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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 10 of 10

Echoes of Fury

Dunstan Laurence Pfumo Chaitezvi

Weekly Contest #340

Echoes of FuryBy Pfumo Stephen must write! He’s been working on his notepad since two in the morning. Now he is stuck, no matter how much he tries, he has nothing more to tell. He checks his wrist-watch, it’s only 11 in the morning. His fingers are twitching in vain over the keyboard. No ideas are visible on the horizon of his mind. The imagination machine has a notice attached to with the use of adhesives. The notice reads, to whom it may concern; “Out of order!” ‘It looks like I have written myself,’ he thinks aloud, ‘into a writer’s bloc...

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My Name Is Barbara

SJM Carter

Weekly Contest #340

Celluella Dragonflame stood atop the cliff, her purple cloak snapping around her slim shoulders in the gusting wind. Her hair was as dark as the midnight sky enveloping the land. She fingered the ornate silver dagger at her hip, the only possession her father had left her. Grasping the golden pendant resting against her collarbone, Celluella closed her eyes and recited the ancient incantation for flight, a spell whispered to her by the wind itself. The air shimmered. The stars trembled. Gravity, recognizing her innate superiority, released i...

11 likes

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The Thirstborn

Emily Drake

Weekly Contest #340

Mulch fills my nostrils, and I sputter out the debris. Breaths heave out of my chest, they're guttural, desperate. My ribs feel wider, more able, and they sift through the air, aiding my eyes, my awareness, hearing, everything. I don't know how, but I'm low to the ground. My head swivels around my environment. A forest, filled with redwoods. It's nighttime, and the soft bark is a burgundy in this light. Wind breezes through, and I am accurately aware of the brushes of the leaves against each other, the critters underneath the soil, and my he...

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Rewritten

Weekly Contest #340

This is exhausting. First of all, I’ve got my whole career to think about. I write the music and record some of it, then get together with sound engineers and producers to bring it all together into albums. I go on tour. The sort of nice thing is, they don’t expect a whole lot of responsibility out of me on that front. Rock stars do get loads of leeway on a lot of questionable behavior. Plus, I’m not that badly behaved. People who can’t handle their reality need to turn to drugs. Me? I tried something someone handed me at a party one time. S...

8 likes

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A Time Without Heroes

Sky Reed

Weekly Contest #340

My grandmother used to talk of times of heroes, who slayed monsters, and freed the people from tyranny. They were stories that filled me with hope even when the world seemed so bleak. Heroes had been dead for decades now, the great houses had all fallen to ruin. and people cower in their homes. Beasts use our town as hunting grounds, they come and go as they please, leaving disease in their wake. Nothing harms them, nothing except the sword of the hero, wielded by the hero. But the last hero died over 50 years ago, and there's been no sign o...

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Listening to the Mystical Peruvian Hairless Orchid Dog

Kristi Gott

Weekly Contest #340

*** Anya ---The morning that Gris, the Hairless Peruvian Dog from the Orchid Caves, began communicating with Anya, began with a blush of pink dawn.Their mystical wooden sailing vessel known as the Destiny's Dreams spoke with rushes of the wind in the sails and whooshes of the waves against the hull. They were nearing the islands of the huge, fragrant pink flowers but they could not see them yet. Ancient memories began to rise in Anya at the same time the sun floated up from the east. It was followed by a growing indigo sky, reflected by the...

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The Eucalyptus Plant

Weekly Contest #340

The Eucalyptus PlantBy Marilyn James Leaning her shoulder against the door and pushing to get it open, Briella made a mental note to talk with the apartment manager. As she entered the room, she stopped and glanced at the nearly empty space. It was still several hours before her furniture was to be delivered. The only thing in the apartment was a folding chair and two tall end tables she had brought earlier in the week. On one end table was a framed picture of her and her husband Vashon, on their wedding day. Walking towards the other end ta...

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Together For A Moment, Then A Lifetime

Violet James

Weekly Contest #340

Emma closed her eyes, content in her own essence, but an itch of discontent rippled through every cell of her being. She felt differently about life than the others, but also revelled in the awareness of how amazing it was to be a drop of water. In her world, life moved slowly, lovingly cradled in the lap of a nimbostratus cloud. A seamless journey untethered by deadlines, expectations, or the shape of things. She was a fluid soul and malleable in any form. There were no obstacles to deter her, and nothing in her path that she could not over...

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I want to be free

Nana Lemon

Weekly Contest #340

The light breeze ruffles the trees’ leaves and the smell of fresh summer air filled with the scent of flowers as well as dry grass and a subtle hint of moist forest floor is carried with it. A group of five is just leaving the shaded forest path and the sun shines with no clouds in sight. The sky is almost annoyingly brightly blue and the mood in the group is joyful. Their steps are light as if the bags on their backs don’t weigh a thing despite looking stuffed to the brim and their gear, weapons and shields, are nothing but decoration.A you...

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Inheritance of Silence

Weekly Contest #341

Elli learned early that names were dangerous things.Her father had explained it to her once, when she was too young to understand and too old to forget. Names stick, he’d said, kneeling to her height, his hands clean in a way that meant nothing. They give people something to grab.At Yale, she became Elizabeth on paper only—bylines, transcripts, the polite fiction of a future she could almost touch. Elli was what survived everywhere else. Shorter. Sharper. Easier to disappear.The night her father vanished, three men called her Elizabeth in th...

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Bird Brain

John K Adams

Weekly Contest #340

Bright light. Shimmering trees. A new day. I preen. The world begins again. Much like yesterday. Through the glass a single fluttering leaf. A few more join. Soon a silent chorus strives heavenward. The tree is well grounded. The cat enters and eyes me. Expectant. Patient. Predictable. What a fool. Wings flap. I taunt. Thinks I don’t know. Can’t trust anything with teeth. Except for Joey.They cover my cage for me. So, I can sleep. I hear them talk. Morning ritual. Young Joey folds the fabric cage cover and sets it aside.He said, “Good mornin...

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Emma

Weekly Contest #341

It felt a lot like standing in your grandma’s dining room. Oddly comfortable, but with a very dated look and feel to the place. The walls were brown wooden panels which were all covered in picture frames, allowing almost no visibility of the faux mahogany behind them. Corey saw himself at various ages in a few of the photos that hung, along with photos of those he knew and those he did not. The air was thick and sweet and the carpet under his feet shaggy and worn down to a near flat finish against the floor. If the year was 1970 then this r...

17 likes

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Pantser Pandemonium

Rose Winters

Weekly Contest #340

Pantser PandemoniumOnce upon a time…“Oh, my god. So cliché. I’m gonna barf.”Um… freaking out here. Who are you?“Your book, stupid. I’m tired of you always taking shortcuts, writing without any forethought.”Okay. Wow. Ahem… There once was a man named Bob.“Come on! Start with action! Draw me in!”I’m getting a little intimidated here…“Do you want to be a writer, or not?”Yes.“Continue, then. If I had a foot, I’d be tapping it.”Okay. Action. Bob raised his sword and dove headlong into the melee.“Go on…”The evil giant, Jim…“Jim? Fingers scraping o...

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If the Slipper Fits...

Greer C. Barnes

Weekly Contest #340

"Would you shut up?" I've never yelled at the birds outside my bedroom window. Part of me feels bad. We have a routine: I wake up, open the windows, sing a song, and we get ready together. But I just want to lie in this impossibly soft California King canopy bed. I readjust the blankets and turn over, burying my face deeper into the silk pillowcase. It's only now dawning on me that my pillow is stuffed with bird feathers, but my best friends are also birds—the irony. I sort of thought we would part ways after I got married and moved into t...

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Begin at the Beguining

Annalisa M

Weekly Contest #340

—Don’t do that!—Lisa looked around, confused. She was seated at a small, round table in the window of her favorite coffee shop. Her battered laptop was open in front of her. She had a half-filled diner mug at her side.—Seriously—Again, she glanced to her right and left. There was a violet-haired woman wearing emerald headphones leaning against the wall. An older man with an inordinate amount of packages under his table was shoving a croissant into his mouth as fast as she’d ever seen anyone eat. She realized the words were coming from her co...

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