Ambushed!

Sher Bahadur, the Khajiit adventurer, urges his tired horse across the wintry wasteland, reminiscing fondly on his cozy home and warm hearth-fire.

Suddenly there is a sinister growl, and as his horse neighs with a shiver, a shiny shadow rushes from behind the frozen boulders and launches itself at Sher Bahadur's face.

With an instinctive reaction in a split second, Sher Bahadur screams "Tiid Klo Ul" and tries to raise his gauntlet to protect his face.

As his powerful Dragon Shout bends the fabric of time itself and slows down time around the spot, Sher Bahadur stares into the bloody fangs of the white beast as its rippling bulk looms towards him, while his own hand seems to rise too slow in response. Will he be able to block the beast in time?

Almost.

Too late, he notices that his own horse is rearing in panic-stricken fear, completely throwing his balance and control; his sword is dangling on his hip on the other side, and he has no time left to aim his gauntlet as protection against those fangs.

With a sickening thud, the beast crashes into him, and both of them topple from the rearing horse.

As his sword-n-scabbard scatters into the knee-deep snow, the rider and the beast go rolling across the snow, and come to a stop with the heavy beast on top.

And they stay there.

Sher Bahadur opens his eyes to find out he's miraculously alive. And staring into the face of a bloody wolf!

A huge, dead, ice-wolf to be precise.

With a groan, Sher Bahadur heaves the dead wolf to the side, clutching his head that's still throbbing from the disorientation and shock of the fall, and only then notices the blood as his right hand remains stuck to the wolf.

Has he been bitten and is his hand now bleeding from a mortal wound?

No. With a sense of relief, he realises it is the wolf's blood, as he sees that the spikes on his metal gauntlet are embedded into the throat and side of the head of the ice wolf. Wrenching his hand from the dead wolf, Sher Bahadur slowly rises to his feet on the slippery and soft snow, wondering how he has survived so neatly.

Then it strikes him. It was his horse and the snow that had saved him!

The horse, by rearing in the crucial moment, had raised his gauntlet a little bit, just in time as the wolf's onrushing leap caused it to impale itself on the spikes of his gauntlet.

The deep snow had cushioned his fall, even with the weight of the wolf on top of him.

And not just any wolf, he notices. It seemed to be an alpha ice-wolf, bigger than any wolf he has ever seen. Thankfully there seem to be no other wolves around, which is another surprise and relief to him.

Wolves hunt in packs, and are rarely seen alone. But this particular wolf must have been a solo hunter, using the shadows and camouflage snow on this lonely mountain path to ambush its unwary prey.

Sher Bahadur says a silent prayer to the Nine Divines for saving him, and kisses his bloody gauntlet. And his horse! Both have served their purpose very well today. He pats his horse gratefully with reassuring words and feeds it a fresh carrot.

He locates his sword-n-scabbard and equips it again, and washes his gauntlet with some melting snow. Then he proceeds to skin the ice wolf carefully.

Collecting the wolf pelt, Sher Bahadur makes sure his horse and all his gear are safe. Then he climbs astride the horse, to proceed with his journey. But this time, he's much more alert and observant of his surroundings, and there's a silent song of happiness on his lips.

The ice-wolf's skin will make a nice trophy, and give him an interesting story to entertain guests after he reaches home.

It would be a reminder of the day when he got ambushed, by The White Shadow.

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Source: screenshot from the PC game "The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim", © Bethesda Softworks.