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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.

8530+ 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 27 of 569

A Journey Through Time: Jane’s Unforgettable Adventure

Submitted to Contest #285

“A Journey Through Time: Jane’s Unforgettable Adventure” By Edward J. McCoul “I remember a day I was so excited because I was going to the Clark Gable Museum in Cadiz, Ohio! What would take place was the furthest thing from my wildest imagination that would happen!”Jane had always been a fan of classic Hollywood films, and visiting the Clark Gable Museum was a dream come true. As she wandered through the exhibits, admiring the memorabilia and photographs, she felt a sense of nostalgia and wonder. On the second floor, she noticed a small, inc...

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The Cabin in the Cave

Submitted to Contest #284

The sun began to fade behind the gray, overcast plateau that Ethan was hunting on, and darkness began to take over the lonely Mesa De Blanco wilderness once more.      It wasn’t long ago when the already threatening sky had turned an angry, boiling, black color, and it had begun to rain down hectic sheets of bitter snowflakes and tiny shards of stinging ice. He squinted furiously around him, looking for any sign of the animal he was currently hunting.      He had found some spoor of...

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Crystal Key Mage

Submitted to Contest #284

I lay awake listening to the sounds of the orphanage. Thirty boys ages ten to seventeen are housed here in bunks. I, like many of the boys, have lived here my entire life. A few more hours and all that will change. Today is my eighteenth birthday, and I will have to leave. The prospect fills me with dread. I shift in my bunk, drawing my long legs up so the blanket covers my feet.  “D, you up?  “You know I am,” I reply. “Go back to sleep Eddie. Big day for you tomorrow.” He peers down at me, green eyes shining in the moonlight. “How...

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Memories Lost to Gold

Submitted to Contest #284

The sun’s rays beamed over the black luxury limousine, sand stirring up near the wheels as it pursued through the boiling desert. Sounds of music rang through the large car–briskly followed by the buzz of the station changing.“Damnit, Scorcha!” Victoria snarls, her nails almost breaching the fabric of her gloves as she digs them into the steering wheel. She cocks her head towards her advisor, ignoring the landscape in front of her. “Flip the station one more time and see me change our route as quickly as you change those channels!”Scorcha ha...

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PURGATORY

Submitted to Contest #284

When I come to the first thing I think of is, “Where's my car?” Rather—where's my Dad's car? I can get away with 'borrowing' it for two days—tops. And if it ever got so much of a scratch on it—that's 40K. That happens, I'd better take a looooong vacation. I was speeding, I admit it. I had to be really careful about that. Get pulled over, cop goes, “Where's the fire, son?” “Our family celebrates Ground Hog's Day, Officer. It's really important I'm home in time.” Yeah. That sounds real believable. But it's also the absolute truth! We're a pre...

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Late for the Meeting

Submitted to Contest #284

Ginny Mack spoke to the angry men in the kitchen, “Don’t blame the gun for a wayward bullet.  A measured mark always hits the bullseye.  Y'all are family.  Work it out.  Only together will we succeed during this difficult time.”The two determined men brushed past Emmy Castillo as she darted into the kitchen holding a wrapped square box.“I thought those two were about to strangle each other.” Emmy said to Ginny,  "Men; you can’t live with them…”“And can’t shoot them with a 45.” Ginny pulled her pistol, swirled it arou...

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The Marginals

Submitted to Contest #285

I remember in the 1970s the thing that most intrigued me about traveling in a country other than my own was the tiny details—the habits with which we tie our lives up.We rise at six, breakfast at seven, and start work at eight. These familiar unconscious expressions marked our cultural space.We know the different names of countries, languages, currencies, customs, and climates. In pursuit of adventure, we devoured travel books and histories, filling our minds with the silver-screen images of new lands with fresh, crisp, green grass.But our f...

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The Time Traveler and the Seer

Submitted to Contest #285

**Title: The Time Traveler and the Seer** In the year 2025, the world was a tapestry of innovation and decay, where the lines between genius and madness blurred under the weight of technology. Among the many who sought to pierce the veil of time was Clara Voss, a historian with a penchant for the arcane. Her obsession lay in the enigmatic figure of Nostradamus, the 16th-century seer whose cryptic prophecies had fascinated humanity for centuries. Clara worked tirelessly at the Temporal Research Institute, where she’d dedicated her life to th...

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The Good Thief

Submitted to Contest #284

Rowland Parker arrives, uninvited, at the Ainstock Christmas dinner. Lord Wilchester’s second son isn’t exactly adored by Lord and Lady Ainstock, but it doesn’t have the whiff of a Shakespearean tragedy about it. True, Lord Wilchester still felt aggrieved by losing his coveted EID MAR Roman coin to Lord Ainstock in a card game fifteen years ago, but that’s as far as it went. They were made of better stuff than Italian nobility and declined to try to kill each other for sport or vengeance.“Freddy couldn’t make it. Did his ankle on a morning r...

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Sip Of Immortality

Submitted to Contest #284

Mr. Johnson, a widower millionaire living in Manhattan, led a simple yet stressful life. He was a generous man who found joy in helping the poor. Mr. Johnson had a kind heart but feared the possibility that upon his death, his children would have a disagreement over the distribution of his property, as they hated each other. Up in the skies, discussions of another sort of distribution were taking place in Olympus, where 12 Greek gods lived. Gods couldn't die but could fade away if forgotten, which was what had just occurred in Olympus. Olymp...

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A Lost Human Woman and a Wholesome Minotaur Walk Into a Bar

Submitted to Contest #284

And she cried for him. My god, did she cry for him, the friend who never existed at all. Another lifetime wasted because she screwed it up again. Kody’s hollow shell stumbled to the bathroom where the tap turned on automatically and the lights were not lit from oil.  “Take me back,” her voice croaked. Her shaking arms were covered in soot and her tongue still tasted the inhaled smoke. She coughed up ash into the sink and rinsed it out with the readily available water. No well.  “After what you did? He would never,” the scarlet-eyed...

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The Legend

Submitted to Contest #284

"I should have known better," Shem said. His voice trembling with terror. "A lion can smell humans from miles away. It waited for us - hidden, patient. Then it leaped out of the darkness."He stood before the gathered villagers. His tunic shredded, his body scarred with deep gashes. Blood had dried in ugly streaks on his skin, and his eyes darted nervously, as if the beast might reappear at any moment. The villagers huddled closer, their faces pale with fear, and their murmurs filling the air like the rustling of dead leaves. Shem's voice cra...

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Faced With Change

Submitted to Contest #284

   “Gus! Gus, I got a telegram for you!” Thirteen year old Buckley Shawson came running up with the piece of mail in his hand. He had recently gotten the job of delivering the mail that arrived on the new train passing through their small village, and this was the first time he had been able to deliver anything to his own family. He handed the note to his older brother and held his breath expectantly.Gus carefully unfolded the note and scanned its content. He was silent for a long while.Buckley had grown very quiet beside him ...

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DEATH COMES TO CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT

Submitted to Contest #284

“Joyce Ryan?” “Yes?” “I was a friend of Jimmy Albright. He would have wanted you to have this.” “I don't understand.” “It was a manuscript he was working on. He spoke of you often.” “I really didn't know him very well at all—and then this happens. You really think he wanted me to have this?” “He dedicated it to you.” She hefted the thick leather envelope. “It must be over a thousand pages. “Well thank you, Mister—?” There was no answer, and when Joyce Ryan looked up, she was alone in the hospital corridor. [Final pages of Jimmy Albright's m...

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The Seeker and the Bird

Shortlisted for Contest #284 ⭐️

The setting sun cast glowing embers in the sky, as if stretching its magnificent yellow rays to capture the expanse one last time before dying, if only for the night.Thomas, lying on his back, extended his hand as far as it allowed, and it wasn’t much, to touch the sky. To feel the warmth of the sinking sun. But all he felt was the cold on the back of a mule cart, where he had been since this morning and three before.“How much further?” He asked the old man in the front. Talking to the back of his head, which looked like a white furry carpet...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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