Blaine woke slowly to sharp sunlight and a stiff neck. He vowed to have the camp set up before evening fell because the Jeep was certainly not the most comfortable place to spend the night. Phillip’s seat was empty.

Judging by the sun, it must be at least ten in the morning. When he opened the door, Blaine could smell the sharp freshness of unspoilt forest and clean air. He found Phillip bent over the trailer, apparently digging for a specific piece of luggage.

“Morning,” Blaine managed with a yawn. “What are you-”

Suddenly, Phillip jumped and bumped his head against the canopy of the trailer with a violent curse.

“Good God, Blaine. You scared the shit out of me!” he said, rubbing the side of his head with the palm of his hand.

“I..sorry,” Blaine stammered, taken off guard by the unexpected reaction. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner? It’s like… really late already and I…”

Phillip sighed over-dramatically and leaned back against the trailer, one hand still cupping the side of his head.

“When I woke up, I had to take a piss and then… I saw that,” Phillip replied, pointing at a section of the electric wire fence.

Blaine turned around to inspect what Phillip had pointed out. Just as he was about to say that he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he noticed that there were five or six broken branches and pieces of big leafed plants stacked against the outside of the fence- all in a row.

Blaine took a few steps closer, inspecting the strange phenomenon with wary curiosity. “What is it?” he asked.

“You tell me; you’re the scientist,” Phillip answered in a less-than-friendly tone. “Anyway, I was looking for the adaptor so I could hook the fence up to the generator. Whatever it was, I don’t want it inside the camp. If it could move those branches, then it can move equipment too.”

With that, Phillip turned back to the trailer again and continued to rummage through the contents of the trailer.

Consumed by occupational curiosity, Blaine made his way to the section of the fence which formed the little gate through which they could enter and leave the campsite. Once on the other side of the fence, Blaine could see that there were actually more sticks and leafs trailing into the nearest part of the undergrowth. Blaine had also noticed that none of the branches or pieces of shrubbery were fresh. They were obviously long dead judging by the brown leafs and the dry cores of the stems. Thus, whatever had put it there didn’t harvest it specifically for the purpose. The formation of the pieces was too precise to have been blown there by wind. Besides, he and Phillip had cleared at least three feet around the fence the afternoon before.

The only explanation Blaine’s mind could conjure was that it must have been some kind of beaver – even though they were quite a distance from the river – or some kind of large, nesting bird. Strangely, he couldn’t find any tracks to support either theory. Shrugging at his conclusion, Blaine kicked the dead shrubbery away from the fence and out of the way.

Much like the day before, they day was spent shovelling, pitching tents and setting up equipment. A large part of the trailer had been filled with cages in various sizes and was now neatly stacked against one wall of the equipment tent. The generator was placed inside a large, thick plastic crate and carried a distance away from the camp. After the necessary wiring had been done, the generator was started up. Along with the roaring and clouds of grey smoke, birds flew from the treetops with shrieks of distress.

After an awkward shower at the assigned corner of the camp, Blaine did a quick perimeter walk of the camp. After activating the fence, Blaine stepped into the tent to find Phillip already fast asleep on the inflatable mattress. Blaine lied down with his back to his fiancé and gently placed the heavy arm around his own waist in a pseudo-embrace. Trying hard to listen to the running water of the river instead of the rumbling of the generator, Blaine closed his eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep.