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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.

8540+ 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 170 of 570

Digital Sandwich

Submitted to Contest #189

Maybe it was the constant dripping sounds from the leaky faucet, or maybe it was my chronic insomnia but I haven’t been able to sleep for a few weeks. I may drift off for a few hours here and there but only after I knocked out during a bar room brawl or something like that.I spoke to a psychologist recently to discover the underlying issue. I asked him if it was related to a past trauma.“Mostly it has to do with decisions you are currently making. Do you have anything in your life you wish you could change”, he asked.“My job, my relationship...

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Beneath the Essence Fog

Submitted to Contest #189

"Crow's eye view." Joy's words raced to the sky, protected by the blanket of her whisper.  Her tome responded with a radiant glow. Shreds of crow feathers cradled between its pages dissolved into golden dust, spilling onto the forest floor like sand from a shattered hourglass. Joy's essence reserve ignited within her, and she sensed the spiritual energy evaporate from her skin, prickling her body with icy needles. Then, in the recesses of her mind, she detected the presence of a new, vast essence reserve. Another fellow Mythfarer? She...

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The hope and love of the island

Submitted to Contest #190

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. I stared at my feet waiting for the command. The command to start the engine of my plane. My heart started pounding as I heard his voice saying, " This is Commander 1, please start your engine Jane." "Yes Commander 1." I said. "Now remember to fly over the island." He started. " And don't land until you know it's all safe." I murmured along with him. "I know what I'm doing Commander." "Jane, I just want you to be safe." He told me. "Mark, please." I begged. "We can't let our ...

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Trench town

Submitted to Contest #190

Trench Town I am sitting in a circle of five Rastafarian Jamaican men. I felt no threat. Wow! So much has happened to me in the last six months. As I sat there, I became the participant/observer I had read about in many journals. I watched everything intensely. The men were expressing strong positive non-verbal's. In Trench town, there were the smells in the gutter, the cooking stoves, the sounds of someone making love in the next room, the cries of children, reggae blaring from the corner boom box radio, and the occasional gunfire...

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Moments of Love

Submitted to Contest #190

Moments of Love Love Discovered―New Jersey, May 1956 I thought I’d be struck dead, for sure. A power like lightning just might surge from me and kill us both if I shook his hand. The idealized photo of a movie star—European-cut jacket; slender torso; broad shoulders; handsomely tan; silky, light brown hair―totally captivating, stood before me. His bright blue eyes and engaging smile grabbed my young heart, and I could only blurt out a weak, “Hello”, but I vividly thought …only fifteen, and next month I’ll be sixteen, we could get marri...

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Ella

Submitted to Contest #189

Mom, unfortunately, knew she had to teach me all I would need quickly before her end. So, she taught me to read, cook, sew, and keep a house by ten. Mom passed about a month after my eleventh birthday a few years ago. My father and I had a wonderful life, but he was lonely. He was convinced I still needed a mother figure. So, he and the widow Monroe married after dating for only six weeks. She and her two brats moved in and took over. They treated me as their servant, not like a sister. The real servants were loyal to my mother and quit when...

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The Fox of Vietnam

Submitted to Contest #189

Le Loi crouched in the bushes, his fox-symbolled bronze armlet fastened to his hand. He was behind the enemy camp and had waited for this moment for a long time. He spent eleven years battling with the Ming dynasty, starting in 1407. For 1100 years Chinese tried to rule over Vietnam, and each time they entered Vietnam, they faced defeat. This time it was Le Loi's chance to realise this dream. His army men were alert for his signal, ready to ambush the Ming patrol column built beside the Chu River in Vietnam. In front of him are woo...

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In the Heart of the Shadowed Woods

Submitted to Contest #189

At the heart of my days' journey, I found myself beneath the blackened vault of a wooded reach where the true path was lost to sight. The land lay waste, split open by a sun that bore down relentless, like the headsman's axe held aloft, ever poised to fall. The trail stretched forth, swallowed by the dark, the horizon twisted by the infernal heat into grotesque shapes. My being had been naught but a long voyage across the measureless waste, a bitter strife against the unforgiving earth. The sun had turned my skin to a lattice of parched le...

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Whiskers in the Wind

Shortlisted for Contest #189 ⭐️

It had been three days since Ojisan passed. Legs curled, proper and quiet against the shuttered rooftops. Sora couldn’t bring himself to leave. If he sat still enough, the morning breeze, the first waft of spring and blossom, reminded him of Ojisan’s warm breath against his whiskers. He had been there all night, curled carefully within the man’s arms as he swayed against his rocking chair. For the first time since he knew Ojisan, the radio was not tuned to his favourite station, but instead packed and stowed underneath the dining table. ...

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The Joy of Obedience

Submitted to Contest #189

Obedience peered through the chain link fence. It was something she had done many times before, but this time, it was different. This time, she was on the outside, looking in. Inside the compound, Isaac's People, her people, went about their daily tasks, each in their place, each a carefully positioned cogwheel in the Great Plan. They looked so content. Of course, they were the obedient ones, while Obedience, despite her name, had always struggled doing what she was told. She'd never been content to harvest the vegetables or care for ...

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Monochrome

Submitted to Contest #189

It was the twenty-third. That was when I saw it, the thing that changed my perspective. I was out on a business trip to the countryside; the boss had coerced me into going with the new hire and his words still ring in my ears like he’s still beckoning me. It was always about what went wrong. It was usually everything, the lighting was off or the lens cap wasn’t taken off or an editor was raving about the speck of dust that made the polaroid unusable. The camera is a cruel mistress, she guides the souls of many a man into the depths of the wo...

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The Poacher, The Tigress and the Jackal

Submitted to Contest #189

On a bright and sunny afternoon one day in the deep, dark wood, a poacher was taking a leisurely stroll, on the hunt for game. Suddenly, out of the blue came the unmistakable yowling of a tiger! And it sounded like it was in distress. Picking up speed, the poacher came to a clearing where he saw the poor creature tied to a tree with a taut rope. The poacher immediately and instinctively drew his gun and was stopped by the tiger's cries of "Help!" Free me, please!" Lowering his weapon and narrowing his eyes, the poacher simply asked "Why shou...

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Jay Matthews and the Case of the Missing Inheritance

Submitted to Contest #189

It was so cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. The brisk air of London's weather chilled me to my core. I was a private eye, or detective in London in the 1940s, second best to a very famous detective. As I made my way to my building, I watched as the people of London rebuilt the war-torn city. Ever since we joined World War 2, things haven't gone well for us. Adolf Hitler, Germany's dictator, had recently knocked France out of the war and, in an attempt to knock us out, started bombing campaigns over our fair city. Recently, Wins...

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The Tale of The Two-Headed Whale

Submitted to Contest #189

“I am Cap’n Cutlass of the ship Golden Plunderer, an’ I’m in the mood for mischief.” The ale house fell suddenly silent at the large, bearded pirate blocking the only exit from the building. “I have conquered the seven seas, outfought the English Navy, and outrun the fastest of Spanish galleons. Who here can challenge my prowess of the sea?” Drinking, eating, cavorting suddenly ground to a nervous halt. Cutlass was notoriously unpredictable. Rumoured to have once cut a man’s ear off for not listening to what he had to say, added to the pira...

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A new dawn

Submitted to Contest #189

Ranetta sat at the teetering edge of the cliff, one jump could end it all. She would be separated from her family for the rest of eternity, unless the ocean thought her worthy enough to come back through. This however was unlikely, she had dreamed of the new dawn for ages, it was beckoning to her to come to it. But…that would mean leaving her strict but kind mother, and her loving understanding father. Her awkward but hilarious older brother and her doish Miko, a half fish half dog creature with big brown cow eyes that begged for her to stay...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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