Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a fantasy story about water gods or spirits.

Posted in Fantasy on Aug 4, 2021

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 227 stories

Cut-Off Eyes

Submitted to Contest #83

It was six o’clock in the morning and my portrait had woken up. Usually I don’t let myself be taken in by the shriveled portrait-drawers on the streets of Abuja, but the drawer looked about my age, and so handsome, and I couldn’t help it. It was only two nairas, anyway. So I sat for him, while Mama bought rice and raw murre bird in street markets of Abuja, Nigeria, and let him sketch me.He was terrible at it. I brought the paper home, propped it up against the big calabash bowl beside the door, and vowed to burn it in the morning. ...

119 likes 17 comments 17
Read story

Demetria’s Tale

. .

Submitted to Contest #83

The morning breeze touches my face with the caressing stroke of a mother. My golden hair floats, lifted by the gale falling from the mountain Annaliese high above our camp. Above the highest peak, the wind sweeps down the rock faces until the mist shrouds it entirely. The great Annaliese shines above us all...The mountain seems to shift with the wind, swaying this way and that as if it were not solid and unmoving. I always smell the sun on her stony depths, feel the pull down to the center of the Earth. Her sister, the river Galatea, dances ...

92 likes 154 comments 154
Read story

A Curse of Water and Magic

Submitted to Contest #83

I didn’t know the crown was cursed. Apparently, no one else did either. But now I am cursed, and all because of my curiosity. It sure did kill the cat, because now I am doomed. Unless I can make it to the top of our sacred mountain, Mirthazaer, and appease our water gods. I mean, honestly, make it a little easier, would you? But no, the gods of the water are picky about who wears the crown. Something that I, Carlytte Gryff, the heir to the throne, Crown Princess of Zyndrahr, fancy title after fancy title, yadda yadda yadda, should have ...

80 likes 56 comments 56
Read story

Secrets and Sand (GoA part 3)

Submitted to Contest #83

Author's Note: This is part three of my Reedsy-cast series, The Guilds of Atmos. There are a few new characters and Guilds introduced in this part, more detail in the comment below. If I haven't gotten to your character in this part, I promise I will in the next. Thanks so much to the person helping me plan this series that prefers not to be named. And it applies to the prompts because there are spirits. Thanks for reading!~☾~The Court of Elders sits around a large oval-shaped wooden table, the scars and knots on the wood under their fingert...

68 likes 87 comments 87
Read story

Missing ingredient

Submitted to Contest #83

"What are you doing?" Water asked, splashing onto the land where Prometheus was. She was bored of watching gods and titans carve up the world, and hoped that the gentlest titan she knew would have something for her.The titan spared her barely a glance, utterly engrossed in his work. His dark eyes had that look again, the one that meant he had retreated thoroughly into that bewitchingly busy head of us. Water drooped a little, settling herself down on her elbows to watch. His long, bronzed fingers were carefully putting dirt together. And app...

68 likes 32 comments 32
Read story

The Lorelei

Shortlisted for Contest #83 ⭐️

“From her steep castle of sorrow and slateLorelei reigns over men and their fateThe river below, its faithless embraceRests her grave, and unquiet birthplace.”“What’s that from?” asks the skinny girl. “It’s a legend, the legend of Lorelei,” says Captain Plauz, keeping his keen eyes peeled on the perilous currents of the River Rhein as he pilots the paddleboat. “Just ahead is the watery grave of many sailors, littered with the flotsam and jetsom of ships that crashed against the jagged rocks.”“Why’d they crash?”“Well, that’s a longer sto...

66 likes 59 comments 59
Read story

Siren Songs and Lullabies

Shortlisted for Contest #83 ⭐️

Fish hook earrings glimmer, catching the meagre light. Maera’s long hair hangs heavy, reaching her navel. Slick as an eel, she glides and weaves in the water to evade her pursuer. She moves more out of instinct than forethought, just quick enough to stay ahead. Excitement sings in her veins, the high of the chase taking control of her actions. Pinwheeling in the water, she turns and holds out her arms to catch her sister. They sink to the bottom, sending silt upwards as they roll and tumble playfully. With difficulty, she pins Echo to t...

55 likes 24 comments 24
Read story

In Reverence

Submitted to Contest #83

They all felt it when it happened. It rocked, then tilted back, like a lurching boat righting itself against a rogue wave. The world sailed onward, yet the water still rippled. They tried not to speak of that irreversible moment, and in muttered conversations, they loudly refused to ignore it. The Veil had cracked, a pointless sliver quickly swallowed up again by the Space between Here and There.  A spirit had given up their spirithood.  No one had bothered to look for what he might have left behind. The damage was already done, hi...

54 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

Their Grey Eyes

Submitted to Contest #83

They each stare at me with their grey eyes, waiting, wanting. There is hunger in their eyes, hunger concealed by thin lips and bony fingers. Concealed only to those who do not look, however. I am not fooled.My knees give way beneath me and my neck is lowered as they force me to bow down. I spit at the ground. Control is returned to my neck but I’m forced to stay kneeling, pathetically.They float, menacingly encircling me.There are three of them.The first is the shortest, the youngest. She floats higher than the rest. Her eyes, grey, of cours...

53 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

Tropical Ki

Submitted to Contest #83

The men arrive on a large boat, all clumped into a crowd on the surface, hats obscuring sunburned faces and overgrown beards. Binoculars held up against squinting eyes, sight blurred by sweat and the jostling of the sea, they cannot see the petite girl on the horizon.She waits for them on Elina Beach, the fine sand slipping between her toes and clinging to her ankles. The sun is unforgiving, and a patch of green foliage from the palm trees above basks her in a cooling shade. This is not the first time she has dealt with the visitors. Ma Maki...

41 likes 25 comments 25
Read story

Her Name Was Genevieve

Submitted to Contest #83

She smelled as sweet as honey, with her big blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Like a little doll, amplified to a larger size. She wore a straw hat, just large enough to cover the top of her perfectly curled golden threads of hair. When I first saw her, I laughed, for she looked just like a goddess, emerging from the sea. Just too perfect to be real.  I dug my feet deep into the sand, wondering if the feeling of warmth would bring me back to reality. My short brown hair flopped down over my ears, brushing across my cheeks as I looked down at ...

40 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

I Am Completely Loyal to the Sea Goddess

Submitted to Contest #83

Saihaa: human boat Aesaba: a young water spirit, about five or six.  Sorsaa: no-swimmer, the Aeshaan word for human Aeshaan: the water-spirit people “Hurry up!” I called to Naia. She raced ahead, her non-solid form slicing through the waters with speed. I, too, was a water spirit, though, so I could follow her easily. My body was made of liquids, a shimmering blue kind of water that held my soul, and I manipulated the waves to reach the little spirit I had to babysit.  “Lesai, I wanna see the Land!” “You can’t, aesaba, little...

39 likes 36 comments 36
Read story

A Fish Story

Shortlisted for Contest #83 ⭐️

In my experience, talking fish can be real assholes. My daughter, Maggie, and I had been in St. Thomas for three days. I’d finally had enough sitting around the hotel pool, sipping ridiculously-colored drinks with tiny paper umbrellas. I figured there must be a decent fishing hole around here someplace.  My daughter barely looked up from the paperback she was reading poolside in one of the chaise lounge chairs. “Really, Dad? Creature of habit much?” I shrugged, squinting against the sun’s glare off the turquoise water. I felt like a ...

37 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

SEA GODS BY

Submitted to Contest #83

POSEIDON At birth Poseidon was swallowed whole by his father Kronos (Cronus), but Zeus later enlisted the aid of the goddess Metis who fed the Titan a magical elixir causing him to disgorge the god. <<More>> During the War of the Titans, the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) crafted a magical trident for Poseidon, and together with his brothers Zeus and Hades he defeated the elder gods and imprisoned them in Tartaros. <<More>> Poseidon and his brothers drew lots for the division of the cosmos after the fall of the Titans, and won t...

35 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Rise of King Triton

Submitted to Contest #83

The white horses thundered towards the shore pulling with them Poseidon God of the sea, in his mighty clam shell chariot. The sea was angry because Poseidon was angry. His sea spirits rode the backs of the dolphins in angry procession to meet the sea witch queen. She was sitting as always sitting on a rock formation, near the harbour of some unsuspecting town. Whose fishermen and sailors would head out to sea and be seduced by her sirens. Their ships would be forever consigned to the bottom of the sea with their souls. Poseidon wasn’t angr...

33 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone who goes to extreme lengths to get themselves to a tropical island.

Adventure – 91 stories

Start your story with someone emerging from the sea, and end it with them looking up at the stars.

Fantasy – 276 stories

Write about someone who’s lived on a tropical island their whole life and is leaving it for the very first time.

Dystopian – 83 stories

Write about someone who books a bargain vacation, only to be told when they arrive that they need to share a hotel suite with a stranger.

Dramatic – 148 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel