A gray haired dwarf walked briskly into Kada-El's tavern muttering to himself. "I'll take four." The barmaid, Allelia, poured four mugs of beer quickly and served them to the dwarf. "That's two hexas, Padrig." she said, smiling as always. Padrig put three hexas down on the bar, and resumed muttering to himself. "Thank ye Padrig" said Allelia.
Padrig scooped the mugs from the bar and started downstairs to the fire, grumbling as he went.
"Hail Padrig Ottersbrook!" said one of the two red bearded dwarves sitting by the fire. "Hail brodrs." Padrig set a mug in front of each of them and sat behind two mugsthat were waiting at his place at the table. He set his two mugs with these.
"You missed the entertainment." said one of his friends. " Padrig raised a gray brow. "Entertainment at the Kada-El?" he asked. "A very skillful Ylian was producing and vanishing all sorts of things. He made that bottle walk right before our eyes!" "Eat my boots! I have missed him again." said Padrig. He took a long pull from his beer and said, "He calls himself Taradiddle Lightstaff." Padrig looked chagrinned. "You know of him brodr?", asked the younger dwarf. "I have shared the road with him for some time now. I know him well enough." answered Padrig. "He is good enough, for an Ylian to be sure. He has many skills but commits to none of them for more than the price of a meal or mug of liquor. He will hold no job but wishes only to amuse.", said Padrig. "He is much like the useless ball of my youth." The red-bearded dwarves looked at eachother curiously. "Useless ball? do tell Padrig." said one of them to the elder dwarf.
"Tale telling is thirsty work." said Padrig. The two dwarves pushed the beers that Padrig gave them back across the table. Padrig smiled, threw one of them back in a gulp, and began his tale.
"I grew up in a military fort where we played at combat and had little use for the toys our mothers gave us. I had a ball when I was very young that went untouched. One day an old mage came through our camp and told my mother that he would have the ball become the most wonderful toy in camp. 'Good luck to you.' said my mother. 'You can make it glow, or sing, or talk for all I care. These children will ignore it all for their wargames.'
'I intend no such thing my good lady. On the contrary, I am going to take all the use out of it.' said the mage. He enchanted the ball and gave it to my mother. It looked and felt exactly the same. She tried to toss it from one hand to the other but as soon as she released it from one hand it dropped directly to the floor. She kicked it but it wouldn't roll. It wouldn't even buldge. When she picked it up and threw it at the ground but it would not bounce. Again it sat on the ground and would not be moved.
She called me, gave me the ball and told me to play with it. I took it outside and soon discovered how strange it was. It would do nothing I expected of it. It would do nothing at all. It was wonderful! I demontrated this miraculous thing to my friends and we played with it by the hour, by the day, by the week. We tried to think up ways to make the ball act but nothing worked. We had contests to see if any of us could throw or kick or bounce the ball better than anyone else. The contests always ended in a draw but each night one child or another would think up some new trick that might give him an advantage; so the ball would come out again the next day and play would resume. Rumor of the ball spread to the surrounding farms and when the children passed near our fort they had to come and see this incredible toy.
A time came weeks after the ball was enchanted when my father was unloading supplies from a wagon and into our hut. He grew tired of opening the door with each load and had a clever strike of mind. He took my ball and set it in front of the open door, holding it ajar. It worked quite well for this purpose.
Some time after that the old mage passed through our encampment again. My mother greeted him and said, "You were right about that ball for awhile. The children would have no other plaything. But now things are back as they were.'
The mage smiled when he saw the ball near the door and said, 'They would be playing with it still if it had not been used to stop that door. The moment you gave that
thing a purpose it lost all its charm. It became like everything else around here. It had a use.' said the mage, 'It was only fun when it was useless!' ".
Padrig gulped down another mug and said, "Taradiddle Lightstaff is just like that ball. He is meant to amuse only. You would not think twice of him if he swung a hammer or plowed a field."
Just then Taradiddle bounded down the stairs and into the room. Under his arm he carried a baby Pterosaur. "His name is Dagger! do you like him?"
"Dung sacks." muttered Padrig. What in the name of the Azure Way are you doing with that?"
