Glaen's Breath

A longer than it was supposed to be short story |Part 3|

Running through the trees was getting more difficult, as they were growing closer and closer together, and he was having to slow down in order to avoid a collision. Again, this barely affected the bear at all, and it kept plowing just right on through. It felt like he ran for hours, tripping and stumbling on the roots and uneven ground, the bear hot on his heels.

Then, gradually, he noticed the trees thinning. Looking up ahead, he saw what looked to be a small clearing. He wasn't sure if a clearing was a good or bad thing, right now.
As he tumbled out into the clearing, he glanced up at the sky, realizing that it was well past noon. He'd been gone for a while. And he doubted he was getting back home anytime soon.
And in that moment of distraction, is when it happened.
Wren's foot caught on the ledge of a small hole, probably something's burrow.
His body, tired from the non-stop running, was unable to catch itself, and he sprawled onto the forest floor.
Not good. The bear was too close for him to get away, now. His only chance was to try and fend it off, which he did not have high hopes of succeeding. But he had to try.
Looking around, he tried to find anything he could use to protect himself. The clearing was devoid of rocks and large branches, which was incredibly annoying, but then he saw something that made his hopes rise, if ever so slightly.
There was a patch of balloon flowers. Maybe, whatever those fumes they released were, would do something to the bear. And if they didn't? Well, then he'd be fresh meat.

Somehow, he managed to scramble over to the flowers just before the bear burst into the clearing, hurling debris. Positioning himself so that the flowers were between him and the bear, Wren prepared for his moment to strike. It came quickly. Seeing him, the beast charged, and just as it was within range to strike Wren with one of it's massive, destructive paws, Wren jabbed at the flowers.

PWMFFFffffff....!

The flume of noxious gas shot straight into the bear's face, without a doubt getting into those glowing eyes.
The bear's roar was loud enough to wake the dead. It shook the trees, and Wren knew that if there were any animals still in the area, they would be gone now.
The bear had reared up on its hind legs, stumbling around blindly as it pawed at its face.
Wren took this opportunity to pick himself up off the ground, and run.
With the bear now unable to follow him for at least a little while, Wren felt fairly confident that he was going to be safe, but he wasn't positive. Afterall, he had no idea what that bear was, what the flowers did, or what else could be lurking in these trees. Also, he had a sneaking suspicion that he'd probably twisted his ankle or something, but that felt like a problem for later. He had to get out of these woods, first.