11. The Story Takes a Surprising Turn, as Is the Way of Stories

Whaaaaaat?????” said Xar, so absolutely flabbergasted, he momentarily forgot the quest.

“GET THE BREATH!!!!!!!!” yelled Bodkin.

It was a beautifully synchronized operation.

You’d have thought they’d done it a thousand times before.

The giant fell backward, with a CRASSSHHHHHHHHHH that shook the hall to its remaining foundations, and the last breath was up and out of his mouth in a great cloud. Tiffinstorm zapped an appearance spell to make it visible, and there it was, in a great shaggy cloud, for one tantalizing moment before—reoow! Hinkypunk’s shrinking spell failed to shrink it more than an inch or so—but that was where Eleanor Rose came in. She flew right over it, holding her little arms apart, and the breath shrunk to pea-size and, with a glorious flurry of wings, the peregrine falcon swooped, and the Once-sprite caught the now-tiny little ball of breath in his collecting bottle, putting in the stopper as the falcon dived down and then up, up again, out of the way of the rising dust.

And then he dropped the little bottle into the waiting hands of Squeezjoos, the official sprite assistant to the spell-raiding team.