The thief was caught off guard when the snowballs hit him. No one had been running at him. The snowballs seemed to have come from the air. Looking up, he saw the two-tailed fox flying above him. Ah, so that explained that.
Keeping his eyes on the fox, he squatted down and made a snowball.
The fox was going to be a hard target.
He took a breath and chucked the snowball at the fox and waited for the impact.