Free Wings by Terry Pratchett

around lost and honking the whole time, if you want my scientific opinion.
    From A Scientific Encyclopaedia for the Enquiring Young Nome by Angalo de Haberdasheri.
     
    In the beginning, said Shrub, there was nothing but ground. NASA saw the emptiness above the ground, and decided to fill it with sky. It built a place in the middle of the world and sent up towers full of clouds. Sometimes they also carried stars because, at night, after one of the cloud towers had gone up, the nomes could sometimes see new stars moving across the sky.
    The land around the cloud towers was NASA's special country. There were more animals there, and fewer humans. It was a pretty good place for nomes. Some of them believed that NASA had arranged it all for precisely that reason.
    Shrub sat back.
    "And does she believe that?" said Masklin. He looked across the clearing to where Gurder and Topknot were arguing. They couldn't understand what one another was saying, but they were still arguing.
    The Thing translated.
    Shrub laughed.
    "She says, Days come, days go, who needs to believe anything? She sees things happen with her own eyes, and these are things she knows happen. Belief is a wonderful thing for those who need it, she says. But she knows this place belongs to NASA, because its name is on signs."
    Angalo grinned. He was nearly in tears. "They live right by the place the going-up jets go from and they think it's some sort of magic place!" he said.
    "Isn't it?" said Masklin, almost to himself. "Anyway, it's no more strange than thinking the Store was the whole world. Thing, how do they watch the going-up jets? They're a long way away."
    "Not far at all. Eighteen miles is not far at all, she says- She says they can be there in little more than an hour." Shrub nodded at their astonishment, and then, without another word, stood up and walked away through the bushes. She signalled the nomes to follow her.
    Half a dozen Floridians trailed after their leader, making the shape of a V with her at the point.
    After a few yards the greenery opened out again beside a small lake.
    The nomes were used to large bodies of water. There were reservoirs near the airport. They were even used to ducks.
    But the things paddling enthusiastically toward them were a lot bigger than ducks. Besides, ducks were like a lot of other animals and recognised in nomes the shape, if not the size, of humans and kept a safe distance away from them. They didn't come baring toward them as if the mere sight of them was the best thing that had happened all day.
    Some of them were almost flying in their desire to get to the nomes.
    Masklin looked around automatically for a weapon. Shrub grabbed his arm, shook her head, and said a couple of words.
    "They're friendly," the Thing translated.
    "They don't look it!"
    "They 're geese," said the Thing. "Quite harmless, except to grass and minor organisms. They fly here for the winter." The geese arrived with a bow wave that surged over the nomes' feet, and arched their necks down toward Shrub. She patted a couple of fearsome-looking beaks.
    Masklin tried hard not to look like a minor organism.
    "They migrate here from colder climates," the Thing went on. "They rely on the Floridians to pick the right course for them."
    "Oh, good. That's -" Masklin stopped while his brain caught up with his mouth. "You're going to tell me they fly on them, right?"
    "Certainly. They travel with the geese. Incidentally, you have two hours and forty-one minutes to launch."
    "I want to make it absolutely clear," said Angalo slowly, as a great feathery head explored the water-weeds a few inches away, "that if you're suggesting that we ride on a geese -"
    "A goose. One geese is a goose."
    "You can think again. Or compute, or whatever it is you do."
    "You have a better suggestion, of course," said the Thing. If it had a face, it would have been sneering.
    "Suggesting we don't ride on them strikes me as a whole lot better, yes," said Angalo.
    "I dunno," said Masklin,