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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.

150+ 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?

Fantasy Short Stories – Page 4 of 10

The Paperweight Library

Winner of Contest #307 🏆

Mavis was now in her second year of retirement. Most days, she found things to do, but to be honest, she felt bored. Money was tight; it always had been. For decades, she’d worked for a large cleaning company that serviced offices, shopping malls, and municipal buildings. The staffroom was always full of women, but they weren’t exceptionally social. They exchanged greetings, asked after each other’s families, then hurried home to husbands and children who needed feeding and fussing. After Clive’s early death, Mavis simply got on with it — to...

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Medusa

Submitted to Contest #307

Disclaimer for Sensitive Content: This story contains references to sensitive themes, including words such as nude, naked, and miscarriage. Reader discretion is advised. .................................................................................................................................................................. Medusa Every night, for the past six nights, I’d been jolted awake by nightmares, nude and sweaty, my duvet crumpled on the floor, and my body trembling from the aftershock. Shaken out of slumber on the first night...

6 likes 4 comments 4
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The Great Library of Frisia

Submitted to Contest #307

That day started out as any other ordinary day as a librarian at the Great Library of Frisia. People came and went - never taking any books with them because you never take any of the rare tomes from the Great Library. Any reading of these books takes place in reading rooms located on each of the twenty floors of the library. As I was saying, the day began normally, up until a ragtag group of what appeared to be adventurers or warriors stepped through the imposing ten-foot-tall doors of the library. There were five of them: three men and two...

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The Truth in Ink

Submitted to Contest #307

Dedicated to all those who are still stuck in that cupboard under the stairs. 🌈✌ The quill was back. Same black feather with the same silver tip. Maura had never bought the quill, never borrowed it, and never asked it to return. She’d found it in the pocket of her robes the first day of classes, tucked away neatly beside a pocket watch her grandfather had given her. It was just a quill. No magical glow. No strange carvings. But it always came back. By now, she’d tried just about everything: giving it away, snapping it in half, tossing it in ...

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The Last Transmission

Submitted to Contest #307

Maya had always found the university library's basement level oddly comforting. While other graduate students complained about the musty smell and flickering fluorescent lights, she appreciated the silence that settled between the towering stacks like dust on forgotten books. It was here, in the archaeology section's most neglected corner, that she did her best thinking.She was researching trade routes in ancient Mesopotamia when her pen rolled off the cramped study table and disappeared into the gap between two metal shelving units. Sighing...

15 likes 9 comments 9
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The Painted Ones

Submitted to Contest #307

The land of Granby is seared. Scars of blood and ash paint its skin with the pain of forgotten offenses. Burn marks carve the landscape into a demented chessboard of oblong red and black rectangles so misshapen and haphazard that in one place they dissect a river on a jagged diagonal, like a ripped sheet of paper. And those old battle scars have ripped Yudi’s life apart too, disconnecting her from her old reality, just as suddenly, and just as violently.All Yudi had wanted was to win the science fair for the sprouting orchid she’d developed ...

32 likes 7 comments 7
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The Testing Book

Submitted to Contest #307

“I have studied hard; I can do this,” I kept repeating to myself, desperately trying to silence the nagging voice in my head that whispered I would fail. As I anxiously awaited my turn to take the test, a few names were called from the waiting group of students, yet mine remained unspoken. Suddenly, a shout from behind startled me, and I turned, expecting to see the teacher beckoning me forward. Instead, it was the oldest caretaker of St. Warhill College who called out, “Casey, please follow me.” The classroom I entered was steeped in age, w...

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The Pet

Submitted to Contest #307

Note: Contains mental health issues, mentions of sexual and physical violence, gore, and self-harm. My throat ached. My stomach had quit spasming from hunger and instead appeared bloated. I’d only been offered water since the last visitor came, and even that had stopped arriving in my cell in what I was sure was at least two days. I prayed the bowl would arrive soon. A bowl, because I needed to be reminded of my place. I was nothing more than a pet. Something to be brought out and treated however my owners and their guests saw fit. My eye...

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Labyrinthum

Submitted to Contest #307

Fear. It consumed her. Her head was foggy with it, she could taste it on her tongue, feel it course through her veins like a poison. It was a living, breathing, wild thing clawing away inside her chest. And she knew with certainty this was her real test - to conquer her fear. To wrestle it - somehow - into submission and survive. The sickly sweet scent that accompanied the labyrinth guardians wafted around her making her heart stop again. Surina slowly peeled herself away from the wall she had plastered herself against to look down the maze ...

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Circle of Fate

Submitted to Contest #307

“We only take the finest students available to us,” the Headmaster spoke carefully, folding his fingers delicately on a pile of papers.“I was in the 99th percentile of test scores,” she said, forcing a smile at the man.“Yes, well, there’s also the matter of the practical exam-”“Which I’m sure I can handle-”“But which you can not afford.”She fought to keep her smile in place as she gritted her teeth.“I applied for student aid.”“Which we will review and get back to you on.”“But not before I need it to take the practical.”The Headmaster shrugge...

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Ytherielle: Order of the Veil

Submitted to Contest #307

Ytherielle: Order of the Veil High in the mountain country, the single spire of Davenport Academy stood like an extension of the mountains acting like a giant beacon that overshadowed the community. Many people of the town in the lowlands wished to send their children to the prestigious school, but most could not afford the tuition for the vaulted institution, even though the town was filled with billboard signs, commercials and even visits from alumni all tauting the legacy and values that it espoused. Only the very few or the well connecte...

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Tuition Assistance

Submitted to Contest #307

Pushing the wrench to free the rusted pipe one moment, the next, Jill jerks forward, the squeal of metal — pain explodes in her hand. White tiles dulled by age and lack of care blossom with bright red blotches. “FUCK!” Pulling back her shaking hand, a deep gash, oozing blood. She wraps the hand with a handkerchief; she always carries one. A lesson learned from her grandpa too long ago. “I don’t care what anyone says, always carry a hanky, it’s good for a million things from wiping your nose to wiping a tear.” He had said wiping a tear from a...

2 likes 1 comment 1
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Unwritten

Submitted to Contest #307

The blood had long since faded from his palm, but Tíras still felt the heat of the flame.He remembered the sting of the blade, the white fire rising from the kindling, the way his mentors had spoken the vow: In this flame, we are purified.But memory, he was learning, was not always his to keep.Tíras fidgeted with the pendant hanging by his neck. It was no bigger than his thumb, carved from an unknown alloy, and strung on a cord of Ironwood beads. Etched into the metal was a triangle, inset with an eye—a raven its pupil.It never left his neck...

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Finnegan Cooper, The Second Harbinger: Chronicles of The Holy Way part 1

Submitted to Contest #307

Virgil Cooper can’t remember how he got here, but he believes it was divine intervention. An act of God that delivered him from evil once again. He does remember the Devil himself taking control of his body and attacking his earth angel, Trisha Moore. Black and indigo colored smoke choking out his free will. The gate to Hell sparking with black and white energy as Trisha prepares to fight the Devil. He wishes he could’ve helped her more. Then it all goes dark after he lunges at Trisha like a wild animal. The next thin...

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LEVITATING MACHETE MAGICK

Submitted to Contest #307

Christopher and Michael Wilburson were, let me see…13, when their great-grandmother reposed in 1997. As with many great-grandchildren in the West today, they knew their living ancestor only cordially; being much more kindred to their grandparents. Grief, the mighty equalizer, is gargantuan perhaps; but it is not infinite- it is not God. Yet the workers of the underworld want an infinite grief, thereby bringing the underworld to all humankind. Many who have hunted these ‘underworld workers’ have simply called them ‘ghouls’ throughout time and...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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