Paul Webster has come out the army after a twenty-two year stretch with a trick hip and no idea what to do with his life. He takes a few weeks walking along the Welsh coast to get his head on straight.<br><br>Kevin Davies is a veterinary nurse and an artist. He's getting lonelier and lonelier in his cottage on the edge of the sea, kept company by his cats and a friendly flock of crows.<br><br>What happens when the two men hunker down together to wait out a wild March gale?

As the Crows Fly

“I haven’t looked to be honest. I didn’t want to open the door.” Kevin shivered. “They’ll be all right. Bit blowy to be flying anywhere else, and they do sometimes roost out there in the porch in this sort of weather.” He stood and collected the plates, taking them to the sink to rinse. “None of them are as tame as Grackle though.”


He put the plates on the draining board and stayed there, leaning against the sink, looking out at the storm.


“Bloody hell, the sea’s right up!” he said after a moment. “Look, can you see?”


Web came and stood beside him, squinting through the rain-blurred window down to the beach. The waves were rolling onto the land in enormous, constant swells, and he couldn’t see the sand at all


“Does it come up far?” He shivered.


“Not much further than that, usually. It might come up a little bit more, but never as far as the trees. You’d have been all right from that point of view. But the wind...” He trailed off.


Chapter 10