Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin

“Well … in a manner of speaking . . . Yeah! So what?” I was getting tired of being shouted at.

“So pay up! He’s no good to me anymore.”

I surveyed the dragon. He didn’t seem to be any the worse for having eaten the shirt.

“What’s wrong with him? He looks all right to me.”

“Gleep!” said the dragon, and sidled up to me again.

“Oh! He’s fine,” the keeper sneered. “Except now he’s attached. An attached dragon isn’t any good except to the person or thing he’s attached to.”

“Well, who’s he attached to?”

“Don’t get smart with me! He’s attached to you! Has been ever since you fed him.”

“Well, feed him again and unattach him! I have pressing matters elsewhere.”

“Just like that, huh?” the Deveel said skeptically, towering to new heights. “You know very well it doesn’t work that way. Once a dragon’s attached, it’s attached forever. That’s why they’re so valuable.”

“Forever?” I asked.

“Well. . . until one of you dies. But any fool knows not to feed a dragon unless they want it attached to them. The idiot beasts are too impressionable, especially the young ones like this.”

I looked at the dragon again. He was very young. His wings were just beginning to bud, which I took as a sign of immaturity, and his fangs were needle-sharp instead of worn to rounded points like his brethren in the stall. Still, there was strength in the muscles rippling beneath those scales . . . yes, I decided, I’d back my dragon in a fight against any….

“Gleep!” said the dragon, licking both ends of his mustache simultaneously with his forked tongue.