Glaen's Breath

A longer than it was supposed to be short story |Part 2|

Wren wandered through the forest, looking for anything familiar that could help him find his way home, when he noticed something strange up ahead. Something was glowing. Naturally, Wren went to investigate.
What he found surprised him, to say the least. There were big, slightly transparent, blue-purple mushrooms growing all over the trees! He had never read about anything like these in his books! What were they? And what were these little glowing lights in the air?
Curious, he touched one of the mushrooms. And was surprised when more little golden lights puffed out of it. So, they were spores. Huh, maybe not the healthiest thing for him to be breathing in, but it's not exactly like he had a choice.
Pulling out two jars from his bag, Wren broke one of the smaller mushrooms from a tree and dropped it in the jar. In the other jar, he caught a few spores, screwing the lid on and putting them both back in his bag. Might as well take some samples back, for Jader.
As Wren continued to walk through this strange part of the forest, he heard a faint burbling sound. Like water running on rocks.
Like a stream.
He started walking towards the sound.
A stream meant water. And water meant he could refill his waterskin.
While he was walking, he noticed a cluster of strange balloon looking plants, which drew his attention. He walked closer, and poked one. The balloon-like petals opened, and out sprayed a plume of some noxious smelling gas substance. He was glad it didn't get in his face, because judging from the smell, it would've stung. He continued looking for the stream.

Soon enough, the trees thinned out into a little clearing, with a noticeable amount of boulders, and a stream running through the middle of it. Wren skidded down the small pebble bank of the stream and crouched, pulling out his waterskin. He unscrewed the cap and dunked it right into the stream, not bothering to even attempt testing it for bacteria. The water looked clean enough, and it was a natural spring near the foothills of mountains, so he figured it couldn't be too bad.
SNAP
What was that?! He glanced around, feeling slightly uneasy. It sounded kind of like a stick breaking. Granted, he was in a forest, and trees dropped sticks all the time, so it probably just hit something hard, like one of those big rocks, and broke. Yeah, that made sense.
He screwed the cap back on his waterskin, straightening back up, and tucked it safely in his satchel.
And that's when he noticed a plant growing on one of the big rocks. A plant that looked just like the picture of Glaen's Breath, in the book.
He had found it! He still didn't know how to get back, but at least he'd found the plant!
He ran over to the boulder and, ever so gently, pulled the plan out. He pulled out a little cloth drawstring pouch and carefully placed the plant inside, before tying it closed and putting it back in his bag.
CRUNCH CRUNCH
Wren stiffened.
CRUNCH CRUNCH
That sounded like something walking. Something big.
HUFF SNORTTTT, HUFF SNORRRTTT
That was breathing.
Slowly, Wren stood up and turned around.
And there, maybe thirty feet away, at the edge of the trees, was the biggest bear Wren had ever seen. But that wasn't even what made it the most terrifying. The bear's fur had these weird off-colored swirling patterns, but more importantly; it had horns. And four, glowing eyes!
This was like a real life monster from myths. Staring right at him. So, naturally, he did the only thing anyone would do in that situation.

He screamed.

Which turned out to be a bad idea, as the bear then roared and charged. Which left Wren to jump over the stream and run as fast as he could in the other direction, weaving between the trees in the attempt to put as much between him and the monstrous beast as he could. It wasn't working as well as he'd hoped it would, and the bear was still way too close for comfort. It just plowed straight through most of the trees, leaving a trail of branches and splinters in its wake. Wren shuddered to think of what would happen to him if that bear caught up.