The sudden bang in her ears made Jasna's body stiffen.
If she had been an experienced Muggle hunter, perhaps she would have immediately recognized it as the sound of a hunting rifle.
But Jasna, being a wizard, was not so sharp. It was only when a strong smell of gunpowder filled her nostrils
that the hunting rifle always hanging on the wall of that pine cabin, never once used by Old Enma, flashed through her mind.
Something had happened!
Jasna's heart trembled. She swiftly pulled the crutch from the carriage and jumped down.
The scene outside the carriage startled her slightly.
She and the sled that had saved her life were in a snow pit roughly ten feet deep.
At some point, Old Enma had turned the carriage around and dug out a slope for the sled to escape the deep pit.
Old Enma and the sled dogs were not in the pit, but at its edge.
"Get back in the carriage."
Standing at the top of the snowy slope, Old Enma did not look back at Jasna. He held his hunting rifle, his expression indifferent as he watched the surrounding area. The sled dogs had their limbs braced against the ground, bodies slightly crouched, their fangs bared.
"What have we been surrounded by?"
After catching her breath a few times, Jasna quickly grasped the general situation.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed through the silent conifer forest after the snowfall, its shockwave knocking the snow piled on nearby pine branches down.
"Woo, woo!"
The pained howls did not move Old Enma. He efficiently ejected the spent shell and reloaded.
Jasna gritted her teeth, leaned on her crutch, and limped up the snowy slope.
A wolf pack!
That was expected, but the number of wolves was not.
There were more than forty