There had been a reason he'd been on the ground in the first place. Taking a break, catching his breath, after an hour of enjoyable full tilt running. He could feel his lungs expanding too much for his small frame, knew he'd be paying for this so badly later - even if he shifted back soon.
Some passing thought noted that maybe he should try to actively work on his shifted limits after this - running harder and longer to avoid this very situation later.
He stumbled, only just catching himself on the next lowest branch.
Right. Focus. Worry about exercise later. Have to survive at this level first.
Okay. So, the branch thing probably wasn't going to work out, especially if he stayed in the upper branches for much longer. How about a clearing and a way down? That might be easier to find. Maybe. So, pausing just long enough to try to find how close that damnable bird was - he couldn't immediately see it, and though his sense of smell was fantastic, there was too much wind, and he was too frazzled to focus. Which meant it was probably still above him, out of sight.
But not immediately in his space. He could work with that. The next tree over was an older, gnarled giant, perfect for clambering down without losing too much cover, so over he went, slower and watching where his feet actually went now. Just had to make it low enough to jump.