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Forty Stories · episode 13 of 40

The Runner Who Watched the Lane

A long straight line is easy to watch.

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  1. Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and BluffForge — this is Forty Stories, episode 13: The Runner Who Watched the Lane.
  2. Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
  3. Narrator: In the middle of the board are two lakes. No piece can step into them. This is the story of a runner who sat beside one.
  4. Runner: Because of the lakes, there are only three ways through the middle: a lane on the left, one in the middle, one on the right. Each lane is two squares wide.
  5. Draftsy: Every Blue piece that wants to reach our side has to come through one of those three lanes.
  6. Runner: So I stood at the bottom of the middle lane, where I could see straight up it.
  7. Red Piece: What can a runner do from there?
  8. Runner: If a Blue piece steps into the lane, I can run straight up and strike it in one move. Runners can move and strike in the same turn.
  9. Narrator: A Blue piece crept into the middle lane, alone. The runner raced up and struck it. Both turned over. It was a 5, and the runner went home.
  10. Draftsy: Now we know a Blue 5 is coming through the middle. Our 6 is ready for it.
  11. Runner: I only had to watch one straight line. That's a runner's favourite kind of line.
  12. Narrator: A long straight line is easy to watch. That's the runner's story.
  13. Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil story, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
  14. Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
  15. Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
  16. Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.