Menu

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Featured stories

Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of fantasy short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

14930+ 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

Mouths Full of Rain

Kane T

Winner of Contest #296 🏆

I didn't mean to create a frog cult. I named the first one Cletus, after a guy my dad used to buy pills from. It felt right. Greasy name. Like something that would survive the apocalypse by crawling into the crawlspace and licking the mold off the copper pipes. Cletus stared at me through the glass like he knew I was broken. Like he approved. Dumpy tree frog. Litoria caerulea, if you’re trying to impress a vet tech. People call them “Dumpy” like that’s an insult. Like their weight’s a problem. These frogs don’t give a shit. They sag and spre...

112 likes

Sophie's Colours

Natalie Garside

Winner of Contest #292 🏆

Sophie decided to spend what she had coined her crone years high in the mountains in a tiny cottage. Her family thought this was a terrible idea and that was precisely why she knew it was a good one. It was surprisingly inexpensive to acquire one—but after that the real work began. Supplies, repairs, figuring out how the hell to make bread. But that first loaf that came out perfectly… “I am crone, and I am free!” she shouted to the wind. She hiked down to the village every other day and gradually crowded her cottage shelves with teacups in e...

168 likes

Eggshells and Sea Glass

Aubrey Nickerson

Winner of Contest #291 🏆

Dear Raven, What’s your name? My mama doesn’t know, and I asked her to ask your mama, but she said she doesn’t want to go anywhere near your house. I told her that’s mean because she doesn’t know you. None of us do. I’ve only seen you from across the street. You have black hair, and it’s very dark, which is why I call you Raven. If you tell me your real name I will use it. Is black your favorite color? You wear it a lot. I’ve never seen you wear anything but that black dress with the poofy sleeves and lacy collar. Or are you sad because some...

163 likes

⭐️ Recommended stories

The Corpse Flower's Bloom

Avery Sparks

Shortlisted for Contest #298 ⭐️

Content notice: this story contains allusions to dementia.Clare watched Rupert looking down at the snake plants, an expression tender as the Virgin. He wouldn't know they were hardy little blighters. The only thing he regularly nurtured was his investment portfolio. The plants lined the entrance walkway, emerald leaves edged in chartreuse, a row of cobras en garde. He regarded them with hand on heart.‘Of course, we’d have to put in a reinforced walkway, and some kind of barrier, maybe a Security Guard.’He motioned down the glasshouse pathway...

15 likes

Leftovers

Jaxon Reid

Shortlisted for Contest #296 ⭐️

The hum. That was the first thing Owen Lux always noticed. Fable's Edge didn't breathe; it vibrated. A low thrum, deep in the bones, seeping through concrete and glass like damp. Daytime brought the usual racket -- traffic, commerce, ambition grinding itself down on the pavement. But night? Night was a steadier drone. Server farms sighing, ancient HVAC units wheezing, and beneath it all, the white noise of millions lying awake, staring at their ceilings. Owen lived right in the middle of that static. Or felt like he did.His apartment was thi...

20 likes

Behind the Cerulean Door

Shortlisted for Contest #292 ⭐️

Summer Vlog – Part 1Uploaded June 20th, 2024Video transcript: Hey, guys! Cassy here! Today is the first day of my songwriting retreat. I’ve just arrived at the cabin, and absolutely love it! I’m so excited to bring you along on this summer journey with me! This cabin is exactly what I need—a quiet little place to write some new songs and finally finish the ones I started during our tour. And you guys, just look at this place! There’s a forest, there’s a lake, and there’s literally nobody else for miles! Well, maybe more like a few hundred m...

21 likes

Introducing Prompted, a new magazine written by you!

🏆 Featuring 12 prize-winning stories from our community. Download it now for FREE.

✍️ All stories

The Green Mamba Rises

Robert Egan

Submitted to Contest #299

Bartholomew had a very important task. He and he alone had been chosen to guard against the Transmogrification. All of Capparta, not to mention the entire Midrealm, depended on him. It involved keeping his eyes open, and it was boring as hell. Why Stonemere had selected him among all the other acolytes was beyond anyone's ken, especially Bartholomew's. Sure, he had some modicum of talent for the lower forms of physical magic, but elemental spells eluded him and he was a miserable failure when it came to astral projection. Yet no magic was ne...

11 likes

My Bully Frenemy... is a Ghost?!

Ali Molina

Submitted to Contest #299

I guess I never thought I’d said life is good while staring at the chaos right in the face.If you look at the picture, you will find me with my dress drenched. The whole venue for my Quinceañera party is flooded. The cake, the food, and some presents are done for good. But here we are, dancing under the lights like nothing happened, listening to “Party in the USA” and moving our hips. The good people I want and need are here: my parents, my best friend Mary and my newfound friend… frenemy… uh, I… I don’t even know how to name it. One, becaus...

2 likes

Marvin the Magnificent (and the Price of Wonder)

Teacher Mom

Submitted to Contest #299

The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the cracked pavement of the park. Marvin stood at the edge of the fountain, the faint smell of stale popcorn mingling with the scent of freshly cut grass. His fingers trembled around three juggling balls, smooth, round, and heavier than they had any right to be."Come on, Marvin," he muttered, glancing at a small group of children sitting cross-legged on the grass. A couple of parents lounged nearby, only half-watching, their faces illuminated by the blue glow of phone screens.He tossed...

3 likes

A Magic Trick

Nolan Pierce

Submitted to Contest #299

"Thales, you have to see it to understand. I cannot describe it to you, because I don't understand it." Epithetus begged. Personally, I was never fascinated by parlor tricks. "I have no time for street magicians or actors of any kind." I hoped that would be the end of it. "I need you to see it, Thales. I need you to explain it to me. I have to know if it's real!" An appeal to my special intellect was a powerful lever of persuasion that Epithetus knew he was pulling. I was helpless. "Fine. Where does your m...

2 likes

In Pursuit of Rest

Jacquie S

Submitted to Contest #299

Gina sat in the waiting room, finger tips on her lips, biting tediously at her jagged nails. She pulled on her sweatshirt wrapping it tightly around her shoulder blades. Slouching, her shoulder blades poked away from her back like tiny wings tucked under her skin. She sipped mildly from a lukewarm cup of coffee. The foolishness of drinking coffee before a dentist appointment wandered idly through her thoughts and left without a trace. She blinked, her eyelids dragging across her eyeballs like a feather through syrup. Her vision slightly blu...

2 likes

A Small Problem

Sage Void

Submitted to Contest #299

By the time Leilah comes out of the kitchen, Keith is already sitting on the couch, hunched over and wringing his hands. He’s still shirtless but thankfully now has pants on. She considers turning in the doorway and heading back to the other room. Perhaps even letting this cool off a little more before she dives into a serious conversation about it. Keith, however, looks like he might implode with nervous energy soon, and so she walks slowly over to sit beside him. The couch sags under their shared weight. For a long moment, neither of them ...

2 likes

Sorry I'm Late

John Vincent Bahrenburg

Submitted to Contest #299

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Alicia Bolters said as the clink of the keys clattered against the kitchen counter and the dull thud of her leather purse was absorbed into the chair. “I had to get gas.” The smell of zesty seafood emitted from the warmed up oven.The dull conversations of the television could be heard in the other room. Or rather the streaming service played from the Bolter family’s immense 86 inch smartTV. Alicia walked around the center counter and into the den and found her husband, Eric, napping on the couch with their two kids, Jen...

3 likes

The Sisters

Sonali Sinha

Submitted to Contest #299

There are probably two things you should know about the sisters before you meet them. One, Tara values peace but will never back down from a fight. Two, Samira will never back down from a fight. It was a Saturday morning which means you could sleep in, right? Wrong. The thing about being in high school is that your body will naturally sync up so you’re up before the sun is. Tara dragged her slippers across the cold kitchen tiles and tightly wrapped her red fuzzy blanket around her body as she made her way to the cabinet. Samira had already b...

2 likes

The Weight of Time

Marc-Anthony Kenney

Submitted to Contest #299

Each birthday is supposed to bring wisdom—another year of challenges and lessons shaping who you become. As I sit in my bedroom on my seventeenth, listening to Mom and Dad argue again, I wonder if that’s true. Do we grow, or are we just trapped in the same cycles, bound to people who drain us? Of all days, you’d think this one wouldn’t be about them and their failing marriage. What keeps people tethered to someone they clearly disdain? I scan my room for a distraction. Action figures I haven’t touched in years. Books ranging from Dr. Seuss...

2 likes

Dujon’s Symphony of Destiny

Submitted to Contest #299

Once upon a time there lived a donkey named Dujon. He loved to sing and imagined that he would become the greatest singer in the World and the people would crowd in front of his house to hear him sing. The soothsayer who was responsible for instilling this idea in him, also taught him how he should achieve it. He told him to go to a particular temple once every week and bow before the deity to say a prayer. After that he should donate $1 to the deity. Dujon practiced regularly and went to the temple weekly to donate $1. The soothsayer, ho...

2 likes

For The Decisions You Make.

Submitted to Contest #299

The door split open with a crack. Old wood splintered into three or four great pieces as the ogre of a man on the other side dropped his maul into it; the sound of an old tree snapping with the wind and lightning of a storm. As they crossed the threshold they revealed themselves. They were a company of three: The Warrior, who had been younger once but was now scarred and worn. His armor rattled like a catacomb as he walked. What hair of his remained was brown with scattered grey streaks. The Wanderer, who was still young and graceful. She wa...

2 likes

No Tricks

Ian Gonzales

Submitted to Contest #299

“All right, kids,” I say, holding the pen upright with two fingers. “Watch the pen very closely.” As I wave my other hand around in vague circles, I steal a glance at my audience, and suppress a sigh of disappointment.Twenty or so kids, all of them somewhere around seven or eight years old, sit in folding chairs arranged before me. Here and there, a small face is pointed my way, an expression of rapt attention, verging on wonder, gracing their features. Most of them, however, clearly couldn’t care less. They slump in boredom, shift and fidge...

5 likes

Leprechauns Beware: Gold Costs Blood!

Em C

Submitted to Contest #299

"Leprechauns Beware: Gold Costs Blood!" That's the sign that hangs above Grimhollow Gate, the entrance to Dwarfton, where I live with my parents in our underground stone hovel. My dad is Dwarfton’s high chief. He’s brave, he’s strong, he’s ruthless, the scar across his face a reminder to all that no one messes with Durgan Blooddeep. Ever. He single-handedly caught and slew a group of thirty leprechauns looking to steal our gold.“I wish I was more like dad,” I say to Mum, as I pull on my favourite pyjamas. The pattern is of fierce dwarf faces...

2 likes

Theo Whimble and the Avo-King Prophecy

Teacher Mom

Submitted to Contest #299

Theo Whimble had always felt a little pitiful behind the library desk. Filing away ancient cookbooks, shushing children mid-snack, and once getting pelted with a rogue plum during Food Literacy Week, it was a quiet life, full of laminated cards and expired dreams.That all changed the day he opened Ye Olde Recipes & Revelations: Volume 5, and a single sentence glowed gold on the page:"He who mashes the green shall rule the scene."Theo rubbed his eyes, thinking he was still half asleep. He'd been in a bit of a rut lately, questioning wheth...

2 likes

The Breasts of Destiny

Jack Askhim

Submitted to Contest #299

mild sexual content and drug useJust a few more sentences and I’ll be done. I poured myself another scotch, proud of my work.A battle was lost. A battle was won. The princess was saved. The prince now wanted his just reward.They met on the battlefield at the top of a hill. She had held her breath—and her ample triple-Z bosom—as she watched her prince defeat his foe. Her tiny waist amplified her ample buttocks. She finally exhaled, then began breathing rapidly in and out as she watched her hero approach.He was excited too. The prince had the ...

2 likes

The Best New Fantasy Short Stories

We typically associate fantasy with world-building, expansive imaginary realms stretching the bounds of our imagination, and hefty paperbacks of a thousand pages. In one sense, fantasy seems to be defined by the fact that it usually reaches us in large doses: trilogies, series, universes that keep on giving. But fantasy short stories can be just as effective in honouring the scope and ambition of the genre — here, every word matters.

Fantasy short stories pack in a lot in just a few minutes’ worth of reading time, so pay close attention, and you’ll soon find yourself transported to another world. There, you’ll be hit by the vividness of this new reality in a flash. It’ll be a truly magical experience (with some actual magic involved in the story as well).

Read fantasy short stories for free

This page features the best fantasy short stories submitted to Reedsy’s weekly writing contest. You’ll find the stories that impressed our judges the most at the top of the page, so that’s definitely a great place to start! If you like a writer’s work, why not visit their profile and click ‘Follow’, so you never miss their new uploads? There’s extraordinary talent here, and you could discover your new favorites today.

And if you'd like to read the best of the best entries from across 40+ genres, be sure to check out Prompted, our new literary magazine — there's a free copy waiting for you!