"It seems to me more like the breath of a Rak." "What is a Rak ?" asked Ann, looking about fearfully.
"A terrible beast with a horrible appetite," answered the soldier, growing a little paler than usual.

"I have never seen a Rak, to be sure, but I have read of them in the story-books that grew in my orchard, and if this is indeed one of those fearful monsters, we are not likely to conquer the world." Hearing this, the officers became quite worried and gathered closer about their soldier.
"What is the thing like ?" asked one.
"The only picture of a Rak that I ever saw in a book was rather blurred," said Files, "because the book was not quite ripe when it was picked.

But the creature can fly in the air and run like a deer and swim like a fish.

Inside its body is a glowing furnace of fire, and the Rak breathes in air and breathes out smoke, which darkens the sky for miles around, wherever it goes.

It is bigger than a hundred men and feeds on any living thing." The officers now began to groan and to tremble, but Files tried to cheer them, saying: "It may not be a Rak, after all, that we see approaching us, and you must not forget that we people of Oogaboo, which is part of the fairyland of Oz, cannot be killed." "Nevertheless," said Captain Buttons, "if the Rak catches us, and chews us up into small pieces, and swallows us--what will happen then ?" "Then each small piece will still be alive," declared Files.
"I cannot see how that would help us," wailed Colonel Banjo.