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Volant

THE FLYING KING (International draughts)

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01 Opening
Volant beat 1 of 5

Volant remembered the exact moment her world grew bigger, even though the town map had not changed at all.

For eleven years, her life was measured by the four hundred yards between her front porch and the corner bakery. She knew every cracked sidewalk square along that route. She knew which yard dog barked at strangers and which one only growled from under the porch steps. Then her uncle handed her an old red ten-speed bicycle with rust spots on the shiny handlebars. She pedaled past the bakery on her first real ride. She kept riding past the lumber yard, past the deep gravel pit, and over the narrow creek bridge at the edge of town. The surrounding hills did not move, but suddenly they sat right in front of her handlebars. The world had not grown an inch during that long summer afternoon. Her reach had simply changed, and reach reorganized everything she knew about distance.

At the CrownTales academy, master Draughtsmith laid out a hundred dark and light squares between them on the wide oak table. The international board was ten squares wide and ten squares deep, far larger than the standard grid. It was not the cozy eight-by-eight square where young players learned their first steps. Draughtsmith placed a single crowned piece in the bottom corner of the wide grid.

"Show them what happens when the board opens up," the old master said quietly.

02 Volant
Volant beat 2 of 5

Volant picked up her dark wooden piece. Across the long open diagonal sat an enemy piece, perched seven squares away near the opposite edge. On a small board, a crowned king moved one careful step at a time, keeping close to home. Volant slid her piece along the polished hardwood in one single, fluid glide across the entire board. Her wooden crown swooped down the open line, captured the enemy piece, and settled three squares beyond it. The single move flipped the entire board, placing threats on two distant enemy positions at once.

"A short king needs four turns to make that trek," Volant said, leaning back from the table. "I got here in one turn, and I chose the exact square where I stopped."

Draughtsmith nodded slowly, his eyes following the long line of the diagonal. "You did not just move farther, Volant," he said quietly. "You started thinking about the whole board at once."

That was the day she learned to master the flying king.

In the quiet workshop, twelve-year-old Maya sat staring at the ten-by-ten board with wide, excited eyes. Maya had just learned how a crowned piece moved on the larger International board. Her eyes burned with the wild ambition of a player who had suddenly discovered wings. On every single turn, Maya launched her king across the full length of the grid like a stone from a sling. She swooped left across six squares. She glided right across seven squares. She swept across eight open spaces just to snatch a single isolated piece from her opponent.

03 Volant
Volant beat 3 of 5

"I have wings now!" Maya declared, knocking over a dark piece with a satisfying clatter. "Why would anyone ever take a short step again?"

Volant smiled with easy recognition, remembering the exact feeling from her own youth. "Reset the board," Volant said gently, sliding the captured pieces back into position. "Let me show you what reach teaches you the hard way."

Volant placed three enemy pieces in a neat triangle near the upper corner. Maya grinned, taking the bait, and launched her king straight into the middle of the open space.

"I captured your piece from clear across the board," Maya said proudly.

"You certainly did," Volant agreed softly. "Now look closely at where your king landed."

04 Volant
Volant beat 4 of 5

Maya stared down at her lone crowned piece. It sat isolated on an edge square, far away from any friendly support. Two enemy pieces blocked its return diagonal, while a third piece stepped up from behind to seal the trap. The long greedy flight had left her king completely stranded where the enemy could corner it.

"A short king stays near home and can only get into local trouble," Volant explained. "A flying king can strand itself clear across the board, completely alone."

Maya swallowed hard, tapping her finger thoughtfully against her chin. "So I flew straight into a cage because I was only looking at the target."

"Power without care is just a longer way to lose," Volant told her. "Before you fly, ask where you will land and whether you can get home."

Maya reset her position on the grid, taking a long breath before her next turn. This time she did not swoop across the whole board for a cheap capture. She paused and traced the open diagonals with the tip of her index finger. She picked a landing square two spaces short of the far edge, keeping her king safe. From that chosen spot, her king stayed linked to her other pieces while still holding the entire long diagonal.

05 Closing
Volant beat 5 of 5

"So is the flying king just better?" Maya asked, looking up from the board. "Should everyone always want the bigger board?"

Volant picked up a standard eight-by-eight board from the side shelf and placed it beside the larger grid. "Better is not the right word," Volant said, tapping the wooden frame of the smaller board. "On the small board, the game is about tight, careful fights where every piece is in the neighborhood."

She gestured across the ten-by-ten grid. "On the big board, it is about distance and vision across the entire space," Volant explained. "They share the exact same root rule of crowning that Kingsley teaches, but the scale changes everything."

Maya looked back and forth between the two boards, her face thoughtful. "Same rule, completely different game," Maya murmured.

"Exactly," Volant said with a warm smile. "Learning to fly does not make the short king obsolete. It makes you fluent in a bigger world, and when you go back, you see the small board differently too."

That night, Maya walked home along her familiar street under the yellow streetlights. She looked down the long avenue toward the distant bridge that led out of town. The street had always felt like the permanent boundary of her small world. Now she wondered how many other familiar things had a bigger board waiting just beyond the horizon.

Hear it as an audio drama

A short play starring Volant, from CrownTales. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.

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Read the drama script
  1. Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and Crowntales — this is Volant, in chapter 1 of the Crowntales cast.
  2. Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
  3. Narrator: Volant plays on the big 10-by-10 board of International draughts, where a crowned king does something breathtaking — it flies.
  4. Volant: On the 8-by-8 board, a king moves one square at a time. Here, a crowned king FLIES. It slides any distance along an open diagonal, swoops in to capture an enemy from far away, and lands on any empty square beyond. Same crowning idea — but the reach transforms the whole board.
  5. Narrator: Range. The same king, but now it can strike from across the board.
  6. Volant: A flying king controls entire diagonals at once. A piece that felt safe six squares away is suddenly in danger. Distance stops being protection. When I crown a flying king, I don't just gain a strong piece — I gain reach over the whole board. Range changes everything.
  7. Narrator: Volant first underestimated the flying king, playing it like a slow 8-by-8 king.
  8. Volant: I'd shuffle it one square at a time, wasting its whole gift. Meanwhile my opponent's flying king swept across five squares and took a piece I thought was miles from danger. I was flying a hawk like it was a hen. Once I let it stretch, the board doubled in size for me.
  9. Narrator: So Volant learned to think in long diagonals.
  10. Volant: Now I look down the WHOLE diagonal, not just the next square. Where can my king reach in one flight? What can it threaten from far away? The flying king rewards big vision. Same crown, longer reach, bigger game.
  11. Narrator: A girl was nudging her flying king one square at a time.
  12. Volant: It can fly! Look all the way down that open diagonal — you can capture that piece from five squares away and land beyond it. Don't creep. Stretch. See the whole line your king commands.
  13. Narrator: The girl sent her king soaring down the long diagonal and captured a piece she'd thought was safe.
  14. Volant: Same crowning idea, but the king FLIES. Range changes everything — so look down the whole diagonal.
  15. Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil chapter, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
  16. Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
  17. Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
  18. Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.

The CrownTales ensemble

Volant is one of the friends in CrownTales. Each friend shows you one idea by how they act; meet them all and you have the whole subject.