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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.

8580+ 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 42 of 573

Wicked Lies Will Only Get You So Far

Submitted to Contest #277

‘Ah, David, thanks for coming!’ His friend Anatoly said, after opening his apartment door. David reached forward eagerly to shake his friends’ hands, before kicking off his shoes in the hallway.‘Let’s play some Anachrony.’ Muttered Anatoly, rifling through a glossy stack of boardgames. But David began to feel like he was being driven into a corner. The game took hours to play, and without fail he always managed to finish with half the score of his friend. His mind frantically began to look for solutions to the i...

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Wickedly Sweet

Submitted to Contest #277

Warning- this story contains mild violence.Wickedly SweetThree children sat on the couch with their babysitter. They'd been given chores, but weren’t listening. The babysitter had an idea.It’s about a wolf and a little girl.” She started.“We know that one!” Rita said, rolling her eyes.“I want to watch TV.” Brian shouted.“I want to go to a friend’s.” Casey yelled over his brother. Only Rita was sitting, glued to her phone.Removing the phone, the babysitter said loudly, “If you don’t like my story, we’ll decide on something else.” The baby-sit...

10 likes 5 comments 5
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Wicked or Wary?

Submitted to Contest #277

Something Wicked This Way ComesDeep within the Enchanted Forest, where ancient trees weaved a perpetual twilight, there lived a creature the villagers called the Shade. To them, it was a wicked spirit, a phantom that preyed on the lost and unwary. Travelers whispered of shadowy figures lurking at the edges of vision and accused the Shade of blighting crops, poisoning wells, and snatching children.But the Shade was no spirit. She was a girl.Myra had been abandoned in the forest as a child. Her family, sorcerers of great renown, feared her aff...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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For Him, I would

Submitted to Contest #277

I was born at sea.To a captive mother who screamed me into the world in a dungeon below the deck of a pirate ship.You’ll say it’s impossible, but I remember the smell of the ocean hitting my nostrils as I came into the world. I remember how the waves rocked me to sleep. I remember looking up at my mother and watching her take her last breath.You have heard a great many things about pirates, I’m sure. Thieves. Pillagers. Ruthless. Bloodthirsty. Giant hats, gold earrings, an eye-patch that hides a violent wound.It’s all true, of course. But th...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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Earth's Quest

Submitted to Contest #277

“Can you lose yourself? Why do I long, a lonely desperation, to find myself again?”“You’re not alone,” my father, Time, answered. “Many feel an emptiness, a search for meaning. Although within your heart you ache, you also aren’t the same as men.” I saw my father as heaven’s strength, but Time was running old. “It’s true, Father, I often lie awake in early hours, my memory’s fingers barely touch the thing. The hound slips its bounds and taunts me in a fog. I know it’s there, but when I grasp the thing firmly, only mist escapes my h...

21 likes 11 comments 11
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The Other Side of the Story

Submitted to Contest #277

The journey to the massive city took over a week. I followed behind every single one of Eli's footsteps, from the grove all the way to here. Each night, Eli and his party members would sit around the fire, their voices carrying under the moonlight. They’d take turns sharing their favorite memories of the city, their laughter echoing through the trees.The fighter’s voice always boomed the loudest. “The seven-spice meat skewer with seven types of meat—nothing beats it,” he declared, poking at the fire with a stick. “One of the meats is ostrich...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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Beyond Elysium

Submitted to Contest #277

This is a longer short story, so buckle up! Clinging to the movement of the sea’s tides, a lonesome cloud seemed to be heading towards the horizon’s cliff, slowly. Somewhere painted on a lavender canvas, the sun had emerged out of its shelter, ready to belight the world. All resembled a timeless cliché of perfection, especially from James’ vantage point above the mangrove trees. He couldn’t take his eyes off the departing cloud as it was almost outside of vision. And there it went, swallowed. Subsequently a similar-looking cloud appeared in ...

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Small Nose, Big Heart

Submitted to Contest #277

I live in a two story, mundane blue house with a white picket fence that closes in me and my new puppy brother, Harold, when mom or dad lets us do fetch or chase-and-hide I usually am the one who gets the attention. Mary and Jack are five and seven, they love playing catch with me. They squeal and laugh as I nose the ball toward them to throw it, but recently they have been a victim to two-month-old, Harold. Harold would go off searching for something that ought not to be in the mouth as in a live worm."Harold no! Bad boy! Drop it." Mary cal...

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To Have Loved and Lost is a Longing Forever

Submitted to Contest #277

To have loved and then lost, to have lost that which makes one complete, then never know if that which was lost will ever return. Returning to moment it was lost is never a guarantee of the same that was lost will be the same that returns. The love that two people have, maybe not in the beginning, is a love that will never fade or be forgotten, especially if this be the first love or the first time being in love. It is indeed the hardest love to ever let go much less to be released. It can linger in one's mind and can become a long obsession...

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What Time is it, Mr Wolf?

Submitted to Contest #277

No one likes a winner. It has always been, and always will be about the underdog. That and the happy ending. They all lived happily ever after! Cut! That’s a wrap! Well done everyone!  Ever wonder what happens after that? No, of course you haven’t. Nobody ever does. Why? Because we just don’t care. We settle for less. We stop when the music stops. Sad statues of lost meaning with no prospect of the music ever starting again. In the end, which is not even our end, we settle for nothing and we walk away with the illusion of happ...

12 likes 10 comments 10
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The Heroine Who Got Thrown Under the Bus

Submitted to Contest #277

So you know the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, right? You’ve probably seen it more than once. Are you one of those who thinks that Dorothy is the heroine? Well, let me set you straight because I starred in that movie, and you’re wrong. Dead wrong. If this reminds you of the musical Wicked and reimagining a character you thought you knew, you’re on the right track. Let’s begin with my first scene when I bit Miss Gulch on the leg. That scene inspired me to take the part. Even Dorothy Gale called Miss Gulch an old witch, so it was my pleasur...

22 likes 22 comments 22
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Wicked works Downstairs

Submitted to Contest #277

How does Wicked work downstairs, because Virtuous works upstairs, and yes there are two separate floors or levels that are set between them. Both have ideas that can either work for you or work against you. While Wicked wishes you would not succeed, virtuous wishes you would. Wicked has plans to ruin your day and to wreak havoc on your life in general, Virtuous wants to intervene in preventing Wicked's untimely demise of your happiest of moments. How does Wicked plan these unholy moments to become reality? Most are aware that Wicked has neve...

16 likes 5 comments 5
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Moving on Over

Submitted to Contest #276

“There’s a wait so long, so long.  You’ll never wait so long.”  ~Here Comes Your Man, The Pixies  A startling amount of life’s adventures start out in a spirit of dispassionate inquiry. At least for me they do. It is Summer, 2005, and I’m in the mood to run it up the flagpole and see. Check the flypaper, see what’s sticking. Insert any number of cheeky colloquialisms here. “There, whaddya think?” I asked Willa, my roommate. I had just shown him my tongue-in-cheek word salad—no, word vomit—that I wrote for a MySpace b...

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The Bermuda Triangle of California

Submitted to Contest #276

The Grapevine is the Bermuda Triangle of California. My memory of that expanse of Highway 5 is desolation, dust and depression. Current crazy-ass boyfriend Simon and I were about to experience this marvel of soul-sucking spirits firsthand. We had been celebrating Simon’s 24th birthday in the coffee shop I worked at by day, Ground Zero. The café was closed, and the turnout was sad: just his sister and best friend, my best friend and her tweaky little brother. We drank chilled Stoli, fortified with cigarettes and methamphetamine. Best friend F...

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

Submitted to Contest #277

Once there was a girl who dreamed about other life forms. She sensed that she wasn’t alone in this universe, and that there was more out there than just Earth. There had to be other life forms out there. Earth couldn’t be the only planet in the vast solar system that could maintain life forms. An odd dream came to her one day that changed her whole perspective on how she viewed the world. Marlene was in transition from eighth to ninth grade when she had the dream. Although she’d never thought of this before, this image would forever sti...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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