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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.

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 217 of 572

Nameless Knights and the Messiah of Fire

Submitted to Contest #155

TW: Swearing and violence. Stepping from the untouched Province of Schneeland into the ruins of Gennadius Province was stepping from day to night. The earth beneath their feet was black charcoal dust. Towering spires of mighty churches had been reduced to charred rubble. Stone had melted in the blast of dragon breath.             The silence of death screamed in their ears.             No wind blew to take away the stink ...

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Just the two of us

Submitted to Contest #155

The small room holds just the two of us, a square table, four metal chairs, and a million secrets. My mother and I sit side by side but the other two remain empty. The officers in their dark-colored suits have stepped out to get coffee and water. The men are exactly like actors—short hair, straight-faced—no-nonsense curt enforcers. Maybe, one has a soft side and likes to garden but I don’t know because I didn’t touch either of them. My mother begins to talk the moment they leave. Her words come out fast. Her sentences trip over one another ...

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The Volcanic Date

Submitted to Contest #154

“We’re running out of time!” panicked Brayden. “You got us into this situation, and now you’re going to get us out,” replied Angela. “Well, yeah I would. But how was I supposed to know that the hot air balloon would malfunction?” “Maybe you shouldn’t have lowered the hot air balloon into a volcano,” Angela spoke firmly. She walked towards him. Her eyes were filled with rage. “Listen, I was just going to lower the hot air balloon a little bit and then raise it back into the air. This whole thing was supposed to be a joke anyways! Nothing ...

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Expectations

Submitted to Contest #154

“We’re running out of time.” 1 hour ago: “Ok mum,” I sigh as I go down to get Billy who is playing in the fields with his friends.  “Billy, mum says to go back up cos’ dinner’s ready.” “But…wh.wh.why…No,” Billy whines, which makes his friends giggle quietly(you don’t want to get on the bad side of Billy). “I will tell mum,” I reply quite sternly. Billy finally agrees and comes back up to our small nest where mum has worms ready. In an instant Billy complains that we always have worms (we do not). In the end Billy finishes al...

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The Djed of Osiris - Part 1

Submitted to Contest #154

The Djed is an Ancient Egyptian symbol for balance and permanence. It is associated with Osiris, the god of death and the underworld, and is believed to represent his backbone or spine. The Djed symbol is a pillar with a broad base which narrows as it rises and is crossed at the top by four parallel lines. It is believed to represent a sacred tree with its branches bundled together into levels. Djed amulets were worn by Ancient Egyptians and believed to protect the wearer in life and death.----------------------------------------------------...

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THE HITCHING POST

Submitted to Contest #154

 Lydiana’s love of horses seemed to have always been a part of her being. While in high school, most of the others in her birth group couldn’t care less about these long-ago legendary creatures that were often in stories from the Before Time. Her birth-groupers were passionate only about the latest tech inventions created for “Get-Aways,” where they could virtually exist as if in a real world without real world consequences. Admittedly, “Get-Aways” were tempting, but then, her birther group members hadn’t experienced anything else, so w...

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Old Fishermen Never Die

Shortlisted for Contest #154 ⭐️

Cold salt water laps the beach, baptizing the goose tongue and goldenrod with spray. It stings my hands in places that have met with sharp rock and lobster claws: a good clean sting like ointment. The motorboat I moor onshore sputters to life. I am soaked with sea and fog before I have even reached the Pemaquid, tied further out so as not to run its keel aground. The lobster traps clank as I push past them to the engine. I wince at the high-pitched squeal, a testament to its manufacture date. The orange rubber overalls transform me into a be...

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Dream Falls

Submitted to Contest #154

“We’re running out of time” cried Watson to June from across the raging river. June was standing on a boulder that was just barely unsubmerged on the river’s edge as the rapid waters splashed all around her. She looked upstream and gasped as the image of giant fallen tree logs came into view around the river’s bend. The logs carried such force and momentum, June knew they would take out anyone and anything in their path. June and Watson were on opposite sides of the fast-moving river and they both knew they only had moments before the logs w...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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The Traversers

Submitted to Contest #154

Somewhere over the Atlantic, 1745.       Captain Hale was found freshly dead in his quarters early Monday morning, and before the sun had even reached its peak everyone on the Consolata was believing something different. Hanged himself with his belt, said one. No, the decision was made with a bullet, said another. Yet more theories floated about. Gazes slid to and fro, searching for a too-shifty eye or a too-quick breath. Ellis was the one who discovered the corpse. He’d cracked the door open, thro...

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No Regrets

Submitted to Contest #154

"We’re running out of time, captain!” I yelled above the explosive impact. Across from us, a rogue pirate spaceship approached, medium-sized and decorated in painted skulls, and horseshoes. It was lighting up our ship with streaks of red ammunition. Pelting us it seemed from all angles.    “Ready the fire blasters, Ava,” said the captain. He was hanging onto the back of the bolted-in chair, bracing himself. His long body hunkering down and away from the force of battle but ultimately unable to absorb the full shock. One sauce...

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Black Orchid

Submitted to Contest #154

My family was once wealthy. Or so I was told. Great heroes that protected the land from evil. Favor of the emperor and all that. Spent on booze and extravagant parties. Eventually I guess the royals got sick of us. My mother certainly did. Packed her bags and left in the night, never to be seen again. Father was barely effected by her leaving. I suppose he was too drunk or hungover at the time. I'd always thought I could be the hero to restore the family's honor. That if I was given a chance and our family heirlooms I could travel the land a...

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The Great Pyramids of Giza

Submitted to Contest #154

The Great Pyramids of Giza Egypt is an Arab nation in the northeastern corner of Africa. A small part of Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, extends into Asia. Most of the country is covered by dry windswept deserts. They receive little rainfall and depend on the Nile River. The story of Egypt dates back more than 5,000 years to about to 3100 B.C. In prehistoric times, they had cities and kingdoms that grew up along the Nile. They developed systems of government, mathematics, and science. They remained under various forms of royal rule until the 195...

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The Cinderella Kid

Submitted to Contest #155

Wednesday, date night has been our custom for the last two years. Tonight it was movie night at the theatre inside of the mall. On our way in I’d noticed out of the corner of my eye a very unique shoe store. It appeared to be a factory where people were handmaking the shoes right there on the floor. I needed to see this, so Rachel and I split up as there was a shop that she wanted to look in as well. We both agreed to meet back in front of theatre in twenty minutes. I started walking, the shop was down a hall and around a corner. T...

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Sanctum

Submitted to Contest #154

The boy dashed up to the priest. “Quick, Father. Fetch the key.”             The priest raised his eyes. He lifted his hands that had nested in his lap and let them drop to his sides. “What is it? Why the hurry?”   The young boy panted after his run. His bare feet were dirty from the dust of the dry forest path. “Faranji.”  The priest smiled to himself, and the smile came slowly to his lips. Faranji, yes. Always the foreigners. Always in a hurry. His parishioners ca...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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The Door to Nowhere

Submitted to Contest #154

Underground bunker, location unknown, 1972"We're running out of time!"People hurried around the windowless room, chairs squeaking and voices shouting. Workspaces were abandoned, papers and charts scattered amidst the clunky machines all displaying the same word: EVACUATE.Technicians in blue overalls swept important documents into trash bags and loaded them onto a truck waiting outside the steel double doors. Over the intercom, a woman's gravelly voice yelled that they would push the button in one minute. One minute, she repeated, as if they ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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