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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#181: Standing Tall

The mountains are the place where many people go to seek adventure, whether that be hiking, climbing, or skiing; but they’re also where some go to find stillness, and reconnect with nature. Mountain ranges have an almost spiritual feel to them 一 they stand tall, enduring the test of time, and remind us of our scale in the universe. 


In literature, mountains have often served as powerful settings, or as a metaphor for the insurmountable obstacles characters have to deal with. This week’s prompts are inspired by them:

This week's prompts

Write about someone who realizes they're on the wrong path.

Character – 69 stories

Write a story about someone who has to “move mountains” to get what they want.

Angst – 15 stories

Write about a character who’s climbing a mountain, whether internal, external, or both.

Adventure – 59 stories

Write about a character who, for whatever reason, retreats to a remote cabin.

Mystery – 62 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Dialogue – 73 stories

Stories

“The Fate I Changed From a Goddess” by Elleden Whittlock

Submitted to Contest #181

I always thought that what I wanted would only happen if the gods and goddesses allowed it. Clotho, the goddess of fate, was who my people relied on the most. If you angered her, what you wanted would not be taken into her account. Your blessings would become curses, and your fate the exact opposite of what you wanted. My mother told me stories of Clotho when I was little, about how she blessed her family and brought good fortune. She also told me about how she bestowed a curse on her best friend when she told my mother “I don’t believe in s...

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“A way out” by Ela Mikh

Submitted to Contest #181

I’m so unbelievably fucked!I looked around in hopes of finding an out but there was none. Under other circumstances, I would have been in awe of the scenery around me. The landscape that stretched in every direction was covered in yellowish wildflowers which emitted a slightly sweet smell. Lazy bees were circling them slowly, clearly not too keen on working hard when there was such an abundance of supplies. A little further down the road, one could spot some short desert-looking trees which are so common in Southern California (or SoCal as w...

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“How do you say 'Eat S**t' in Corporate slang?” by Laura Ethington

Submitted to Contest #181

The repeated aggressive chiming of her alarm clock was the only thing that got any excitement out of her these days. While her eyes were still closed, she slammed the alarm to snooze for nine more blissful minutes before she had to get up. But rest was done for the day. Instead, she felt the looming daily anxiety that comes whenever she wakes up before work. Going to the same bullshit as yesterday, and the day before, the week before, the month before, and the year before. But it was a time of recession plus inflation, and there was a d...

4 comments 4
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“Mr. Douglas” by Dwayne W

Submitted to Contest #181

Arnold Douglas finds himself thrust from the balcony of his penthouse suite, wearing nothing but his luxurious white mulberry silk robe, erratically flailing at his side as if they were the wings of Icarus. Post sun. And, clutching an ancient solid gold Mayan artifact, which he purchased for a pretty penny, that he managed to swipe back from his assailant, who snatched it from his neck as they shoved him over the edge. He wasn't a few feet down from the balcony when he felt like time had slowed. A bottle of Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru ...

2 comments 2
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“Amalie's Escape” by Richard Leslie Brock

Submitted to Contest #181

On June 25th of 1930, Amalie turned eighteen and lived with her parents near the Saint-Lizier Cathedral in a house overlooking the Salat river in France. One year later, she would go to the Spanish side of the Pyrenees to become a teacher of children, change her name to Amala, and marry a sheep farmer who lived high on a mountain and had a bent toward philosophy. Amalie had always been an unpredictable child her father would say of his beloved daughter—smart, impetuous, and often unruly. She was always driven to follow her whims —no matte...

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“Mama Bear” by Vanessa M

Submitted to Contest #181

Content warning: language As she watched little Gracie enter the building, Kimberly let out an exhausted sigh. The first two weeks of the school year had been difficult to say the least.  Gracie was the new kid, and that was always hard in and of itself. It’s easy to forget how mean kids can be.  Then there was the matter of Gracie’s IEP. Gracie was hard of hearing and wore bright purple hearing aids in both ears. Gracie also required motor support, and she had a sensory processing disorder that required near-constant stimula...

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“Ain't No Mountain HIgh Enough...” by Lisa Wentworth

Submitted to Contest #181

Ain’t No Mountain HIgh Enough… There once was a girl called Lydia. She was pretty and sweet, but not the prettiest and sweetest. She was smart and clever, but not the smartest or most clever. She never won awards for her work in class. She was fit and active, and loved being outside, but she never excelled and got blue ribbons at contests…she preferred to just challenge herself. In fact, Lydia was quite content in her own little world; it was a beautiful place. She dreamed of mountains, and seas, and blue skies and birds that she chatted...

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“I Am Flight ” by Jordan Cochran

Submitted to Contest #181

Fight, Flight, Freeze… the three trauma responses that I have heard about for years. I wish these three, along with the other trauma responses, did not even exist. But they have to, right? Because if we did not have trauma responses, our kind, humans as we know it, would never have made it to present day 2023. Our ancestors were rough and tough, and without the internet to look up “How to dodge a bengal tiger” back then, the good Lord gave them the almighty amygdala to activate the fight, flight, or freeze response. The activation of these t...

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“Looking for Mountain, Trying to Find my Sanity” by Duane Schultz

Submitted to Contest #181

I’m speeding down the road in Northeastern Wisconsin with my dear friend, Joe Palooka. He and I go back a long time, friends since we were kids. I remember when we first met in George Piazzi’s variety store on Main Street where we would visit several times a week for candy and comics. I had seen Joe there a number of times, and when I walked up to him and said “Hi, I’ve seen you here before”; he just responded with “Yeah so what is your business here?” I told him, “The same as yours, getting some candy and the latest Superman ...

2 comments 2
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“A Realization at 15,000 Feet” by Pamela Blair

Submitted to Contest #181

A REALIZATION AT 15,000 FEET December, 1973 At 15,000 feet, the encampment around Kibo Hut resembled a miners’ camp: three A-frame and two rectangular aluminum shacks dotted a bare, rocky hillside. Stu and I, as usual the first of our group, found bunks for three in one of the shacks, for us and the other four people in our party. Before dark, I sat outside on a boulder, fashioning a face mask out of two black socks—the socks stretched across my face, creating slits for my eyes in the space between the two socks. I hoped it woul...

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“An Innocence Lost” by Natalie Gessele

Submitted to Contest #181

It was a pleasant morning. The dew still hung on the grass and the sun shone warmly. I had finished my morning chores and was walking towards the path to the river. The tall grass had soaked through the hem of my dress, but I didn’t care. I was still at that age of innocence and wonder of the world around me- each day was fresh and perfect and true evil did not exist. I skipped down the forest path, pausing to admire every little flower and gaze up at the sunlight filtering through the leaves. I twirled a small violet in my fingers...

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“The Cabin Under The Mountains.” by Ellie Rendel

Submitted to Contest #181

A short Story written by E.K.Rendel We are taught as children that running away from your problems never solves them.  that you must face your problems with a brave face.  Some people run away from their problems to heal. After all,  You can’t face your problems with a knife lodged into your back.  If the brown bears and grey wolves didn’t put you off or if the remote location, if the cold weather and snowfall didn’t put you off then an eerily quiet cabin in the middle of nowhere might just put the nail in the...

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“A Tunnel to Remoteness” by Tom Strewler

Submitted to Contest #181

Inside the cabin a man sits near the fireplace, a single lamp illuminates just a corner of the floor in the cabin. On a hewn log frame day bed with bolsters and pillows he sits propped up reading with his back to the light and fire. Dressed in a worn plaid wool shirt the sleeves rolled to the elbows, he appears comfortable. The weathered wrinkles and lines in his aged face begin to tell the story of his existence. His hair long and unkempt is gathered in a pony tail which runs down his back.        He stop...

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“The Hinterland” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #181

David Albert King (middle name after his grandfather) had enjoyed a normal upbringing and been fairly sane until unchaperoned forays into the Internet in his early teens revealed that the world was not as he’d known it. There were conspiracies at the highest level. Politicians and famous actors did despicable things. No-one could be trusted. Before it had been other foreign countries, but now it was the good old U.S. of A. that was the enemy. Not the people; the government. An apocalypse was coming and it was everyone for themselves. Yo...

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“The Ghosts of Elephant Mountain” by Ashley Brandt

Submitted to Contest #181

The cabin on Elephant Mountain had not seen occupants in three decades. Mr. and Mrs. Dillinger, a middle-aged, reclusive couple with no children, built the cabin in the late 1800s. It was said that Mr. Dillinger was sterile after a bout of the mumps during his childhood, and Mrs. Dillinger’s body was riddled with cancer. Having no extended family, the couple retreated from society to live in the rural mountains of Maine, subsisting off gardens they’d planted themselves, game hunted by Mr. Dillinger, and without the use of modern utilities. ...

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$250

Prize money

278

Contest entries

125

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 20, 2023 EST

Won by Aeris Walker 🏆

Title: Out of Place on the Appalachian Trail

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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