"Ugh..." Branch groaned softly, moving his head around slightly to try and shake the tiredness that clouded his brain, gripping onto him tightly to make it so the gray troll wouldn't awake from his dreamless slumber....
He had a terrible headache as he finally began to wake up, the survivalist rubbing his hands through his thick black hair to try and straighten out the frizzy mess...
Strangely... what the village grump hadn't realized yet... was that he was somehow deeper in the forest than he remembered... he had lost conciseness only a few feet away from his bunker, but now... now he had no idea where he was...
"Where... where am I?" he asked himself in a muttered whisper, still laying on the hard dirt ground, his eyes barely open as the sun shone down on him from the canopy of the forest...
"Ow..." he groaned, forcing his aching body to sit up as he placed his face inside his hands, rubbing his still tired eyes...
He needed to get up... he needed to get home... but he just felt so... so... weak... what had happened to him?
As he finally forced himself to look around his surroundings, he realized he was all alone out in the middle of the forest... How had he gotten there?
Slowly, Branch wobbled up to his feet, looking around some more, now able to see things a bit more clearly...
Looking around to try and figure out his way home, the gray troll realized with great horror... he had no idea where he was....
All there was around him were trees. Lots and lots of trees...
Lucky for him... he was an expert tracker. He'd be able to find his way home easily. All he had to do was follow his own footprints back home...
Except... there were no footprints... at least... not his...
The only footprints around him were what looked to be a Cuddle Pup Mama, except smaller...
Maybe that's how he got here? A Cuddle Pup found him unconscious and carried him to this spot? That made sense... right?
Ok... so all he had to do was follow the Cuddle Pup prints... and that would lead him back to where he fell unconscious the night before...
Shaking the last of his remaining tiredness away, Branch began walking, following the paw prints towards home...