The Bright Silver Saucer in the Meadow
by Jeff Baker
Being married to the Grand Sorceress has some advantages. Most of the time.
The family complains, says I should live in a palace or at least a mansion. But we like it. It’s roomy and no maintenance. And it cost us nothing. And she calls me “The Woman of All My Dreams.”
Not that the Grand Sorceress can’t conjure up any money or gold or jewels (except silver, that little limitation.) And her family already owned the land which is temperate and pleasant and next to a river that never overflows.
Okay, the weather and the never-overflowing is due to Eridnia’s magic. So is the spell that ensures our privacy.
Which is good, because otherwise we’d have tourists all over the place if only to gawk at the saucer.
The invasion was all over the news a decade ago. But then the assembled mystics of the stellar system went up to deal with the invading spacefleet personally. Magic versus whatever space blasters the invaders had. The invaders had heard about the mystics limitations involving silver, but they didn’t realize it only meant magic couldn’t create silver, not that magic couldn’t destroy silver. So the invaders came in silver plated saucer-ships.
The mystics made short work of them.
And my Eridnia brought the biggest silver saucer down to give to me, “The woman of all my dreams,” as she said. “Tanaria, you shine brighter than the sun to me!”
So I happily sit now, in the cozy home we furnished out of a large silver spacecraft, perched on the edge of a flowery meadow. I am happily combing my hair before crawling into bed with the woman of my dreams. The comb is a gift from my beloved.
It had been the clawed hand of the leader of the invaders.
—end—
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for this month’s Flash Fiction Draw Challenge (drawn by Jeff Ricker, thank you very much!) were a Fantasy, set in a spaceship involving a hairbrush. The title reminds me of “The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree,” a book I read in grade school and re-read years later.
The last line just came to me as I was writing it and made the story a lot darker than I planned but it was probably inevitable. And I think it works.
——-j.s.b November 9, 2021
authorjeffbaker 
Great story! Will you please explore this world more? Would love to read more about it, especially the battle.
There’s nothing to explain! This is the first I’ve written about it! This is for a Flash Fiction Draw Challenge where Jeff Ricker draws three cards; one for a type of story, one for a setting and one for an object to appear in the story. In this case it was a fantasy, set in a spaceship including a hairbrush. I hit on the idea of an old spaceship as a home and I threw in the magic to add the fantasy. I’ve been watching the old show “The Invaders” which probably inspired some of it. As for the hairbrush, that came to me while I was writing the story. Glad you liked it! Here’s Jeff Ricker’s blog: https://jeffrey-ricker.com/flash-fiction-draw-for-november-2021-and-someone-clearly-cant-tell-time/
Hi, yeah I got that. I was just saying that I would love if you would extend this story and the world, later, as another story or series, perhaps, with more details. I understand this is flash fiction, but I think the setting would also make for a good novel, even a series.
Thanks! It would!