Darkness, the smell of grass, the softness of damp earth, a light breeze... those were the only things he could feel. Mind still sluggish as if he just woke up from one of those disorienting afternoon naps that left you sore, he dared to crack an eye open.

  The prize for it was a sharp pain and blinding sunlight as he quickly closed his eye again to let the bright dot inside his eyelid subside for a while. Now better equipped with hindsight he tried again groggily but looked to the side to make out his environment better.

  The sight that greeted him were lush trees with dense canopy surrounding him outside what appeared to be a small clearing, tall grass growing just a stone throw away.

  Opening his other eye he just stared into the sky now that the sun had moved on from being right on top of him, it was a clear blue sky with not a cloud in sight but something was odd, there was a dark spot in the middle of his lower field of vision.

  He tried to shake his head a little to see if it would move but all that did was make more things feel weird as he realised his body was as heavy as lead and something was dangling off his head.

  In a low mutter he asked to no one in particular: "Am I wearing something on my ears?"

  As thoughts swirled in his head and his mind cleared a bit with the confusion it all came to a crashing halt; he wasn't supposed to be in a forest, especially not in one as clean and nice looking as this one with there not being a single forest for miles where he lives.

  With panic steadily rising he clumsily tried to get up despite his body's protests 'why does my body feel so off.... and since when are trees this big anyways? what's up with this place!?' , he tried looking down at himself with just the neck but couldn't really process what his eyes were telling him once he did.

  A black and blue fur coat greeted him with appendages on the sides that each had a weird bump close to the end of it. Trying to raise a hand to inspect what the hell he was looking at only made him freeze again as one of the things to the side moved slowly as soon as he did so.

  He didn't dare move lest the creature in front do something.... after nothing happened he noticed the thing in the air is a paw that wasn't going to attack him out of nowhere, but where was the creature's head?

  Relaxing slightly at not being mauled as soon as he woke up the paw moved again, with some remaining panic he tried to shield his face expecting his arms to respond to the sudden attack but all he did was hit himself with extra force in the snout. 'Ouch that hurt! stupid snout being in the way just when I'm being jumped by something, ... wait..... SNOUT!?'.

  Upon closer inspection (that being crossing his eyes) there was indeed a mostly black snout with some blue on the sides right between his eyes that stung a bit but seemed mostly fine, he rubbed it to lessen the ache and watched as the paw started to massage it, his paw.

  'Okay what the hell is going on here, why do I have a snout and paws. I'm going to take a wild guess and say the rest of the "creature" is my body...'

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  Having gotten some strength and feeling back into his body from the adrenaline allowed him to prop himself up using his arms after making sure his snout stopped aching. Now being able to look around more freely he noted that there wasn't much to look at in the clearing except for maybe his legs and some random pebbles due to how dense the trees were, not giving him any chance to see anything of value to him in the current situation.

  'You're in the middle of a forest with trees thicker than three men and you are now a small blue furred thing, no need to panic, definitely nothing to worry about... okay maybe there's a lot to worry about.'

  'What do I even do now..., I suppose I'll try to see if I can stand and we'll go from there?'

  With just a smidgen of despair in the back of his mind he tried to stand up... only to immediately fall down again as gravity had other plans with him. 'Should've guessed my center of mass changed' rolling his eyes as he thought so. He pondered it for a second: 'Do I have a tail that would help with that?'.

  Concentrating a bit and trying to feel for his tail did in fact confirm that he had one even if moving it felt like moving one's ears consciously, in short not easily without practice. He also took a look at his legs and promptly facepalmed after seeing what he missed.

  The blackish legs were arched back after the knee and then came back forward to the paws, indicating that they were digitigrade, meaning he had to stand on his toes instead of relying on his normal muscle memory.

  Giving standing a second try he slowly lifted himself and paid close attention to his legs and tail, after a few minutes of trying not to fall again it clicked. His footing didn't magically turn stable and smooth but he could stand finally without falling over, maybe even not get blow over by a stronger breeze.

  Feeling confident after his first success of the day he took some wobbly first steps and walked (or rather staggered) around the clearing without outright falling like a newborn to see if he could find a nature path or something if he looked between the trees.

  After what felt like half an hour of slow moving but steadily improving walking he did find something of note. On some specific spots he could see the blue sky between the trees.

  'Am I close to a cliff? Might be worth checking it out and getting a better view of where I am. If I can spot a village or town from here I might be able to get some help... though I'm not sure how much they can help some guy that got turned into a mutt or something' he sighed, he might as well take a look since he didn't have anything better to do.

  Walking through the trees took a while but it was well worth it, he reached the end of the tree line and was now standing in an open field, if you could call it that with it ending just 20 feet further ahead. Unfortunately all he could see past the cliff was water as far as the eye can see and hear the waves crash against stone.

  He took a deep breath and stood there for a while taking it all in

  'Man this place sure looks pretty at least even if I don't see anything that could help me straight away... I think that's the first time I've heard anything except for the wind and my footsteps as well.'

  Making sure that he also checked the other directions on the cliffside he walked along the edge of the forest, to see where it would lead him. Not like he'd be able to see the shoreline otherwise.

  A short walk later revealed less densely packed forest and a thin hiking trail snaking its way through the place, there were also pawprints going in both directions which made him almost stumble at the first signs of life he's seen up until now.

  'Oh crap I completely forgot about there being animals in the woods, then again I've not even heard anything the entire time I've been here so maybe it's a less used path?' he put on a grimace at the thought but shook his head 'if there's a path animals will probably steer clear of it if it's well travelled and it's my only bet for finding any civilisation for the time being.'

  And so he walked.