If you follow a troll, you will find more trolls. You will also be on no set path.

If you follow a cairn, you will find more cairns. This is called pathfinding.

If you follow a human figure looking at a pile of trolls, you may or may not find a path, but you won’t be alone.

If you follow a cairn among trolls …

…  or  a troll cairn among lava bits…

… you are still not on a known path. Mind you, paths might be overrated. There are also walls. If you follow walls, you will find other walls.

But here’s the trick. Once you’ve wandered off like this, you have made a path. It’s what you find along the way that will guide you into getting back. As the sun goes down, you will be glad of these troll sheep guiding you home.

It matters not if they are ‘real’ or not. They are the path.