Brenda the Warrior-Princess and her pink sabre-toothed cat Sniffy are back in Muddle Earth, and they've had enough of adventuring. All they want is a nice, boring wizard to work for--and it looks like they've come to the right place... Meanwhile, Joe is desperate to depart for Elfwood, to retrieve the Great Book of Spells, but first he has to get Randalf to leave the house. The wizard swears he set the clock for an early departure, but the clock-elf has gone AWOL, so how will he ever get organised? And it's not just the clock-elf that's taken an unexpected holiday--from Goblintown to Trollbridge and the Enchanted Lake, every elf in Muddle Earth has decided to go on vacation... What is going on? And can Joe put it right?