Hint needed -- Escape from Summerland

I only got through the brief intro section, and now I don’t know what to do. There are no hints and no walkthrough.

The player character is currently some kind of hamster or other small caged pet. There’s some stuff to play with. I picked up the branch (and can’t drop it again). I can’t interact with the “shiny thing,” although I’ve tried to do many things with the branch to reach it. There’s an exit to the east but it’s too dark to go there, apparently, and there is no obvious light source. (Using the keyword “thing” reveals that there’s something called a “light thing” somewhere, but I can’t take it or interact with it meaningfully.) I tried the “CHANGE” verb mentioned in the “ABOUT” text with the only other character I know of, and although the game recognizes the command, it doesn’t work either.

I played this game for 15 minutes. If I can get a quick hint to let me continue, I may give it more of a chance before moving on to the next game. We’ll see.

I believe the next thing you’re looking for is:

get shiny thing with branch

I didn’t get a whole lot farther than that, though.

-Kevin

That does work. Thank you! [emote]:)[/emote]