Shadow of Hope III
A taciturn male Dwarf looks up with a start at the approach of the lone reptilioid. Following his riding partner’s lead, the cloaked he tugs on the reigns, albeit a bit too fiercely. The horse rears up on its hind legs as the Dwarf stifles a yelp, clinging to the reigns with all the strength in his stunted hands. His stomach slides onto the saddle with his feet still in the stirrups, causing his buttocks to protrude perpendicular from the steed’s back in a most undignified position.
As gravity bears the Dwarf’s full weight down on the reigns, the horse rose ever higher, kicking its front hooves. Ancient, inscrutable commands issue forth toward the animal, as the Dwarf flails his stirrupped feet. The horse continues to canter backward on its hind legs, whinnying wildly.
“It’s all right!” the Dwarf barks, as his steed returns to all fours and rears up a second time in response to the wild flailing of its rider. “Everything is under control!” he calls, as one rain-drenched boot slips from the stirrup, causing the Dwarf to swing out and twirl between the reigns and remaining stirrup, “I’ve got it!”
From beneath his drizzle-soaked cloak, the Dwarf grits his teeth in a gnashing grimace that peers from the thick spires of his red mustache and plaited beard like white hot coals in a fiery conflagration. Above the wisps of stray hair crowning his bushy red eyebrows like tiny coronas, his rune-engraved helmet lists to one side of his head as the horse drops once again to all fours and rides in a tight circle as commanded by the Dwarf’s now lopsided groping of the reigns to maintain his tenuous footing in the single stirrup.