Rak

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The Rak is a flying fictional creature from the pages of L. Frank Baum's 1914 Oz book Tik-Tok of Oz.

The Rak is described as a large winged creature with glowing red eyes that can fly in the air, run like a deer and swim like a fish. Inside its body is a glowing furnace of fire which allows the creature to breathe out smoke. Its smoky breath blankets the surrounding area like a thick, black fog with an aroma of salt and pepper. It is bigger than a hundred men and feeds on any living thing. Like most other animals in the land of Oz, the Rak can speak. The Rak's vague descriptions given in the storybook lead one to believe that the Rak is a type of dragon.

In Tik-Tok of Oz, the Rak is briefly encountered by Queen Ann Soforth and her army and wounded by gunfire. Although its jaw, wing and leg are broken by the attack, the Rak does not die, as everything in the land of Oz lives an enchanted life and cannot die.

A popular theory is that the Rak is a defamiliarized presentation of a car.