Tag Archives: fantasy

PHILIP MATCOVSKY: Larry’s Intervention

Adventure, Odd, Submissions, , ,

Larry’s coworkers formed a threatening circle around his cubicle: arms spread, fingertips touching, staring emotionless. He was despised for his pessimism: always speaking of murders, car accidents, drug dealings, adultery, death.

Speechless now, Larry’s thought was quietly heard: Coven.

His coworkers softly opened their wings. “Of sorts,” one responded aloud.

Philip Matcovsky’s writing is nominated for Best Small Fictions 2026. It features in DarkWinter Literary Magazine, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Amethyst Review, Braided Way Magazine, Odyssey Magazine, and elsewhere. Philip is a lightworker and cosmic traveler based in New York.

DESIREE S BROWN: The Grieving and Ambitious

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

Magic had weight that could break a grieving mind, effectively ending any wizard’s career.

Professor Henley drew an incantation in the air. Finger-like tendrils seeped out of the pentagram and lurched into his skull, hungry for memory.

He thought of his wedding. His children being born.

The spell groaned, sated.

Desiree S. Brown is a poet and author from California. She writes when the world sleeps and her toddler’s are pacified. Her recent work, Untroubled, was published in Redrosethorns magazine. Find her on Substack at Desi’s Narrative.

KATIE ARMSTRONG: Unknown Certainty

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

A glow in the distance catches her attention. Wooden skis glide effortlessly between trees as she draws closer. She squints at the undeniable illusion. She closes her eyes. Glowing particles swarm on the backs of her eyelids, and her skis slip forward. She is entangled—gone and not gone, simultaneously.

Katie is a consultant by day and a writer by night. Her day job requires very rigid and logical thinking, so she uses writing as a creative outlet. She lives in Bozeman, MT.

GRACIE LIRETTE: the one who gets discovered every time

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

Talk of witchcraft made the townspeople go quiet. It’s only a matter of time before the hunt begins. Teachers will carry pitchforks instead of pencils, and children will carry torches instead of toys.

Alice hides her purple, spell-stained hands behind her back.

In this lifetime, who will her betrayer be?

Gracie Lirette is a young writer seeking to gain as much experience as she can before the daunting world of adulthood takes over. Earlier this year she earned two regional Gold Keys for a short story and flash fiction in the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, and now she is diving into microfiction.

LORRAINE MANTON: A Children’s Fairy Tale

Adventure, Odd, Submissions, ,

There weren’t fairies at the bottom of our garden. There were monsters, small, scabrous and very hungry, who ate any pests: insect, animal, human. Then they watched us.

There were monsters at the bottom of our garden… until the fairies came and ate them.

And now the fairies watch us.

Lorraine Manton is currently studying creative writing and literature at Deakin University, Australia and has a great fondness for books, coffee and small slices of imaginary lives.

NINA BASU: The Offering

Adventure, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

At dusk, villagers watched the crimson sun bleed into the mountains, where smoke curled from hidden caves. “They’ll wake soon,” whispered the elder. No one moved. One child left a carved offering at the cliff’s edge. Moments later, clouds churned. Wings split the sky. The dragons had remembered her name.

Nina is 11 years old, and lives in England, United Kingdom. She is an avid reader. Nina loves both the classics (Tom Sawyer, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol) and contemporary literature. She particularly loves fantasy and stories of dragons. She placed third in the W.J. Kite writing tournament in 2022, and was published in the W.J. Kite anthology.

SUSMITA RAMANI: In the Clearing Between Worlds

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“Can I go somewhere with fairies?” I ask.

“Sorry,” the gnome says. “They don’t like your kind. The only alternate world available to you is a version of your own where no one invents the telephone, radio, movies, or computers.”

“What do they do?” I ask.

He laughs. “Everything else.”

Susmita Ramani is a writer and lawyer who has a novella coming out from Running Wild Press in 2026. She has two teenage daughters and performs improv with a group. She lives in Palo Alto, California.

JOANNA NORLAND: The Aborted Suit of the Epic Hero Trapped in a Fifty-Word Tale

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

Lady, to merit thy love, I coaxed a golden tear from King Midas’s eye, which I bartered for a mermaid’s song.
I used her voice to lull a Dragon while I snatched his diamond tooth.
This, I present to you, peerless Lady, and humbly pray on bended knee, wilt thou—

Joanna Norland has learned through painful experience always to check the word count and trim where possible.

JENNY MATTERN: Sea-Sister

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

The sea delivers soft-edged bits of glass and storm-tossed shells.

On a high tide, it brought my sister, soft-edged and storm-tossed with hair like fire.

We railed against the waves when they stole her back.

Even now, my eyes comb the greedy sea for the gleam of her iridescent tail.

Jenny Mattern is a poet, a crafter of stories, and a cake-for-breakfast enthusiast who lives with her family in Montana.

PIPER PUGH: My Grandmother’s Captor

Adventure, Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I’m calling to tell you: I’ve been kidnapped.

I laughed.

What’s funny, David? He’s got me trapped here…

Who?

This chubby elf-man.

WHO?

My CAPTOR.

You mean George?

Who the heck’s George?

GEORGE, your husband.

Later, George returned. He helped sprinkle salt around the house, to ward off the elves.

Piper Pugh is a writer and educator living in Los Angeles, CA.