Winter was coming on. The winter gnomes would arrive any day on the breath of a cold North wind. The summer gnomes had to be gone by then, but something was stopping them. The boy River Watcher had not yet grown his wings. True he had been born way late in the season, but still his wings should have popped out of his shoulder blades weeks earlier. The summer goblins watched him impatiently.
``He's doing it on purpose. He just wants attention,'' they said.
River Watcher's mother took the child to see a Condor who had just been reintroduced to the valley. She thought the Condor might have advice for the boy. The Condor was depressed and not well. He was having difficulty finding food. The wild life wasn't all he'd hoped it would be. He looked gloomily at the boy. ``Think wings,'' he said, and turned away.
River Watcher sat by the creek and thought wings until his head hurt. His shoulder blades didn't even itch.
Finally the summer goblins made a very hard decision. They decided to leave River Watcher and fly south before the winter goblins came and devoured them. His mother wept long tears and she kissed him goodbye.
The goblin boy sat watching the water rushing by, its surface dotted with golden autumn leaves. Then he had an idea. He jumped onto a passing leaf and was sucked into the current. It took him a while to get used to it, but soon he had the leaf by the stalk and he was maneuvering it round the rocks and away from the white water. When the creek ran into a river he followed the river and the leaf sailed on.
When the river reached the sea River Watcher was terrified. The great bitter tasting waves smashed him onto the sandy beach and he thought he would die. He dragged his shivering cold body up the cruel beach, flaying weakly at the gulls that struck down on him to see if he was an easy snack. At last he found the shelter of a rock and he fell asleep, not caring if he never awoke.
When he did wake up he felt a strange itchy feeling on his shoulder blades. He reached round to scratch one and found to his delight the buds of wings emerging through his skin. In just a couple of hours his wings, all fragile and damp, were fully deployed. River Watcher climbed up on the rock that had sheltered him and jumped into the air. He balanced momentarily on the wind and gained a little elevation before he glided earthward. A passing gull tipped a long wing under him for a moment and he felt himself propelled upward until at last his wings caught the air and he sailed smoothly south.