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Forty Stories · episode 17 of 40

The Badger Who Met the Guard

A bramble is often guarded, so clear the guard first.

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  1. Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and BluffForge — this is Forty Stories, episode 17: The Badger Who Met the Guard.
  2. Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
  3. Narrator: This is the story of a badger, a 3, who was in too much of a hurry.
  4. Badger: I knew where a bramble was. A runner had found it. So I headed straight for it.
  5. Narrator: But beside the bramble stood a Blue piece that hadn't moved for a long time.
  6. Red Piece: Why is that piece just standing there?
  7. Badger: I didn't stop to think. I struck it, to get it out of my way.
  8. Narrator: Both turned over. It was a 4. The badger went home.
  9. Badger: A 4 beats a 3. Blue had put a guard beside their bramble on purpose.
  10. Pricetag: It's a good plan, and a fair one. A bramble can only be cleared by a 3, so you guard it with something that beats a 3.
  11. Narrator: Next time, Red sent a 5 to meet the guard first. The 5 beat the 4. Then a second badger walked up and cleared the bramble.
  12. Badger: I learned it for the team, even though I learned it from home.
  13. Narrator: A bramble is often guarded, so clear the guard first. That's the badger's story.
  14. Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil story, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
  15. Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
  16. Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
  17. Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.