"They are a rare delicacy," a voice boomed. Geshtar whirled around to find the dragon standing upright with smoke pouring from his nostrils. He heard a voice whisper, "Duck!" The ferret? Warning him? Feeling he had nothing to lose, Geshtar hit the ground and rolled into a depression in the floor. Immediately, flames filled the air. He arose to find the ferret miraculously alive, but the dragon charred to death by its own flame in the enclosed space. After giving itself a good cleaning, the ferret leapt onto Geshtar's shoulder.

"Better leave before the stench kicks in, eh?" it said. Geshtar, although still a bit surprised to have found a talking ferret, complied. As they rode on along the mountain path, his new friend would pick berries and nuts and eat them while perched on his shoulder. Then he would climb onto Geshtar's head and look around. Geshtar found his new companion amusing, and allowed him to climb about as he pleased.

After a few hours of travelling, the pair came upon another cave. Since the whole point of their adventure was to explore new lands, they went in and looked around. Peering through the darkness, Geshtar glimpsed spiderwebs stretched from wall to wall and small rodents scurrying in the corners. Chaos, his ferret companion, leapt from his shoulder and poof! The cave was clean. Well, the rodents were gone, at least. Geshtar, after a cursory look around, unrolled his blanket on the mat of pine needles covering the floor. After unsaddling and unbridling his horse and tying it on a long lead to some nearby scrub, Geshtar settled down on his blanket. It was only then that he looked up and saw, hanging from the trees, the bodies of other wanderers...

On to chapter three...