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.

8570+ 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 151 of 572

The Tribe

Submitted to Contest #205

Drums banging! Mark danced around the fire, waving his arms around manically. Trevor watched from his small, wooden cage, hoping that Mark’s dancing would be enough for the tribe to let them go free. Trevor sat, thinking about how he and Mark even got into this circumstance in the first place. He remembers them walking through the forest, looking for adventure. They had certainly found it. Trevor had a massive headache and rubbed the back of his neck, flinching as his hand passed over a small hole, the size of an ear piercing, right there....

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Winter Solstice

Submitted to Contest #205

Winter is death. That is all there is to it. Everything comes to an end and even the Sun God distances herself from the cursed land, abandoning us to the cold and the dark. Leaving us with nothing but a dwindling hope that a new life will arise from within the earth and afford us another portion of time and a harvest that might just see us through the next time of death. I wish that was all there was to it, but there is more. More death and despair. The dying land summons forth the Winter Demon and we are compelled to make a suitable...

15 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Hidden Moon

Submitted to Contest #205

There was death waiting for him. In a cold, haughty embrace that terrorized Urloc to his core. Nervous beads of sweat rolled down the side of his face and he closed his eyes to try to steel his nerves, but her vengeful cackle filled his mind and his eyes shot open in a ripe panic. White streams of moonlight cast through the window in front of him. The light shone as if it were a sun but with no warmth, no heart no soul. Instead, it was but a reflection. A hollow, fathomless well where there was no joy, no empathy...only misery.  A mise...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Legend of the Elements

Submitted to Contest #205

Something scurried. Heart racing, Fenna Achterberg turned, looking back from where she’d come, straining to see in the moonlit environment. The spiral staircase behind her led down to a whole world of ancient books and centuries of dust. The bookcases, so tall they had made her dizzy to look up at, were all neatly organized in endless rows, creating a labyrinth of a library. Tall and narrow windows in proportion to the rest of the majestic structure, let in the moonlight, casting a silver glow. The earthy scent of old pages was thick and s...

6 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Wolf's Judgment

Submitted to Contest #205

Madadh hid inside a hollowed log, waiting for the soldiers to run the other way. Madadh refused to breathe out of fear of being heard from his hiding spot. Once the soldiers were out of sight, the man silently crawled out of the log and ran away, escaping something. “Why did I have to kill that Wolf? Why couldn’t I have just tried to scare it off, or just let it have that sheep??” Madadh thought to himself. Madadh was a wealthy Shepherd in a small but prosperous kingdom. He had a loving family, a loyal hound, and a highly successful Sheep ...

14 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Rebel and The Disc Jockey in: The Human Gathering of Cerberus

Submitted to Contest #205

[this is a sequel to a previous entry that can be found on my profile, also called "The Rebel and The Disc Jockey".] The sight of her parents' mutilated bodies lingered in her mind like a haunting nightmare—a relentless reminder of the cruelty they had endured. Alone amidst this desolate night, Vivi's gaze darted through the shadows as she clutched onto that radio speaker for dear life. Her heart pounded in her chest like a symphony of anguish and rage, a rhythm driving both determination and despair. Whispering into the darkness surroundi...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Critical Inaccuracy, Chapter 4 of 7 - Even Beautful Tamers Have Thorns

Submitted to Contest #205

It was just another pretty, promising, perfectly precious, spring morning. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, yada yada. Only, today was not just a typical morning. For Alicia... "Ah, the day is young!", said Alicia, as she rolled out of bed, stretched, and began her morning routine. She started by walking into her bathroom and washing her face. A great way to wake herself up. Next, she brushed her hair. Not a single knot would ruin her cutesy appearance. And at last the finishing touch, putting in her flowery hair pin. "Beauti...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Absolution

Submitted to Contest #205

Far into the black vacuum of space, through the empty abyss, a spaceship lands on a lonely planet, made of water, where an eternal typhoon rages on, and people live in fear. Two Cultists arrived on this planet, the planet of Ossieus, with one goal in mind : to kill a God.“Wretched, Move forward and survey.” The Rohessian Hunter radioed as she left her spacecraft. She was wearing an all-black armored overcoat with a specialized mask that had four lenses, with three on the right side of the mask in a triangular pattern and the fourth one on th...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Dog Park, High Noon

Submitted to Contest #204

Paradise isn't easy to come by and it's even harder to keep. But a good dog knows that she has to stand up to protect what's hers. This is the story of one such dog, the one they call Bella.Now, paradise was Three Forks Dog Park in Snoqualmie, and even on overcast days, of which there were many, the park was a bright place to be. But the sun was shining on that October Saturday when Greg and Bella rode their Ford Bronco into Three Forks. Heads turned, as they always did, at Bella's arrival.Greg strolled, but Bella pranced. Greg was a well-gr...

10 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Water Bearer

Submitted to Contest #204

Nimble fingers race to finish braiding the last tufts of Tierra’s hair while she diligently applies kohl to the waterline of her eyes. A young girl kneels before her, securing strings of delicate shells to her right ankle.The curtains at the entrance of the room part forcefully. An old woman with a limp and cane hobbles in, waving her free arm.“They’re here. They’re here,” she whispers to the room of women. The pace of the braiding quickens.“She’s almost ready, Mama Althea,” one of the braiders responds. Her fingers twist and turn with fervo...

7 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Evil Evelyn’s Exotically Enigmatic Escapade (EEEEE!)

Submitted to Contest #204

Evelyn Cavendish--aka, Evil Evelyn, Cadaverous Cavendish, or just Evie--was a likely suspect for a murderer. Everyone had said so ever since she was a little girl. "You'll be the next Mary Ann Cotton," her exasperated mother once told little Evie at a family party when she was six. Mary Ann Cotton was a 19th-century murderer, though this apt historical reference eluded most everyone in the room because, of course, men get nearly all the credit, even when it comes to the nasty business of murder.It was, therefore, highly unusual and unexpecte...

17 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Burning O'Neill

Submitted to Contest #204

The last man to see Oscar O’Neill and his family alive was I, Charles Solomon, because they were my family too, and every sunrise I regret that I did not burn with them that awful night when Kendrick Jophiel marched his mob upon us on account of what was done to his kin. Done by me, and by O’Neill’s boys, Elmore Keene, Gregory, and Felix. We learned to kill together in the war of the rebellion, but afterwards we kept right on going as the cycles of spilled blood back home spun out, and the thirst for revenge hung heavy on us all, Kendrick in...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Once Upon a Time in Chimney Rock

Submitted to Contest #204

The town of Chimney Rock did not attract the finest of individuals. It wasn’t the type of place a family of four looking to settle down would see on a map and exclaim, “Wow, what a lovely looking town!” Though the housing was affordable, which was perhaps its only allure. Rumors circulated about a sheriff somewhere in town, although none of the locals had caught sight of him in quite some time. One uneventful tale claimed to have witnessed him relieving himself on the side of a building one night. That was pretty much it. Folk must’ve g...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

A Narrow Escape

Submitted to Contest #204

Thump! Thump! Crash! Rock gives way beneath Henry’s sword and clatters to the ground around him, dusting his clothes and hair with rubble. Brushing debris from his tunic and leather vest, Henry steps forward into the vast cavern beyond the shattered rock. “Good work, Ry-Ry,” a voice calls from behind him. A shadow falls into step behind Henry, flanked by two others.  Henry flinches at the nickname, “Don’t call me that,” he mutters to the shadow. It— like its owner— is slender and wispy; dressed in a man’s clothes but unable to hide t...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Forged in Dust and Steel: The Rustler's Redemption

Submitted to Contest #204

Sweat dropped from my forehead, sticky and warm, forming a puddle at the base of my nose. The salty sting awoke the cuts that slashed my skin. Them miserable Martians had tied my hands in a tangle, and strung me up from the tent’s ceiling, like cattle. No, worse than that, like one of their trinkets. Ain’t nothin’ worse than bein’ owned. Rage rattled within me. “So this is how the infamous Rustler dies, huh?” taunted a short Martian with a strict ponytail. “Pathetic. We’ll start with you, so your men can watch their leader perish.” His ...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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.