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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story in which a character navigates using the stars.

Posted in Adventure on Apr 5, 2024

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 24 stories

“ Through Foggy Veils of the Mystical Coast” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #245

The Mystical Coast showed her mystery and drama while the ship called Nightflight cruised under the shimmering stars.Winds of the Mystical Coast blew a dense veil of fog across the clear waters. Then the Nightflight was wrapped in a cotton cloud mist, hiding the stars and shores needed for navigation.A towering ocean swell over the bar from the sea to the Emerald River lifted Nightflight into the salty air.Blankets of fog hid the other ship that was coming from the starboard side. Through the haze a ghostly shape appeared.Wham! The two hulls...

38 comments 38
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“Wildflowers and Moonlight” by Annie Hewitt

Submitted to Contest #245

In the open expanse of the desert terrain that stretched ominously under the cloudy moonlit sky, Danny and Christina found themselves unsure of which way to go. Christina was trying desperately to stay calm but failing and Danny was hoping the sky would clear up a bit so he could use the stars to navigate their way out of Joshua Tree National Park. He learned astronavigation when he was a Boy Scout and while he wasn’t always thrilled with his parents for making him stick with everything he started there were times, like this, he was grateful...

22 comments 22
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“Howl for Home” by Isabel Jewell

Submitted to Contest #245

They circled each other, the ancient ritual of the eijak, teeth bared, hackles raised. The snow was soft, but not fresh. Each member of the pack watched in agony. A low growl sprung from Aakon’s chest. He was willing to die, but not for his family. Because if he died for them, they all died. He imagined the newborn pups, bundled in their furs, too young to Shift. Helpless, blind. He was not ready to kill, especially not his blood-brother, but Toran left him with no choice: one of them was to die. Toran had called upon the Tradition of Mig...

16 comments 16
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“Cassiopeia” by Elise G

Submitted to Contest #245

Around the corner of a run-down building, where the red brick is grey with dust and the blinds hang to the windows by a thread, is a large new street, crisp and black, sloping down a gentle hill. Follow that big bright street, turn a few more corners, and there, tucked beside an ice cream store and a parking lot, is a market, running without fail every Saturday evening, popping up at lunch and gone by the time the sun is down. For a few hours each Saturday, it no longer smells of sticky asphalt and cigarette smoke, but popcorn jumping in lar...

4 comments 4
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“Ripples Across The Universe” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #245

The moon was absent that night. This was a night when the see lapped at the night sky. Kissing it gently until the dark heavens succumbed and there was no way of knowing where sky and ocean began or ended. The two lovers intertwined in a brief embrace that should have been desperate in its stolen transience, but was instead languorous and so hypnotically natural that Glen could no longer remember where the horizon should have been. He stared out across the boat and lost himself in that distant lovemaking. The ebb and flow of the water undern...

10 comments 10
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“Hands of a Sailor” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #245

I sat in front of Dobie as he got animated while telling his tale of the Turtling hurricane that he survived. I know a little was going to be from his imagination but I sat to hear the tale of a real storyteller on a starry night with a warm breeze against my cheek and the gentle rock of my ketch in the change of tide swell. He took a gulp of rum and began with a nod of head.‘The wind started to go all wrong and Cop’n had to order a reef in the main. Then he had to order the jib topsail down, then another reef. The seas were kicking up with ...

4 comments 4
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“In to Get Out” by Jacqueline R

Submitted to Contest #245

He found her below deck, near the ethereal crystal that powered the ship to stay afloat. She sat cross-legged with her eyes closed. Her frizzy hair needed brushing and he noted as he got closer, that a bath and some new clothes wouldn’t hurt. He didn’t know if he had any female clothing but would look to get her something clean.  Despite her abysmal appearance, her serine face was concentrated. Brows creased as whatever powers mingled with her thoughts.  He knew better than to interrupt a Kristl during their…process.  It still...

8 comments 8
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“The Painted Candle” by McKade Kerr

Submitted to Contest #245

In the far reaches of the universe, a place of mystery and beauty that few dare to explore, a small spaceship carrying two adventurers soared by at hyper speed. Captain Finnian, the courageous space photographer, and his trusty assistant Quixly were back out in the galaxies once again. After coming home to glory and fame from their first photo expedition, they soon felt the gnawing hunger for travel that all adventurers know too well, so they said goodbye to their friends and families and took off once again in search of places rarely seen a...

12 comments 12
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“The Lady of the Last Star” by Paweł Ciarka

Submitted to Contest #245

It was considered a fact, that there are more stars in the universe, than human souls that ever lived in it. This statement is no longer true. Most of them died, or rather, were killed, leaving entire galaxies in darkness. But some said, „some” meaning the very last of humanity before even they met their end, that some stars still spark like diamonds in dessert sands. Across uninhabited planets and carcases of nebuli, their light guides a certain, troubled soul. And the darkness, right on its tail.       &n...

6 comments 6
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“In Your Comfortable Bed” by Naya's A Writer

Submitted to Contest #245

The stars filled up the sky as the blazing sun went down. My eyes scanned the heavens for any sort of air attack that might take away my life. So far, none has appeared. The ground was moist and soft, the soil watered with cloud tears. The air around me was damp, like a just-unloaded washing machine. The sound of crickets was heavy in the air, making up a natural choir. The weight of my make-shift bag was ponderous against my back, my legs aching so much it felt like lead. Even so, I forced a step after the other, trying to balance my breath...

4 comments 4
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“The Great Hunter” by Christine Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #245

The great hunter, Orion rose in the Southern sky as night fell; Winter was coming. The mountain peaks tipped with snow earlier than usual; wind-chilled nights chased away the warmth of the day in camp. Falling amber leaves drifted to the ground and the berry crop had ended.   It was time to move to the Great Plains in the warmer South away from the winter shadows cast by the mountains.As night fell the tribe gathered around the roaring fire to prepare for the migration ahead. The last of the food had been dried ...

8 comments 8
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“La Bonne Étoile (The Lucky Star)” by Natalie Portera-Sickler

Submitted to Contest #245

The portal malfunctioned again. Fortunately, it dropped him close enough to shore that he could swim the rest of the way – better than being dropped in quicksand, like last time. Slightly annoyed, Professor Gregory Reyvannes scrambled out of the azure waters onto the soft, supple sands of the shore. “I know you’re here somewhere.” he mumbled to himself, shaking the water from his coat.The professor blinked a few times, taking in his surroundings; white sands reflected the sun in a way where the little island looked like it was glowing. Not a...

4 comments 4
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“Journey Back by Staright” by Eva Raynes

Submitted to Contest #245

Somewhere in France, 1918  Besides a thick coat of mud, Lance Corporal Horace Yule had somebody else’s blood on his boots. He tried to rub it off but was unsuccessful. A plump rat scattered past him, making him reel in disgust. He knew that these things were the least of his worries, because, in an hour or so, it was going to be nighttime, and Horace and other men were going to have to leave the safety of their trench and raid the German trench, which was on the other side of no-man’s land.   Far away, Horace heard cannons fir...

3 comments 3
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“Star's End” by Paul Hellyer

Submitted to Contest #245

Three camels trotted languidly across a sweeping red desert. Upon these peculiar beasts, sat three wizened men, with rich dark skin, dressed in flowing purple and gold robes. They were a solemn procession, tracking softly through the endless sands, and had travelled in silence for the last few hours.In the fullness of time, one of them spoke, his voice cutting into the meditative quiet.‘Asuma, do you think they will think us mad?’The man who had been addressed held his peace for a few moments, perhaps considering what been said, before reply...

2 comments 2
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“The Tail of the Comet” by LISA Brown

Submitted to Contest #245

Being pregnant was a trip. She was getting toward the end and in a few weeks she could drink coffee again. Yay! She was still thinking about what would happen after the baby arrived but figured she would come up with something. For now, she was living with her mother, Rebecca, helping with her business in exchange for room and board. Her mother was a self described empath. A psychic. She had customers and crystals. And business cards. At least she didn’t have a 1-800 number. Yet.Katharine sat at the kitchen table monitoring the phones, grudg...

2 comments 2
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