Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin

“Aah . . . thanks, but we have plenty of sticks in my home dimension.”

“Not like these sticks, young sahr. You are from Klah, are you not?”

“Yes, why?”

“I can guarantee you, there are no such sticks as these in all of Klah. They come from a dimension only I have access to and I have not sold them in Klah or to anyone who was going there.”

Despite myself, my curiosity was piqued. I looked again at the sticks lining the walls of the stall. They looked like ordinary sticks such as could be found anywhere.

“What do they do?” I asked cautiously.

“Aah! Different ones do different things. Some control animals, others control plants. A few very rare ones allow you to summon an army of warriors from the stones themselves. Some of the most powerful magicians of any dimension wield staffs of the same wood as these sticks, but for most people’s purposes the smaller model will suffice.”

“Gleep!” said the dragon, sniffing at one of the sticks.

“Leave it alone!” I barked, shoving his head away from the display.

All I needed was to have my dragon eat up the entire stock of one of these super-merchants.

“May I inquire, is that your dragon, young sahr?”

“Well… sort of.”

“In that case, you might find a particular use for a stick most magicians wouldn’t.”

“What’s that?”

“You could use it to beat your dragon.”

“Gleep!” said the dragon, looking at me with his big blue eyes.

“Actually, I’m not really interested in a stick.”

I thought I’d better get to my original purpose before this conversation got out of hand.

“Ridiculous, young sahr. Everybody should have a stick.”