Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of adventure short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

8580+ Adventure Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From riding the high sea to climbing behemoth mountains, there isn’t any action that’s out of reach when it comes to adventure stories.

Adventure Short Stories – Page 132 of 573

The Lizard Boy

Submitted to Contest #217

In a very small house. In a very small village. On a very small hill. A very small boy found a very small lizard. He loved this lizard with all of his heart. He loved how it skittered about on his hand and up his arms. He loved how it flicked its tongue out and sat on his shoulder. The lizard did not tease the boy for his size or push him to the ground. It simply sat and listened as it chewed on whatever bug it had acquired for lunch. He would wander through the village square with his lizard on his shoulder, spewing his latest musings of th...

13 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Knight for Hire

Submitted to Contest #217

A sword hung from the knight’s waist. He wore a brilliant suit of armor. With a mallet in hand, the knight nailed a sheet of parchment in the center of the town’s notice board. Knight For Hire Ogre Eviction- 200 Gold Pieces  Werewolf Taming- 100 Gold Pieces  Bridge De-Trolling-  100 Gold Pieces  Dragon Slaying- 500 Gold Pieces  Contact Sir Ronald The Brave No one took notice of him. The town’s folk went about their business. They’ll read it later, he thought as he mounted his noble steed. Noble might not be entir...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

To Kill or Not to Kill

Submitted to Contest #217

I was the only one who could do it. Why, you ask? Because I am the knight in shining armor. The hero of the people. The one who gets things done. So, I embarked on a journey, a quest. To deliver the castle of Mourne and save the town surrounding it from an evil dragon. The creature had made its nest there a few years ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to hunt it. After so long, though, I couldn’t afford to wait any longer. And nobody else volunteered to do it. I was the only one who could do it anyway. My travels took me through muddy roads an...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Another Way Around

Submitted to Contest #217

The grit of the ground underneath him cut unto the skin of his exposed hand like a thousand little shards, but his side where he had landed felt much, much worse. The burn on his lower leg surpassed both.  His helmet had long since gone, and a few of his other pieces of armor were hanging on barely from the leather being singed from the heat of the metal or even the flames themselves that had been thrown his way. It had been a miracle that the sword and shield had stayed in his hands thus far, having been thrown around so much. That l...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Jimmy the Giant

Submitted to Contest #217

I am godless, but I still pray just in case. Every time I walk into a courtroom, I am afraid I’ll be found out to be the fraud I really am. But I am the genuine article baby. The second I appear on the record, the man I am fades into the background and a much better man shows up. I don’t know much about him. But he is a force of nature. And he is the only reliable thing in my life.So, when John McArthur asked me to show him how it was done, I honestly didn’t have anything for him. I just said, “You want to ...

17 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Dear Life

Submitted to Contest #217

“You’re not ready.” The words were barked. The words were a denial. Those words hit hard and they hurt deep. “I would never be ready. Not by your reckoning anyway,” said the young lad. Turner walked away. There was nothing more to say, not as far as he was concerned. And so it went. The lad returned every evening. He was not short on determination. Turner thought him stubborn. That could be a good thing, but it was likely bad. Stubborn people found it difficult to listen. And if they did listen, then they seemed incapable of ke...

6 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

A Knight Full of Grievances

Submitted to Contest #217

“Aren’t you getting a little sick of this, man?” “Sick of what?” I shoot back to Barren, confused by what he means. “Wandering through miles of wilderness? It keeps us in shape.” “Sick of this,” he repeats, motioning with wide arms at everything around us. “At all of this. Is it worth it? It gets old after a while. Don’t you ever want to do something else with your life?” We leave our horses behind us, heading to terrain they can’t enter. A shallow river lay before us like a writhing snake. We wade through the creek bed. Our b...

29 likes 19 comments 19
Read story

Two Ways to Win

Submitted to Contest #217

Two Ways to Win Penrose donned his armor, the polished metal sparkling in the early morning. After a night of lost sleep and sore elbows, it had better be sparkling. It wasn’t every day that you had the opportunity to become a knight of the realm. That most prestigious position was only afforded to a precious few. The title would change his life forever and move him far beyond the ranks of his traditional family status. Five years of practice, exams, preliminary rounds, and mandatory service. All that was left was one final challenge. Grante...

11 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

The daughter of the North Dragon.

Submitted to Contest #217

The daughter of the North Dragon. I looked out over the burned shell of a town that the North Dragon had destroyed. I hoped most of the people had evacuated but the reports had told me otherwise. I heard stories of bodies lining the streets, children, women, livestock all murdered by the unrelenting claw of the North Dragon. The trek up the mountain had been long and hard, much more than I had ever trained for. I had been told the dragon resided in a cave at the summit of the mountain; why a town would be made under the shadow of a dragon'...

8 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Whispers of the Eternal Symphony: The Dance of the Dragon and the Warrior

Submitted to Contest #217

Once upon a time, in a realm laden with enchantments, lived a gallant warrior named Seraphim. Seraphim was an icon of valor, armored in celestial metal that shimmered under the sun’s radiant gaze. He was revered for his virtuous heart, one that throbbed with boundless compassion. The villagers admired Seraphim as their protector, but the warrior was facing an ethical conundrum. The peace of the valley was being threatened by the presence of a dragon named Zephyros, and the villagers demanded the dragon's demise. Zephyros, the Dragon of the W...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Fight is Won

Submitted to Contest #217

Ser Grahame was as big as they came. He was bold. He was valiant. He was noble. He was chivalrous. He was all the things that a knight should be. Most importantly, he was focused, courageous, disciplined, wise, and just. Thinking of a proper and good knight would be to think of Ser Grahame. Ser Grahame was the first born son of Ser Johne, the mightiest and most revered of the knights of his age. Sir Johne was the first born son of Ser Normane, the best of knights and winner of the Tourney in the Jungle, back in an age when the forests were...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Something Ventured Something Gained

Submitted to Contest #217

Something Ventured Something Gained Martin Rogers, a television producer and impresario, was not actually friend of mine but our paths had crossed. I’d heard of the parties he threw at his centuries old estate in Massachusetts. My friend, Kate had once been his guest and said they weren’t to be missed. ‘I won’t tell you about them, Elizabeth, instead I’ll arrange for you to get an invite and you can make up your own mind.’ True to her word, an invitation arrived the following week. The envelope had a wax seal with the letters MR on top of ...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

All That Glitters

Submitted to Contest #217

Alexander St. Clare was a normal boy by all accounts. Although orphaned at a young age, he had grown up in the care of many of the local townspeople. He was a model apprentice for the blacksmith and dreamed of one day owning his own tavern on the outskirts of town. Alexander may not have been the most popular amongst the town kids, and preferred the company of a good book to most, but in the town of Marais he was content. Until news of the dragon came. No one knew where it had come from, or even what it looked like. The rumors spread thr...

17 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Grimbold the Great

Submitted to Contest #217

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a powerful warrior named Grimbold Ironfist. He was tall and strong and he never lost a battle. Known throughout the land as a fierce and skilled fighter, many kingdoms had sought Grimbold's services in their battles with the dreaded fearful dragon, Scorch. But Grimbold had a secret: he didn’t want to kill the dragon. It wasn’t that he was a coward, or that he was afraid of the dragon or of the battle. No, Grimbold was simply a peaceful soul, who didn’t believe in killing unless absolutel...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Flickering Desire

Submitted to Contest #217

Cuthbert knelt by her bed and looped the bandage three times. She winced as it tightened around her swollen ankle. “Sorry,” he mumbled, not meeting her eye. “No, it’s fine. I’m glad one of us knows what we’re doing.” He nodded, still not looking up as he focussed on his task. Outside the tent, the cicadas fizzed their nightly chorus and off in the distance, a lion roared. She wondered what that roar meant. Had they made a kill? Would they still be looking for one? She shivered, and not just because of the cold night air from the savann...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.