如何夺取龙之宝石——后记(7)

still she held up her hand from behind the glass, and pressed it up to Fishlegs’s hand and willed him to be alive, to walk, to laugh, to love. As if she could breathe life into him, as if she could be there with him, as if she could pass through the glass with the sheer hopeless longing of her love. And perhaps she was still there to love him. Termagant’s eyes had once shone into the six eyes of the Deadly Shadow. The reflection of those eyes now shone back into the eyes of Fishlegs, so it was almost as if, sometimes, she herself were looking back at him. When the Shadow dragon pressed itself protectively against Fishlegs, it was an echo of the embrace that Termagant had given that same Shadow dragon once, long ago. The past never really leaves us. And now I am an old, old man, I hover over my childhood self, as if I were a dead mother, and I am anxious for Hiccup’s future, because I already know it, and I want to protect the boy from pain. But I am happy too, because I know the future is a curious mixture of joy and sadness. So suddenly I throw away my fear, and I no longer shout ‘Stop!’ I am shouting something slightly different now.