Chapter 2. Smash Ogre
One year later, Smash Ogre seeks out Humfrey because he is feeling dissatisfied and doesn't know why. On the way he meets Quieta the Imp and rescues her father, Ortant. Once at Humfrey's he realizes he doesn't even have a Question. Humfrey gives him his answer anyway: he will find what he needs among the Ancestral Ogres. Tandy, whose year of service is over, receives her answer, and Smash is given his service. They are the same: travel with each other.
Chapter 3. Eye Queue
Smash and Tandy journey to Lake Ogre-Chobee. Since Tandy has never been in the Wilderness, she walks blindly into dangers that surface-people would avoid, like Tangle Trees. As they walk the magical spiral path to the Magic Dust Village, Smash accidentally runs into an Eye Queue vine, which sinks into his head and, besides making him smart, makes him stop talking in rhymes.
Chapter 4. Catastrophe
They bring the Gorgon's greetings to her sister, the Siren, who decides to join them. They find some Catnip to pay the Catapult, who launches them to Lake Ogre-Chobee. Tandy looks into a hypnogourd, but when they break her line of sight her mind doesn't come back! Smash goes in after her and learns that the Night Stallion took a lien on her soul for abusing an Night Mare, and clamed it when she came into the gourd--the Nightmares' kingdom. Smash agrees that, in exchange for Tandy's soul, the Night Stallion gets a 3 month lien on his own soul, which will be claimed unless Smash can find and bargain with the Night Stallion before time is up.
Chapter 5. Prints of Wails
Now that Smash is smart, he remembers that the ogres don't live in Lake Ogre-Chobee anymore: they live in Ogre-Fen-Ogre Fen, which is on the other side of Xanth. Now journeying in the opposite direction they meet John, a female fairy who is searching for the boy fairy that has her real name so they can trade. The group crosses a lake and escapes from the Prince of Whales, a wailing cloud that leaves prints on the water. Afterwards they meet Fireoak, a hamadryad journeying to Castle Roogna to ask King Trent to rescue her tree, which is in danger of being cut down. Smash finally learns what Tandy's magic talent is: throwing tantrums, which destroy whatever they hit.
Chapter 6. Dire Strait
They reach the Gap Chasm, which they had forgotten about, of course. Chet and his little sister, Chem Centaur, finally catch up to them; Chem's talent is making a holographic map, and Humfrey sent her to them for protection as she travels to make her maps. Chet takes Fireoak's message back to the king, and the ever-increasing group of girls under Smash's protection make their way down the chasm walls. They finally remember the Gap Dragon, which has a fierce battle with Smash. John gets her wings steamed off in a heroic effort to save Chem, and by the time they get up the other chasm wall, Smash is exhausted. Naturally, they are immediately attacked by goblins.
Chapter 7. Lunatic Fringe
Tandy convinces the goblins to let them all go, provided they escort Goldy Goblin to another goblin tribe to find a husband. They stop by a hypnogourd patch to get a gourd, then return Fireoak to her tree. Her health restores, and Smash goes into the hypnogourd to seek out the Night Stallion, marking his trail with a ball of string. The girls bring him back when the Lunatic Fringe-spell that Fireoak used to hide her tree wears off, and the villagers come to cut it down. Smash scares them off, then returns to the nightmare world. He is in a city of brass, and is soon attacked by brass men in brassards and brass women in brassieres. When Tandy pulls him back again, Smash accidentally brings a brass woman with him into the real world. Her name is Blyght, which she immediately changes to Blythe (to John's awe.) Smash goes into the gourd again and convinces the Brassies to let him go, since destroying him would leave Blythe trapped in the real world. He escapes the brass city in a space ship and has a fun space battle.
Chapter 8. Dragon's Ear
Smash returns from the gourd when Chet, Dor, Irene, and Grundy arrive on a holy cow. King Trent as declared the tree a protected species. Smash tries to take Blythe back into the gourd, but he last left in the middle of space and she is terrified of heights, since brass dents in falls. They return, but Blythe is too scared to back again. The Siren had picked up the Gap Dragon's ear that it lost in the battle, and Dor uses his talent to learn that when the ear twitched, you can listen in it and hear something you should know about. Dor's group leaves for the village, while Smash's group (minus Fireoak) journey to the Land of Flys, where they are kicked out into the Land of Dragons. The dragons break their teeth on Blythe Brassie and, assuming that everyone else is brass too, let them go. They travel through the Regions of Air and Earth, until they find another hypnogourd patch.
Chapter 9. Gourmet Gourd
They snack on gourds while Smash and Blythe return through one. Blythe tells him that Tandy went to Humfrey because a demon was trying to rape her. She also tells him that Tandy likes him--maybe likes him. Smash doesn't really believe her, and continues through a land of paper all the way to a land of candy.
Chapter 10. Fond Wand
The group travels through the Region of Earth, then half through the Region of Fire, going to the Goblin kingdom. The chief smacked Goldy, and angry Tandy throws a tantrum at him. As punishment, the goblins put Tandy on a singing island, surrounded by fin-creatures. The only way Smash can rescue her is to figure out how to use the goblin's magic want; even they don't know how to make it work. Smash realizes you have to trace your initials first, and then you can use the wand to levitate things. Smash levitates Tandy off the island, then helps Goldy tune the wand to herself. With that power, she'll have no problem catching a husband. Smash and the rest, minus Goldy, return to the Region of Fire.
Chapter 11. Heat Wave
Finding no way through the Fire, they group travels through a bog using a loan shark (costs you an arm and a leg) and into Birdland, where the birds demand a 20% polltax: someone will have to stay. As they cross the land they find a group of fairies working for the birds, one of which is a male named Joan. John and Joan trade names, and it's love at first site. John, now Joan, is the one who stays behind to satisfy the bird's poll, and the rest continue to the Water Wing. A frozen mountain of snow forces them to use the Heat Wave that Goldy gave them, and they continue down until they reach where the snow melts. Smash and Tandy almost drown, but Siren saves them with the help of Morris, a triton. There is a whole colony of mer-folk here, with few maids. Siren has found her new home.
Chapter 12. Visible Void
Smash, Tandy, and Chem continue to the Void. No one knows anything about the Void, since no one has ever returned. Smash's Eye Queue runs out, and he becomes stupid about, just as Tandy disappears into the Void and doesn't come out. Chem goes half in to look, then tries to go all way in. Smash pulls her back, and she tells him about a beautiful, peaceful place full of grazing centaurs. Smash points out that centaurs don't graze, and they realize it is a place of illusion. They go in together and find some Eye Queue vines, which make Smash smart even if they're not real. The two of them realize that an invisible wall paces them, making it impossible to backtrack. They find Tandy, and each person sees the other as one of their own species. To Smash, Tandy looks like an ogre, etc. They find some hypnogourds and Smash goes in, saying that if he wins his soul he can also get some night mares to bring them out of the Void.
Chapter 13. Souls Alive
Smash, using a clever trick with the string, finally corners the Night Stallion, Trojan. The horse puts him through 5 challenges: Fear, Pain, Fatigue, Hunger, and Power. Smash wins them all by refusing to give in. The Stallion reveals that Eye Queues are temporary, lasting far less then Smash's did, and not making a person nearly as smart as it did for Smash. The payment for riding a nightmare out of the Void will be half a soul per person. Smash decides that he will pay for both the girls and stay. Three mares go with him: Mare Crisium, Mare Vaporum, and the mare Tandy rode to Humfrey's, Mare Imbrium. Smash puts the sleeping girls on the horses and they ride out of the void. But then the girls awake and Tandy refuses to let the horses take Smash--she loves him. The girls agree to each pay their half of their soul: they'd regenerate over time anyway. Crisis gets Tandy's, Imbri gets Chem's, and Vapor gets Smash's.
Chapter 14. Ogre Fun
Chem has finished her map, and leaves for home. Smash and Tandy reach Ogre-Fen-Ogre Fen, as Smash's imaginary Eye Queue fades out. They meet the ogres and ogresses, but Smash is tired of rhyming when he doesn't have to, and introduces himself intelligently. This only reveals to the ogres that Smash is a half-breed, and they demand to fight. Tandy makes him turn them down, but when they try to eat her Smash fights anyway. With only half a soul, however, he's half as strong, and gets pounded literally into the ground. The ogres try again to eat Tandy, but she runs over and gives her half-soul to Smash, giving him enough strength to rip out of the ground and battle on. They tear trees out of the ground and throw them at each other, but the ogre tricks Smash into falling into a nest full of almost-mature dragons. Smash beats the dragons and throws them at the ogre, and then the mother dragon arrives. The ogre things he has framed Smash, until Smash points out to the dragoness that the ogre has all the unconscious dragonets. The dragoness and ogre fight while Smash escapes underground, led by Tandy.
Chapter 15. Point of View
Smash returns Tandy's half-soul, and she explains how it was that she could think and function without a soul. Since she is half nymph, and nymphs don't have souls, she simply thought in a nymphly point of view. This made her revert mostly into a nymph, which is able to cope without a soul. Tandy points out that Smash has always been smart; he just needed the Eye Queue to give his brain a starting push. She convinces him to try thinking from a human point of view, and he reverts to a more human form. He finally realizes that he loves her too--Humfrey's answer is finally fulfilled. They walk through Xanth back to the entrance to the underground world, when suddenly demon Fiant appears to claim Tandy. Smash tries to stop him but "no man can stand up to a demon." Tandy loans her half-soul again, and Smash switches his point of view to become completely ogre again. However, Fiant can dematerialize, making strength useless. Smash guides the smoke along with his hands and tries to make the demon look into a hypnogourd. Fiant closes his eyes, so Smash stuffs the smoky demon right through the peephole. Smash returns Tandy's soul, and suddenly their souls are whole again! The two halves of Fiant were exchanged for their own halves. They are whole once more, and in love.