13920+ Fantasy Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Though fantasy is well known for its epically long sagas, fantasy short stories can deliver all the genre’s best attractions with one punch — or, shall we say, in one fiery dragon breath?

🏆 Winning stories

“Sweetbread: An Epilogue” by M. Darrow

🏆 Winner of Contest #274

My sister has always had a soft heart. Soft as sweetbread.She cried after the old woman, despite everything. Maybe because of everything. I remember holding her as she wept, both of us covered in soot, her fingers scalded from holding shut the oven door. After the tears, she was quiet. She trailed me through the awful house with its sweetbread walls and sugared windows. I found the clothes we’d arrived in, offered up her kirtle, and she donned it without a word. She showed no whisper of response when we found the treasure in the attic, ...

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“Fae Touched” by D. Grimes

🏆 Winner of Contest #220

Siobhan awoke to the Irish sun spilling in the open doorframe of their single-room cottage. Her back pressed against Sean’s, and she moved carefully so as to not wake him on his day off morning duties— today, she would feed the cattle and chickens. She rolled over, a stray mattress feather poking her side, and saw Aoife’s small body in her basket, enveloped by a blanket. A surge in Siobhan’s chest shot her awake—Aoife hadn’t cried once through the night. Siobhan scrambled to her feet, bare soles pressed into the cool packed dirt, no longer m...

132 likes 52 comments 52

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“Do Flamethrowers Belong In The Library?” by Kenz Ross

🏆 Winner of Contest #211

We lose people all the time. It’s just the nature of the job. What can you expect from a place full of nooks and crannies people intentionally go to get lost in? I usually don’t worry when I don’t see someone for a while, but when it’s been days since someone’s checked out, it’s usually a sign that I need to step in. I’m not doing this alone, thankfully. No Librarian is ever truly alone, are they? I have help from the Watchers and Listeners of the shelves. Thanks to them, it usually doesn’t take long to get the scent, if you know what I m...

223 likes 176 comments 176

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⭐️ Recommended stories

“A witch's guide to magic in a hurry” by Ben Heard

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #275

I checked my phone again.  12:13.  Shit.   I was twenty minutes away from home, twenty-five if I was being realistic. Not good. I was going to run out of time.   For fuck’s sake.   The twitch in my right eye that had been bugging me all day was constant now, locking me in a permanent squint. Even worse, my stomach was starting to gurgle, and I could feel myself starting to bloat.   I had spent the last thirty-six hours at Izzy’s because her ‘boyfriend’, Dan, had told her that he couldn’t see her that weeken...

25 likes 8 comments 8

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“Perfect Strangers” by Sophie Jackson

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #271

“Have we met before?”The stranger looked deep into Frederick’s eyes as if willing him to admit they knew each other.“No,” Frederick said, trying to move away.It was cold, the snow had started to sleet down and in his war-torn town there was little to keep a person outside except necessity.“Have we met before?” The man grabbed at his arm and would not allow him to leave.Frederick glanced at the dirt blackened fingers gripping onto his coat sleeve and grimaced with distaste.“No,” he repeated more firmly, though without the heart to get angry w...

23 likes 9 comments 9

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“The Casket Girl's Guide to Ghosts” by Megan McNeill

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #265

I float into Jackson Square on one of those late October nights in New Orleans that hasn’t yet shaken off the summer heat. Halloween is in the air, with the French Quarter shops lit up in orange and purple, and pumpkins and polyester cobwebs adorning doorsteps. On nights that I exist, I like to wander and watch the mix of locals and tourists going about their business, working and laughing and hustling and arguing and drinking. I’ll admit that this time of year is my favorite, as it’s finally about me. Any New Orleans medium will tell you th...

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✍️ All stories

“Letters on the Nature of the Mind” by Johan Wastring

Submitted to Contest #276

Geneva, the 8th of May, 1821 Most esteemed colleague, Doctor Jekyll, with the highest regard I address myself unto you. It was indeed a profound honour to make your acquaintance here in Geneva. It was a gathering most successful, where I was privileged to partake in the wisdom of several eminent physicians hailing from all corners of Europe. I was at once deeply fascinated by your ideas concerning the duality of the human mind. To encounter such a distinguished and keen-minded counterpart was most unlikely indeed.Personally, I have long spen...

3 likes 1 comment 1

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“Haunted backpack” by Rodica Aculov

Submitted to Contest #276

In a small, secluded school on the edge of a misty village, a young boy named Michael was known for carrying around an old, battered backpack that seemed to be held together by hope and a few frayed threads. Inherited from his older brother, the backpack had seen far better days. The zipper dangled uselessly, one pocket was permanently jammed, and the fabric bore signs of countless journeys—yet Michael brought it with him every day, tucking his precious few books and crumpled notes inside as best he could. His family couldn’t afford a new on...

3 likes 0 comments 0

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“CALL ME KAT” by Frances Goulart

Submitted to Contest #276

CALL ME KAT “Aaron, it’s almost dinner time. Where are you going?”“I don’t know. It’s the strangest thing… but did you see the black cat that showed up at the back door? ….This is the second morning I found her  sitting on the porch …almost like she’s waiting for me, waiting for me to join her. She didn’t even look at the sauce of milk I put out for her. Aren’t cats supposed to like milk? She just sat there and gave me that look. Looked me straight in the eye. Anyway it felt that way.”“What look? ““As though she wanted me to f...

3 likes 0 comments 0

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“The Five Stages of Spellcasting” by Lilith A. Heart

Submitted to Contest #275

From my altar, I plucked the various ingredients I’d need: a vial of salt for protection, azurite crystal for enlightenment, sage for cleansing, sandalwood for amplifying the effects of the spell and for additional protection against dark entities.  The tapered candles I chose were very deliberate as well: white because it encompasses all effects of all colors of candles, black because absorbs darkness and negativity and will make banishing it much easier, gray - as the between of white and black, gray offers the benefits of both and al...

5 likes 0 comments 0

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“New Girl in Town” by John Franklin

Submitted to Contest #275

She loathed this time of year. It was the first Monday following the time change, and clocks had just been restored to standard time. Fall Back, it was called, but it felt like time moved forward. The difference of an hour was small but significant this time of year, and if she were to get home before dark, she would need to move with haste.She had just moved to this town over the summer, after her parents had finalized their divorce. Her father had run off with his lover, and had not even fought for custody. Her mother had taken a job in an...

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“Everyone Loves a Good Burning” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #275

"Are you going to cook me?" I laughed, "Goodness, no." I grabbed a towel from the wash pot and wrung it. "Besides, I'm not a big meat eater." I cleaned the blood from his forehead. "You've flooded our village?" The lad hesitated, his eyes darting around in apprehension. After agonizing moments, he summoned his courage and added, "More than once!" The clumsy lad wasn't used to using his brain. To put it bluntly, he was thicker than a queen's mattress. "That's your ancestors' fault for building in a floodplain." "A floodplain? What's that?" "P...

75 likes 56 comments 56

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“ The Daughters of the Night” by Rachel Keller

Submitted to Contest #275

Main Street was crawling with hordes of festive tourists, hopping from bar to bar in costumes ranging from sexy nurses to bumblebees to superheroes, even a giant blow-up Kool Aid Man, who lost control and tumbled into the bushes after one too many pumpkin ales. Spooky music rang out around the town, coming from a source unknown. Ghouls and goblins lingered in the shadows, hoping to startle a skittish trick-or-treater. True enthusiasts hosted seances, dusted off ouija boards, and even tested out homemade ghost detectors. Still, stranger thing...

1 like 1 comment 1

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“Tea Time With a Vampire” by Kim Ricks

Submitted to Contest #275

The tavern doors burst open and two men threw a third out onto the pavement in a fashion that Amber was fairly certain only happened in movies. The man being thrown landed with his face down, shouting obscenities that only the concrete could hear clearly. "Great, Mom. What on earth did you get me into?” Amber asked. She checked the address on the old, crumpled paper one more time before putting it back into her pocket. She glanced at the aging sign above the door. The Winged Bat. That felt a little too on the nose, but Amber shrugged and ste...

4 likes 2 comments 2

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“Accused” by Sarah Spencer

Submitted to Contest #275

I stood transfixed at the window, captivated not for the first time by the quiet beauty that enveloped my cottage in the early hours before dawn. Being a spinster of 25 years and the daughter of an unconventional healer had secured my position on the fringe of society. My mother and I had always treasured the solitude that our wooded croft afforded. Her passing last winter did, perhaps, make this place feel a bit less like home. Still, I could bear a bit of loneliness if only I could have avoided what happened in town yesterday. Autumn had s...

7 likes 2 comments 2

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“The Call” by MargaretElizabeth Harris

Submitted to Contest #275

Her name was Beatrice. Her parents called her Bea for short. She was headed to the woods alone again. As an only child, she had become content finding ways to entertain herself. In fact, she was quite comfortable being alone, and being alone in the woods suited her just fine. She wore her favorite skirt today. A long blue cotton one with yellow and white flowers on it. This one was her favorite because it had pockets (she always found that she needed pockets any time she went into the woods). She walked barefoot, as usual, to the path that l...

3 likes 2 comments 2

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“Stay? Or Go?” by Nicole Pittsley

Submitted to Contest #275

It was a nice fall day as I contently made my way along the long trail that snaked through the large, wooded area not too far from my house. I enjoyed making my way around the scrawny, dead trees with bare branches, crunching through the piles of leaves covering the ground, and watching the squirrels and bunnies chase each other. I took this walk several times a week to clear my head and think about life. I gave a startled yelp and stopped in my tracks after taking a step around a tree and seeing a sle...

6 likes 2 comments 2

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“Hidden Threads” by Denise Whittaker

Submitted to Contest #275

Cedar Grove was the kind of place where people lingered over morning coffee at Benny’s Diner and gathered on their porches long into the evening, so even though it was midnight, Gord McKenzie wasn’t all that surprised to hear the drawn-out notes of a fiddle drift over the lake. After all, he himself was here by the shore setting up his camera in the hopes of capturing the predicted aurora borealis. There were no homes nearby or on the other side of the lake, so the thin crescent moon was the only light that might interfere with his shot. And...

5 likes 1 comment 1

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“The breakup” by Atan Solp

Submitted to Contest #275

“Anita, today I have made a difficult decision. We must break up. I can’t marry you! I will pack my things now and leave this house. Leave now and forever, Anita. And don't ask me to stay!” With these words, my beloved Victor returned from work to our cute and cozy house on the wood edge. “Victor, what happened to you? Please calm down and let's talk. Explain your decision to me, please” I didn’t understand anything because yesterday everything was fine and nothing foretold such a storm in our relationship. We also never talked about marriag...

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“Witchy ” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #275

Witchy “Here they come…” To Freya, they were the proverbial mob carrying torches and pitchforks. Objectively, they were trick-or-treaters doing what little kids do on this iconic day. They toured the neighborhood in fanciful costumes toting pillowcases and plastic buckets laden with sweets. Not wanting to harsh their sugar buzz, a few vigilant parents followed at a distance.Freya hated that Samhain, her holiday, had become the cartoonish Hallmark holiday, Halloween. Samhain’s magic had gotten trampled by a vast commercial enterprise dedicat...

22 likes 9 comments 9

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“A witch's guide to magic in a hurry” by Ben Heard

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #275

I checked my phone again.  12:13.  Shit.   I was twenty minutes away from home, twenty-five if I was being realistic. Not good. I was going to run out of time.   For fuck’s sake.   The twitch in my right eye that had been bugging me all day was constant now, locking me in a permanent squint. Even worse, my stomach was starting to gurgle, and I could feel myself starting to bloat.   I had spent the last thirty-six hours at Izzy’s because her ‘boyfriend’, Dan, had told her that he couldn’t see her that weeken...

25 likes 8 comments 8

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