噼啪地燃烧着，温暖的光亮洒遍了这篇林间空地。崔丝塔娜躺在地上，头枕着她的行囊，看着一颗彗星从星空中划过。满天繁星在桦树和橡树叶组成的摇曳华盖之间欢快地眨着眼。人类总喜欢给这些星星构成的图案取名字——她曾在黑默丁格的实验室里看过一本古书的相关记载——但她还是觉得自己给它们取名字更好玩。

“You can be the Growling Badger,” she said, pointing to one group of stars. “And you can be the Cheeky Changeling. Yes, that’s much better than boring names like The Warrior or The Defender. And anyway, I can’t see those ones anymore.”

Her stomach rumbled and she sat up. Hunger was still something surprising to her, even though she’d ventured beyond Bandle City more than most of her kind. A pair of spitted fish were roasting nicely over the flames and the smell of them was making her mouth water. She’d shot them in the stream to the west of her campsite with a single, exceptionally carefully-aimed bullet from her cannon. Not a bad feat of marksmanship, even if she did say so herself. Too bad no-one was around to see it! She leaned over and patted the polished drakewood stock of her exquisitely crafted cannon; a weapon any sensible observer would say was far too large for someone of her diminutive stature to even carry, let alone shoot.

“你就叫做闪光徽章”她说着，伸手指向一群星星。“你可以叫做大脸丑小鸭。没错，这名字可比什么武士座或者保护者座有趣多了。反正，我也看不见那两堆星星了。”

“Let Teemo have his cute little blowpipes, eh, Boomer?” she told the cannon. “I’ll stick to something with a bit more oomph, thank you very much.”

The fire crackled in a ring of stones, burning with cerulean flames, thanks to the pinch of her custom powder she’d sprinkled on the kindling to get it started. She knew now just how little she needed to use after her first time in the Upplands had cost her a perfectly decent pair of eyebrows. Sometimes it was hard to remember that things were so different in the human world compared to back home.

她的肚子咕咕叫了一声，她坐了起来。虽然她比大多数约德尔人离开班德尔城的时候都更多，但是饥饿的感觉依然让她很不习惯。篝火上方叉着两条鱼，火候刚好，鱼肉的香味让她口舌生津。这两条鱼是从篝火西面的小河里捕获的，她只用了一发精心瞄准的炮弹。这算得上是一次不错的射击表演，但她自己却并不自满。当时周围没有观众，实在是可惜！她俯下身拍了拍自己精心定制的火炮，炮托是抛光打磨的龙骨木，稍微有观察力和常识的人都会认为，这门火炮对于她这样小巧的身体来说太大了，端着走路都很难，更别说瞄准开火了。

Deciding the fish were ready, she slid one from the spit onto a wooden plate she removed from her pack. She unwrapped a golden knife and fork from a rolled dreamleaf and cut the fish into slices. She might be on a mission, but that didn’t mean she had to eat like a savage. She took a mouthful of fish and rolled it around her mouth, savoring the taste and licking her lips in satisfaction. Mortal food was usually bland and tasteless compared to the smorgasbord of flavors she was used to, but the fish in this part of the world – Ionia, she’d heard it was called – wasn’t half bad. Perhaps it was the magic saturating every element of this landscape that made them extra tasty.

Tristana heard the crack of a twig. One of many she’d laid in a circle around her camp. The sound and type of twig told her exactly how far away the humans were and from which direction they were approaching.

“就让提莫使用他那可爱的小吹管吧，对吧，轰轰？”她对火炮说话。“我还是喜欢一些更有劲的武器，多谢关心。”

She cleared her throat and called out, “I have another fish if you’re hungry.”

A man and a woman emerged from the forest in front of her. Both were tall and lean, with fidgeting hands and cold eyes. They didn’t look friendly, but she was still learning how to read human expressions and she’d been taught to always be polite. Human languages were so unsophisticated that she often wondered how they managed to communicate at all.

篝火在石块围成的圆环中继续噼啪作响，冒着蓝色的火焰，因为她在引火木屑中撒了一撮自制的火药，以便轻松生火。现在她知道只需要很少的量就够了，第一次在普兰高地生火的时候，她报废了一对漂亮的眉毛。有的时候她总是会忘记，人类世界的一切东西都和她的故乡不一样。

The man took a step forward and said, “Many thanks, old one, but we are not hungry.”

“Old one?” said Tristana with a playfully indignant grin. “I’m a young slip of a girl!”

她觉得鱼已经烤好了，她从烤叉上摘下来一条，盛到了随身携带的木盘子里。她又打开梦叶卷，拿出一副金色的刀叉，将烤鱼切成段。或许她是在执行任务，但这并不意味着她必须茹毛饮血。她咬了一口鱼，在嘴里左右轮换，细细品味一番以后，满足地舔了舔嘴唇。人类的食物通常都味同嚼蜡，完全比不上故乡的饕餮盛宴，但是这个地方的鱼——据她听说这里叫做艾欧尼亚——一点都不赖。或许是因为这片陆地上饱含的魔法浸润了一切元素，才让这些鱼如此美味。

The man blinked and she saw what might have been a look of puzzlement cross his face.

“The old crone’s insane,” said the woman, looking sidelong at her, as if not quite sure what to make of what she was seeing. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t her true form…

崔丝塔娜听到了树杈折断的声音。她在自己营地的周围布置了许多树杈。声音的大小和树杈的种类可以让她准确地知道人类从哪个方向靠近，距离还有多远。

“You’re sure you don’t want a bit of fish?” asked Tristana, taking another bite. “It’s really tasty.”

“We’re sure,” confirmed the man. “But we’ll take any coin you’re carrying. As well as that gun of yours. I suspect it will fetch a pretty penny at auction.”

她清了清嗓子大声喊道，“我这还有一条鱼，你们饿吗？”

“You want to steal my Boomer?” said Tristana, sensing movement to either side. “You know, I just don’t see that happening.”

“No? You’re alone and there’s two of us,” said the man. “And we’re bigger than you.”

一对男女从她面前的树林中现身。这两个人又高又瘦、双手烦躁、目光冷峻。他们看上去并不友善，但崔丝塔娜依然还在学习如何正确读懂人类的表情，而且有人告诉她应该时刻都保持礼貌。人类语言实在是太不严谨了，她经常觉得无法理解，人类究竟是如何实现基本交流的。

“Size isn’t everything,” said Tristana. “And there’s four of you. Why don’t you ask your two bandit friends to come out? Maybe they’re hungry?”

The woman shook her head. “He told you, we’re alone.”

男的迈进一步说，“多谢，老家伙，我们不饿。”

“Oh, come on,” said Tristana. “What sort of commando do you think I’d be if I didn’t know you had two friends in the bushes with arrows aimed at me right now? You came in from the north and split up a hundred yards out. There’s a fat man to my left and a man with a limp to my right.”

“Good ears for one so old,” said the man.

“老家伙？”崔丝塔娜娇嗔地露齿而笑。“人家还是个小姑娘呢。”

“I told you, I’m not old,” said Tristana. “I’m actually pretty young for a Yordle.”

The man’s mouth dropped open in surprise as something of her true nature became apparent to him.

男的眨了眨眼睛，她似乎在他的脸上觉察到一丝迷惑。

Finally! An expression she had no trouble in reading.

Tristana ducked and rolled to the side as a pair of black-fletched arrows slashed from the undergrowth. They passed harmlessly overhead as she swept up Boomer and chambered a round. She fired into the bushes to her right and was rewarded with a cry of pain.

“这个老妖婆是个疯子，”女的一边说一边斜眼瞅着她，似乎不太理解自己所看到的景象。女的想，无论这是什么，总之一定不是她的真正形态。

“Blast off!” she cried, vaulting toward the nearest tree and bounding higher. Tristana landed on a branch halfway up its trunk. Another arrow flashed toward her, thudding into the bark a handspan from her head.

“Hey, you’re pretty fast for a human,” she said, racking Boomer’s crank and priming the barrel with a bunch of shells. She sprang away to another branch as the archer rose from the bushes – the fat one, which almost made it too easy. Tristana somersaulted from tree to tree and fired twice more. Both shots caught the man in his meaty thighs, and he fell back with a wail, loosing his arrow high into the air.

“你们确定不尝一口鱼吗？”崔丝塔娜一边问，一边又咬了一口。“真的很美味呢。”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” she laughed. “I barely grazed you!”

Tristana landed by her fire as the two humans she’d first seen rushed her with drawn swords. They were likely fast by human standards, but to her they moved like lumbering giants.

“我们确定，”男的答道。“但我们会拿走你身上的所有钱币。还有那门炮。我猜这玩意能拍出个好价钱。”

“Time for some up and over!” shouted Tristana, unloading the rest of Boomer’s barrel in one almighty blast into the ground. She gave a wild, whooping yell as she sailed over their heads. Even as she arced through the air she was reloading. She pushed off from the trunk of a tree and spun back to the ground.

She landed right behind the bandits with a giggle.

“你们想要偷走我的轰轰？”崔丝塔娜一边说，一边捕捉到了自己两侧的动静。“你知道吗，我觉得这事儿干不成。”

“Boom! Boom!”

Tristana fired two blasts, and both humans cried out in pain as they each took a wound to the rump. The woman fell flat on her face, beating her britches as powder burn set them alight. She managed to pick herself up and flee into the bushes with her backside on fire. The man twisted as he dropped to the ground, scrambling away as she cranked Boomer’s loading arm.

“不成？你只有一个人，我们是两个，”男的说。“而且我们比你高大。”

He was making hand gestures he probably thought were some form of magical protection.

“You’re no old woman,” he said.

“体型并不能说明一切，”崔丝塔娜说。“而且你们是四个。为什么不让你们那两个强盗弟兄出来呢？或许他们饿了。”

“I kept telling you that,” said Tristana.

The man opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak the arrow loosed from the fat man’s bow finally came back down to earth. It thudded into the man’s chest and he fell back with a look of intense annoyance.

女的摇摇头。“他告诉你了，就我们俩。”

The other bandits were dragging themselves away as fast as their wounded limbs would carry them. She let them go, grinning as she gathered up her things before stamping down the fire.

“I was just trying to eat my dinner and have a quiet night,” she said to herself. “But I guess four bandits who won’t trouble anyone again soon isn’t bad going!”

“哦，拜托，”崔丝塔娜说。“你觉得我是怎么当上突击队员的？我当然知道你们有两个朋友正躲在草丛里用弓箭瞄着我。你们从北边过来，从一百码以外开始分头走。我左面有个胖子，右面有个瘸子。”

Tristana slung Boomer over her shoulder and set off once more, whistling a jaunty tune as she looked for more stars to name.

“老人家您耳朵真灵，”男的说道。

“我说过，我不老，”崔丝塔娜说。“以约德尔人的标准，我真的很年轻。”

男的目瞪口呆，他认识到崔丝塔娜的真正身份。

终于有一个她毫不费力就能读懂的表情了！

崔丝塔娜低头向旁边翻滚，两支黑羽箭矢从矮草丛中呼啸而出，从她头上略过。她抄起轰轰，塞入一发炮弹，向右边的草丛开火，赢得了一声痛苦的惨叫。

“炸飞喽！”她一边大叫，一边跳向最近的一棵树，向更高处跳跃。崔丝塔娜踩在了一根中间高度的树干上。另一发箭失飞驰而来，重重地扎在距离她头顶一掌宽的树皮上。

“嘿，你的速度对于人类来说很快啊，”她一边说，一边将轰轰的拉杆拉出，填充一串新弹药。她迅速躲到另一根树干上，这时另一名弓箭手从草丛中站了起来 —— 那个胖子，破绽太明显，简直轻而易举。崔丝塔娜翻着筋斗，在树干之间跳来跳去，开了两炮。两发炮弹全都击中了他肥硕的大腿，胖子哀号着倒了下去，箭失竖直向上被射向高空。

“噢，别这么孩子气，”她笑着说。“我只是擦破了你的皮。”崔丝塔娜跳到了篝火旁的空地，那两个最初露面的人类刀剑出鞘，向她冲了过来。他们可能是人类之中速度快的，但是对于崔丝塔娜来说，他们简直就像木头人一样笨拙。

“是时候表演高空飞跃了！”崔丝塔娜一边大叫，一边将轰轰炮筒中的所有弹药一同对着地面射出。她发出了一声狂野不羁的嚎叫，从两个人类的头顶飞过。即使是在空中滑翔的同时，她也不忘填充弹药。她落到一棵树的主干上缓冲反弹，稳稳落地。

她正好降落在强盗的身后，轻盈地笑了一声。

“轰！轰！”

崔丝塔娜放出两记火炮，两个人类痛苦地叫喊起来，全都臀部中弹。女的一败涂地，拍打着自己的裤子，因为火药将它引燃。她设法站了起来，逃到了草丛中，后背还冒着火。男的身体扭曲地摔倒在地，看见她给轰轰上膛，无力地向远处爬开。

他正做出某种手势，崔丝塔娜觉得他可能认为这是某种形式的魔法保护。

“你不是老妖婆，”他说。

“我一直都说不是，”崔丝塔娜说。

男的张嘴想要再说些什么，但他还没说出口，胖子射出的那支箭终于落回地上了。它插在了男的的胸前，他向后仰身倒下，面部表情极度不耐烦。

另外两名强盗拖着受伤的肢体，以自己的极限速度落荒而逃。她放走了他们，一边开心地笑着，一边收拾东西，最后踩灭篝火。

“我只是想吃完晚饭度过安静的夜晚，”她自言自语道。“但少了四个强盗出来作恶，还不算坏。”

崔丝塔娜将轰轰甩上肩膀，再次启程出发，一边吹着欢快的口哨，一边寻找更多等她取名字的星星。