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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.

15020+ 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 808 of 1002

The Good Times

Submitted to Contest #61

It is not easy existing as I do, I am royalty living amongst the wretched peasants and I struggle each day to reconcile my accursed situation.  In the past seventy years, I have suffered as a commoner, toiling in the mud each day under the oppressive thumb of the industrial giant that rules this world.  I have reluctantly succumbed to the status quo of this time and I am ashamed of myself for it.  At the start of each day, I would wake and prepare for the mind-numbing activities this contemporary society has declared necessa...

15 likes 7 comments 7
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Devil's Telepathy

Submitted to Contest #61

It's been a long day and just as I'm about to crash onto my bed, a shiny piece of glass catches my eye. I lift it out of the pile of my postcards. It is a crystal, my crystal. This crystal had clung onto my neck, strung with a piece of black thread, for most part of my childhood. I had believed this crystal to be a wishing one, but never got a chance to find out. Now, at twenty-eight, I don't have much use for a crystal, whether an ordinary one or a wishing one. I shout for Natalie, my fifteen year old sister. I guess it's time to pass it on...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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Keep on in a Straight Line

Submitted to Contest #61

This was a mistake, thought Diana. I never should have come, and the best thing to do is to slip away before anyone starts making small talk and I’m trapped.      Diana had never been a fan of school reunions. She didn’t know if it was because she thought they were futile and boring, or that things could go horribly wrong, especially with people you didn’t want to meet again, or both. And because of her father’s job, her family had moved around so much when she was a child that she’d never really...

28 likes 2 comments 2
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Paradise Screwed.

Submitted to Contest #61

Paradise Screwed.   “What little I know of it, Voldu, it would have been an era I would have loved. Diverse people mostly getting on with each other. In the broad sense, I mean. They would have squabbled, but that’s what family’s should do. Anyway, I’m sure I would have loved it. Peace and harmony is all very well, but we don’t step out of line at all, in fact, I don’t think I could. I’m sorry they’re gone. I, we, could have done something.”  “It wasn’t an era, really, Seebu, it was a civilisation of sorts. It didn’t las...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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Emerald Green memories.

Submitted to Contest #61

Susan picked up the soft, emerald-green teddy bear, with the clover on the bottom of it’s feet, which had been her favourite for many years. She cuddled it tight, as she remembered her parents fondly. This teddy had belonged to her Irish Grandmother, who had left it to Susan’s Mother, and it was passed on to her. She was determined it was not going to be thrown in the bin, not while she was still alive! Susan’s daughter had made it clear, she didn’t want any “left-over ancient trash” as she called it. Her daughter was meticulous about what...

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Fighting Into Berlin

Submitted to Contest #61

Cricket Smockren Monday December 7th 1941 It has been a while since i have written on you. Two years to be exact. I wrote a goal in fact, To reach out. My Nana told me this I still don't understand it. Like come on Nana send me a message or something! To reach out to people? Maybe a certain someone? Ill never be sure. Dad said we have to go to Berlin but from all the newspapers I've stolen im reading the Nazi's are setting up there! I asked mom why we would have to go but she would not tell me nor would dad and yet i still want an answer...

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The Secret Seller

Submitted to Contest #61

"Gaylee! Remember that thing I told you yesterday?" Klia asked. Gaylee shook her head in confusion."What thing? Is is the thing about your rash?" Gaylee asked. The only special thing that Klia had told her was that she had a strange rash on her back. To be honest, Gaylee didn't want to know about Klia's rash; nor did she care."No, Gaylee. I told you a secret yesterday about -" Klia's brow furrowed. She tried to tell Gaylee her secret again. "About. About t-the-""T-t-today junior. Just kidding. Take your time." Gaylee teased. She giggled at h...

35 likes 32 comments 32
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A Selkie's Love

Submitted to Contest #61

“Mama, Mama,” a seventeen-year-old girl called out as she gleefully raced through the front door to her step-mother of sixteen years. The girl wrapped her arms around her step-mother’s waist in a tight hug, holding a brown paper bag behind her back. “Guess what I convinced Papa to buy me at the store today?" Her step mother smiled. “What, sweetheart?” The girl produced a heavy, five pound candle from the brown bag. “A candle.” “A twenty-five dollar candle,” the father said as he walked in. “I swear, they’re just making up the prices these...

31 likes 9 comments 9
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Between Memory and Past.

Submitted to Contest #61

With a gasping breath and cracking bones, the old man slid on the muddy terrain of the forest bed spilling a loud cry that shattered all the birds perching in the trees, his hiking techniques had landed him into a death trap. “Oh no,” he clung to a nearly breaking oak root while still breathing heavily from the shock. Another tragedy followed suit before he could acclimatize. Leon descended as the root broke, sending with him half a piece as proof of a struggling death.Mist and a cool breathe swept off his body as he dived deep the Tagl...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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Deborah – Bee about Town

Submitted to Contest #61

 I was five the first time it happened, and I wet myself. The shock of it had demanded precipitate action so I’d had to take this thing by the throat. In annihilating it, I shoved it into one of those convenient bore-holes that seem to manifest when most needed. Deep into my sub-conscious I suppose it went.Once it was buried there, in primordial soot and weighted with colossal stones, I could accept that virtual murder was done and the nightmare gone. I could conveniently forget the nebulous cairn and feel reassured that at least one of...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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Burnt Feelings

Submitted to Contest #61

"Welcome class." The teacher had sarcastically said out to everyone. "There has been issues with the air conditioning over the weekend and is hoped to be fixed soon so please do not mind the smell." I really didn't like this teacher at all, I am new to this school in fact this country in general, I never really wanted to move here in the first place but since my mom and dad got divorced and everything fell apart dad told me to pack my bags and go to Canada with my auntie while he gets things figured out. I do like my auntie a lot though she ...

13 likes 10 comments 10
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The Wise and the Mighty

Submitted to Contest #61

There was once a time, to be sure, when the occult and the impractical held greater import in the daily affairs of men. And though the texts of the time have fallen into disuse and the old ways forgotten out of convenience, it shares with all things unfashionable the fringe interest of the unmentionable outliers of society. And so did the marvelously leathered works of such minds as Athereos and Yllgread, who was the Star of Winter Dawns, fall into the undeserving hands of frail recluses, never to see the sun again. In such a day, in the ...

19 likes 6 comments 6
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The Song That Fire Sings

Submitted to Contest #61

There were three times in Prometheus’s life in which he played with fire. The first time was many, many years ago, though time means nothing to the gods. He remembered it well, the stark look on his father’s face, the cold surroundings. “Take this,” his father had said, holding a single flame in his large, callused hands. “Take this, and burn what you can. Take this flame, and use it to cause an inferno.”It had surprised Prometheus, but it was a pleasant surprise, this gift. With what his father held in his hands, he could destroy, but ...

45 likes 19 comments 19
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The Inbetween Times

Submitted to Contest #61

Amberlin hitched her too-large jeans up on her bony hips and glanced toward the sky. Clear, for now. Trudging up the abandoned street, the sun beat down on her shoulders, and she wished for something cooler than the old denim jacket she had covering her arms. The bag on her back was heavy, causing sweat to trickle down her spine in that uncomfortably sticky way, giving her the shudders. A cat darted from between buildings, hissing as it skittered past her and onto the other side of the street, back into the safety of the dark. Amber hiss...

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The True Princess (And the Dragon's Lair)

Submitted to Contest #61

          Princess Meredith only had one more challenge before she could truly claim the kingdom. She had to evade the giantest of the dragons and collect the treasure, and then she would give it back to her parents and they would be so wealthy they would be crowned the rightful king and queen and wouldn’t have to work anymore; they would just pay somebody else to do all the governing. Meredith had heard about servants and advisors and other people who did the king and queen’s work for them s...

52 likes 13 comments 13
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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