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Forty Stories · episode 20 of 40

The Four Who Stood Guard

Guard a bramble with a piece that beats a 3.

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  1. Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and BluffForge — this is Forty Stories, episode 20: The Four Who Stood Guard.
  2. Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
  3. Narrator: This is the story of a 4, who spent the game standing next to a bramble.
  4. Four: A bramble is a wall. Anything that strikes it goes home. Anything except a 3.
  5. Decoy: So the only piece that can clear our bramble is a Blue badger. What beats a badger?
  6. Four: Me. A 4 beats a 3.
  7. Narrator: So the four stood beside the bramble, right in the path anyone would take to reach it.
  8. Four: I didn't move much. Standing still made me look like a bramble myself, which was fine too.
  9. Narrator: Halfway through the game, a Blue piece walked slowly toward the bramble. It struck the four instead.
  10. Four: Both turned over. It was a Blue badger, a 3. I won, and it went home.
  11. Decoy: Blue sent their bramble-clearer, and our guard was waiting.
  12. Four: I wasn't the strongest piece in the army. I was the right one for that square.
  13. Narrator: Guard a bramble with a piece that beats a 3. That's the four'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.