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Art is a retired computer programmer. After forty years of writing in COBOL and Assembler he decided to try writing in English; it's much harder than it looks. He lives in New York City with his wife/muse and regularly visiting grandkids.
Art's had stories published in Third Flat Iron Anthologies, The Rabbit Hole: Weird Stories, Fall Into Fantasy, and Home Planet News Online.
Virgilius the Potter made pleasing plates and beautiful bowls. He made comely cups, and the prettiest pitchers; but, the artistic altitude achieved by his saucers was unmatched. Artists wept for joy at the sight of a Virgilius saucer. Competing potters wrecked their wheels, and crushed their kilns upon seeing one of his creations. Wars were fought, and ransoms paid for his saucers. Thus he came to be known from the tip of the Western Kingdom to the shores of the Eastern Isles as Virgilius the Saucerer. Virgilius and his entire village thrived on the trade in his singular saucers.
One day on the grassy common at the center of the village square a sinister figure appeared. Leaning on an ebony staff topped with a jagged crystal that pulsed with a malevolent sanguine light was Wargnuff the Scourge, a dark sorcerer of foul repute.
"Bring me Virgilius the Sorcerer, too often have I heard his name mentioned as the greatest sorcerer in the entire world!"
Virgilius was summoned and tried explaining to Wargnuff that he was not a sorcerer, but a saucerer, a potter who makes saucers. Wargnuff would have none of it,
"Coward, I challenge you to a magical contest, the winner will be the greatest sorcerer ever known, the loser will be dead."
Virgilius realized that the dark sorcerer was beyond reason. Thinking quickly he spoke,
"Very well, since you have challenged me, it is only right that I choose the contest. My greatest power is sleeping; I shall sleep for 100 years, nothing will disturb me, and I will awaken without having aged a day."
"Then I shall sleep for 200 years, and awaken one year younger than I am today," proclaimed Wargnuff.
Both men immediately lay down upon the sward. When Wargnuff began to snore, Virgilius rose with a triumphant smile and returned to his studio. From that day forward he was known as Virgilius the Sorcerous Saucerer, and Wargnuff the Scourge became known as Wargnuff the Ivy Covered.
The End
This story was first published on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019
Author Comments
Every once in a while you get lucky and a story almost writes itself. I am a fantasy writer, who enjoys (sad to say) puns. Well. once it dawned on me that a Saucerer (if such a word existed), would be a person who makes saucers....
- Art Lasky
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