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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 230 of 572

Thalassophilia

Submitted to Contest #140

No one ever came to Aleena’s rocks. Probably due to fear. Any sailor who dared to get close would inevitably go missing. There were rumors, of course, humans loved their tall tales. They would whisper about a siren whose beauty would lure sailors to the rocky cliffside and cause them to capsize. These rumors flattered her but that's still all they were: rumors. She wasn’t even a siren, at least, she didn’t think she was. Just a regular old, fish-human thing. And she didn’t lure anyone, they just weren’t very good at maneuvering their large b...

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Hypnopompia

Submitted to Contest #140

You know that feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night and don’t recognize where you are? Like when you forgot you were spending the night at your grandmother’s house. Or when you expect to wake up in your childhood bedroom, but you’ve lived by yourself in an apartment for the past two years.I know that feeling very well.The first sensation is simply waking. It must start mundane for it to be startling a second later—which it is. Then the panic starts. But just as you realize your heart is beating heavily, you take a slow, deep br...

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His Name Was Bill

Submitted to Contest #140

His Name Was Bill by Stefanie Hutcheson Mark? Jeff? I'm sure it was a four-letter name. Bill. His name was Bill. Bill! That's right! Good grief, how could I forget that?  Honestly, pretty easily. We only had that one night together. One fun-filled, exciting, happy-go-lucky evening of adventure. Perhaps if I had known then the impact it would have on me I might have paid more attention to the details. Hindsight is great that way, huh? Alas!  Oh sure. I had seen him around. Mars Hill wasn’t that big of a campus. He was a ...

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The Awakening

Submitted to Contest #140

The weary soldier sauntered toward his barracks, exhausted from the humid jungle air, barely able to breathe under the weight of his surroundings. His skin glistened in the dim light that scattered throughout the base camp. He passed a dark man leaning back in a chair, an M-16 draped across his lap. “Ronnie V., how was it out there today? Another beautiful day in Nam’. You stay hydrated and keep those feet dry?” the man asked from the shadows.“Roger that, Sgt. Thompson. Keep ’em clean and dry. We pulled no punches out there and got...

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I Remember Drowning

Submitted to Contest #140

I remember drowning.  Most people would pick a more pleasant memory, but to me, the day when I nearly drowned in the South Fork of the American River on June 17, 1992, created a memory that will be with me the rest of my life.  I have many other memories, some good as well, some not so good, some I wish I could forget because they weigh me down like an anchor.  I will never forget how quickly I was pulled into the rapids, helpless as a newborn and then at the exact moment when I thought I was going to die, I came to the surfac...

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Time In the Seed

Submitted to Contest #139

“Grow up.” Ms. Veemothe said, “You’re almost eleven years old, this is unacceptable behavior. You cannot act like this, do you understand?” She didn’t get an answer, but she did receive silent indignance. She burned two eye-shaped holes through her son’s forehead, hoping for an explosion of some sort. After the fit little Goldy just threw, combustion seemed a fitting punishment. No such thing transpired and Mrs. Veemothe retired from her son’s bedroom with a sharp thwap of the door. It left the whole house shaking, shelves and frames and the...

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The Kingdom of Smart

Submitted to Contest #139

Just because it was 4 PM and Ricky Smart was home from school, didn’t mean he was having fun. The rain pouring outside precluded any outside activity, and he was reduced to sitting in his room. The books had been read and the games had been played; there was nothing in his room that could draw his interest. The persistent raindrops pelting his window frustrated him; the gray sky outside made him depressed and wistful.Looking at the comic book in his hand with disgust, he tossed it aside, and looked at his bed. He almost never took naps durin...

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A Fantasy Foreign

Submitted to Contest #140

I wish for a fantasy. And so it goes… In a far distant land, I find myself lost. What I search for, I do not know. Where I have been will remain a mystery. The air has electricity. There is much the same that is familiar, only nothing seems domestic. This is foreign land. I find myself walking amongst some bushes and so I extend my palm to them, welcoming a new experience. What I find is consistent surprise. It appears as even the clouds are new to me, though surely clouds are the same everywhere. This place, as the clouds, is an expanse. ...

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Worlds in between

Submitted to Contest #139

3 March 20XX I’ve woke up again with that strange dream. It’s been over a month since it started. Every night I see the same dream, with the only difference that each time I see a bit more of it until I wake up screaming. This is insane. The dream is so familiar to me now, that sometimes I cannot say if this is a dream or reality. When it starts and I find myself on a plateau, floating in the sky, I say at once that this is a dream. Then, everything that happens is so real, feels real too, and my mind gets confused. I found myself wit...

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Incarceration

Submitted to Contest #139

Below is an extract from ‘Luthar’s Travels’, the biography of Luthar Shoresmith written by Scholar Second Class Elwell Mannion of the Library of History, Threftall University. The information regarding this period of Luthar’s life is somewhat scarce, due to the lack of reliable eyewitness accounts from Jakai. However, Scholar Mannion was able to retrieve a written diary from L’Beira Ashane which held some detail about his visits to the coliseum. This has almost exclusively been the basis for this passage. Thirtieth day of the moon of High ...

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The Runaway

Submitted to Contest #139

I watched as a row of blue bubbles burst and felt the rush of excitement surge through me. I might win this level. I’d been playing it for three days now. I’d refused to pay for any upgrades in the game and decided I would only rely on my skillset. Focusing, aiming, and firing, I let out a small squeak, a stacked row of red bubbles bust, almost putting me at the top. I looked around my quiet apartment for acknowledgment and was soon disappointed when I realized my cat was highly uninterested in what I was doing. I frowned and continued to pl...

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Dancing Seas, Quaking Earth, Rocking Beds

Submitted to Contest #139

“Grow up in Fisher’s Gasp and you learn how to handle yourself in a boat. There’s a big difference between fishing from a rowing boat and spending weeks at a time without seeing land. How long will it be before we dock at the other side of this gods forsaken ocean?” Danielle Longbow asked the red acolyte, clutching her stomach. She had barely kept a meal down in a month.             The red acolyte, Barra, shrugged. “It takes as long as it takes, Cranner. It depends on the waves, th...

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Desert Winds

Submitted to Contest #138

As the first rays of sunlight touched the desert, a man stood watching a van weaving down the dusty road. The man looked down at a device in the palm of his hand. Pulling a tattered prayer mat from his run-down car and unrolled it next to him as the van approached. Kneeling on the mat, he slid the device under his robe. The van stopped, and Abdul el-Azzam saw two armed men step out. They dressed in typical attire, and one of them spoke in Arabic, "What brings you out on the road so early?" Responding to the man in perfect Arabic, Abdul sai...

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PLAN B

Submitted to Contest #138

Today’s menu of the day and the day after and all the rest of this year’s days to follow, is the abundant assortment created by the one and only, Chef Alonzo, aka Harry of the famous brothers of Martin’s Pond. The activities of these lively bunch of daredevils, and that is what the three were back in the day, will be long remembered. Dare was the key word, and it was the devil in the details that made them do a lot of, shall we say, inventive ways to their unique success. Their mother and father would whoop their hinnies if they knew half th...

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The Village (Under the Canopy)

Submitted to Contest #138

Loud rustling and snapping of dried flora halted Chesa’s stride. Holding her breath, she lifted the firefly-filled cloth tied to a twig to look around the ominous dense jungle. “It’s probably a monkey.” Abel kept going. “There’s lots of them here.” “Or a kapre.” With feet glued to the ground, her chocolate brown eyes grew wide, darting from tree to tree, excited for a glimpse of this monster that petrified unruly children with the mere mention of its name. Reputed to be a big hairy man with chimpanzee arms, this creature lazed on a tree w...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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