They traveled for a long time.
Then Dapplegrim stopped and heard the sounds around them.
“Do you hear anything?” Dapplegrim asked the boy.
The boy nodded. “There are very loud sounds of crackling and crashing. Something terrible is ahead.”
Dapplegrim nodded. “Those are the wild animals that have been sent to stop us.” The horse told the boy. “Throw the carcases of the twelve oxen behind us. The wild animals would be focused on them and not hurt us.”
The boy did as he was told.
A second later, he was stunned.
Every single unimaginable kind of wild animal from the forests around them pounced on the dead oxen.
The wild animals soon fought with each other and left Dapplegrim and the boy alone.
The boy and the horse rode forward.
After many days of traveling the boy and the horse saw many new sights.
Suddenly the horse’s ears perked up.
“Do you hear anything?”
The boy nodded. “I can hear a foal plainly from long long off.”
Dapplegrim nodded. “That is a colt. If you can hear it plainly, that means the animal is far away.”
So the boy and his horse rode towards the sound.
Adapted from Norwegian Folktales
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