Our Land Is the Sky: The Adventures of Jimmy Fastwing

By Frank J. Croskerry

Spring has been a violent affair this year, and many new crows have not survived the high winds and rainstorms. For the few who have, there are still the very dangerous exercises of learning what birds need to know to exist with the rest of the clan. While flying comes naturally to them, there is much more they need to know if they are to stay out of harms reach.

Young crow Jimmy Fastwing has his grandfather to teach him the basic things a young crow needs to know. If he can manage the first stages of take-offs and landings, there will be other family members to assist him in his learning. Hell have to know about things like finding food, hiding it, and socializing with the clan.

Join Jimmy in his first year of life as he grows, learns, and avoids one calamity after another. If hes lucky, hell learn quickly enough to become an important member of the clan.

Winner of Editor's Choice and Rising Star Awards

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462028405

Frank J. Croskerry

Frank J. Croskerry was born during the very last stages of the war in Europe, he like his two older brothers were labeled ‘war babies’. His two younger brothers were the first of the ‘baby boomers’. Raised in South East Kent, England he was considered to be a bright child but a very disappointing student leaving school and home just weeks after his fourteenth birthday. Living briefly with an Irish aunt and family in Essex he was soon on his own and independently broke and motiveless. Joined the Royal Marines on his seventeenth birthday he qualified a Commando (green beret) by the age of eighteen. By nineteen he was in the Antarctica on the British Antarctica Survey (1964). At twenty he was involved in the Indonesian war in Borneo. Qualified in parachute training in the Far east at twenty-four. Married to ‘the girl next door’ at twenty-three and returning to civilian life at twenty- seven. At twenty-eight the father of a boy Daniel and at thirty-one a girl Anna. Retired after exactly fifty years in the workforce and started writing seriously at last!

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 Frank J. Croskerry

Illustrations by Ashley Ross

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4620-2839-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-2841-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-2840-5 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 10/8/2011

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Simp

Chapter 2

Practice, Practice, Practice

Chapter 3

The Fledgling

Chapter 4

The Conclave and the Beak

Chapter 5

The Wonderful Sea and the Sky

Chapter 6

The Captive

Chapter 7

Practice and Play

Chapter 8

The Roost

To my grandson, James

Introduction

Take a look around when you leave your house and you’ll probably see one of us perching on a telephone pole or some other high platform.

We are Crow.

It’s what we do.

You’ll also notice us flying around in ones and twos as we crowse the skies. You would call it cruising, but we have our own word for it.

Sometimes you’ll notice only one or two of us, but when everyone leaving his or her house sees just one or two of us … imagine how many of us there really are.

We see you all. We are everywhere!

We are very curious and like to see what is going on, and we are fascinated by you Grounfolk. Just as you might study an ant farm and watch all the comings and goings of the creatures, so do we love to watch you.

Up where we perch, we call to our other sentinels and let each other know the strange happenings going on down below. Of course you just dismiss our calls as noisy racket that you have to put up with, but we rely on them for a lot of reasons. You hear only our loud caws, but we also whisper quietly to each other, and you don’t hear that at all.

Whiskats on the ground and in the trees as well as Redtails and Flatfaces in the sky are just some of the menaces we stay alert for. If we see a good source of food, we let our friends know where the feast is. We can sense when the weather is changing a lot better than you can, and we warn each other of coming storms.

We can hear things that you can’t because we hear at different levels. We see things you can’t because our eyesight is better, and we have a better view.

We used to live in the forests and country, but as you have colonized the towns, we have followed you, mostly because of what you throw away.

There is another world going on just above your heads. You never know when I might be looking down on you.

My name is Jimmy, and this is my story.

Chapter 1

The Simp

spot1.jpg

Old Benny was sitting on the Lookout Branch next to his latest grandson, who was yet to fledge.

It’s about time you took to the wing, m’boy. The old guy was actually smaller than the grandson but not by much.

I’m a bit scared, Granddaddy. His feathers were much shinier and newer than the old fellow’s, and he stretched them out to feel the breeze. Looking down from this great height, Jimmy could see objects on the ground that appeared much smaller than he knew they were, but he had no real fear of heights, only a keen fascination.

There was a dread in him, though, at the thought of leaving the safe confines of the only home he had known so far.

There’s nothing to it, m’boy. We are the Crow. You have all the necessary equipment; just jump off and spread your wings. The rest will come naturally. You can’t stay a Simp all your life.

A Simp is a baby crow, but Jimmy was very big for a baby.

Jimmy looked up to the next branch where his mommy and daddy were watching the whole thing with nervous interest. It was custom for the grandfather to initiate the fledging in their family, but they were on edge because Jimmy was the only survivor of this year’s clutch.

Jonny and Polly looked away from him to show that his grandfather was in charge and he would have to obey only him. Some said Polly was a funny name for a crow, but Jimmy didn’t think so. He loved his mommy and daddy very much.

The spring had had some unnaturally bad weather with violent storms and winds, and there wouldn’t be many new crows in the sky this year. So far in his young life, Jimmy had been fed not only by his parents but by brothers and sisters from previous seasons, known as Helpers. He was a very healthy young bird, especially because he was the only chick. His size and fitness were testimony to that.

Polly had come from a big clutch of chicks and had wanted more than one offspring, but next year there would be another chance. Most of her brothers and sisters were still around to help, but some had their own little families to look after.

I’m going to go first, and you follow straight after, m’boy. With that, the old bird stepped gracefully into the air and immediately caught an updraft