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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.

8560+ 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 203 of 571

The Orc's Gambit

Submitted to Contest #170

“I’ve got a plan.” Declared King Victor, as he entered the castle’s planning room to find his top soldiers stood around their war table. The human King pushed aside two of the soldiers to see the figures on the map. Small wooden columns of green, red, and blue colour were littered about a geographically inaccurate map of the Kingdom.  “What would that plan be, sir?” The soldier’s captain asked. King Victor moved the blue pieces, which represented the soldiers of his kingdom, into a formation resembling an arrowhead. The green pieces, ...

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Rory

Submitted to Contest #170

Rory             Rory had been a thorn in my side for years.  He had been a bully from our first encounter in elementary school right up through high school.  After that I had thankfully lost track of that miserable waste of air.  I only rarely looked back on the days of stolen lunches, derisive comments and insults sent my way by Rory.  I had assuaged my bruised psyche by rationalizing that while I had two caring parents, Rory had none.&nbs...

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Guiscard Lescot and the Wolfish Bedevilment of Klöpz

Submitted to Contest #170

“I’ve got a plan.” Those were the words that doomed Guiscard Lescot, just two days ago.He reached for the next branch and pulled himself higher up the tree, sweat cascading down his face. Not only did it sting his eyes, his stupid chapel de fer kept sliding down too, making it impossible to see. When he finally wedged himself between two branches he took a breather and adjusted his helmet. His whole body was on fire and his heart stampeded in his chest – worse even than when he faced a cavalry charge on foot.Two days was all it took for him ...

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Scuba Diving Wyoming

Submitted to Contest #170

Growing up on a ranch in the badlands of Wyoming, I never expected to learn how to scuba dive. In the unlikely event there was water, I drank it. I totally missed out on going to the town pool in the summer because I was out at the ranch. I was the only kid in grade school who couldn’t swim until I had to take an aquatic unit in junior high gym class. I managed to pass with a B, but never really felt comfortable in the water.     Scuba diving was not on my bucket list, so I was surprised when my parents bought me an open...

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I have a Plan

Submitted to Contest #170

"I have a plan." Major Rusty Zellis told his squadron after one of his pilots was shot down with a surface to air missile over Russian restricted airspace.  Captain Tommy Hammer Haller was snapping photographic images over a top secret location Vladivostok of their new nuclear submarine.  The Russians sent images of the captain looking a little worse for the wear to the Pentagon.  They also sent a video of Haller asking for clemency in exchange for some information on the computers at the capitol.   "I hope so or Ca...

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Noctuary

Submitted to Contest #169

Damian sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the rocking deck of the ship, holding onto the lower rung of the metal railing and gazing at the horizon. The waning sunset was a blaze of glorious color, the drifting clouds purple against the red western sky, with the swells of the Atlantic ocean sapphire-blue beneath. The old adage red sky at night, sailor’s delight bobbed to the surface of his thoughts. As stars materialized in the darkling eastern sky, Damian headed below deck, occasionally steadying himself with the rails lining t...

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Green Crumbs

Submitted to Contest #169

A pale 17-year-old boy rests his elbows on the glass table-top in front of him and leans forward to stare down a basket of fried wonton strips. The container is made of shiny metal, with nothing separating the polished steel surface from the hot, greasy, chunks of crisped wheat. Thom furrows his brow as he counts the individual dough pimples still sizzling on the outer layer of each one. The juxtaposition makes him queasy. Steam rises from the pile and beads of oil begin to accumulate below. He knows condensation will soon challenge each s...

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The Groundskeeper

Submitted to Contest #169

Lightning flashed in the dark sky, briefly sending a bright, white, blanket of light over the graveyard below. The graveyard was expansive, over the past few hundred years it had grown with every generation. Contained within, like layers to cake, were generations of the dead. Long ago this land was used as the sacred burial grounds for an ancient people, a people with whom the land made a sacred bond with thousands of years ago. As time went on the people changed and were forgotten. War, plague, famine and genocide rocked the people of the l...

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Hesper

Submitted to Contest #169

My old grump of Grandfather lived in the middle of nowhere. It would take us hours to drive up to his house. I hated visiting him, but my father would drag me there anyways. “It’s a nice thing to do!” He would say. I didn’t hate my grandfather, I hated that he made me do all his yard work whenever I was there. I never had time to sit down and chat. My father and grandfather would always talk in a low whisper when I was around, shutting me out and forgetting about me. They once forgot I was outside during the middle of the winter. I nearly fr...

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Tell the truth

Submitted to Contest #169

   Every Halloween this happens. Some of the family believe it’s a gift and leaves treats for it, although others think it’s a bad omen or a curse. I’m the last of this family generation to get their “gift”. None of my family knows about Her. I don’t want them to, but I can’t even blame the stupid Black Cat because it had never shown up for me.    Anyway, my mom hurried me out the door so I wouldn’t be late for school. My mom’s ability was one that people called a blessing, she can change the color of anyth...

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Improv is Danger

Submitted to Contest #170

The cadre (instructors) at the Special Forces Qualifications course had always told me that improvising, no matter what you're improvising with, was always a danger. If you go grocery shopping without a list, you're going to end up buying more than you should. If you are a motivational speaker, and you don’t prepare anything before your big speech, you could end up not having enough content for the speech.  In this case, I’m a Special Forces soldier about to assault a building without a plan and probably going to die. That is exactly w...

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Awakening

Submitted to Contest #169

The night was cold. Silvery moonlight washed over ground that was covered in the first snowfall of the season. It felt like ages since Hadeon had last enjoyed the snow, even though it had only been a year. Time felt like it had stretched longer in the depths of the church’s crypt.  He glanced around at the hills he roamed as a child, hanging off his mother’s skirts and helping her gather the herbs and wildflowers that bloomed. Nothing grew now, for winter’s bite had killed many of the plants, and the snow hid the ground from view. It l...

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The Fiend of the Past

M B

Submitted to Contest #169

The sound of thunder exploded overhead as a flash of lightning turned night into day, revealing a ghoulish graveyard replete with wet, broken headstones and consuming ivy. The horseman and his horse kept their composure, though the man did consider if he would ever be buried in a grave, or if there would be anything left of him to bury once his enemies found him.  The man’s horse - a veteran of Europe’s battlefields - was used to volleys of musket fire and the boom of cannons, so it also kept its self-control... although the equine di...

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LOOK TO THE LIGHT

Submitted to Contest #169

There was a strange feeling in the air that I sensed was a warning. Someone was following me. I immediately felt the hand of fate in a 'do or die' moment and turned quickly with every ounce of my body at the ready in self-defense mode. All of a sudden, the wind blew epic gusts, stirring up a cauldron of leaves swirling like the devil with forks and knives. It was just a sketchy Michael Myers scene, but my mind went on traumatic overdrive. I stopped and quickly put on the mental brakes and said, "I know you. We got this." It was my young...

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It was a subtle

Submitted to Contest #169

" Oh so cute" she said slowly walking towards a male black cat , it was her first time seeing a black coloured cat and she was happy to see it . When she was about to embrace it , it ran across the , she was sad and instead of going where she was headed , she decide to go home and there she didn't speak nor talk to anyone , she went to her room and started drawing a fluffy black tail, she liked it, for that she wanted to see the to see the cat again . She then went to the mirror to check her face and she just saw a horrible person with no ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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