{"id":4305,"date":"2021-01-20T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4305"},"modified":"2021-01-20T01:30:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T01:30:02","slug":"bubers-basque-story-part-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/01\/20\/bubers-basque-story-part-36\/","title":{"rendered":"Buber’s Basque Story: Part 36"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On the other side of the door, Kepa saw the two men struggling for the suitcase. Blas was lying on the ground while de Lancre was hunched over him, his knee in Blas\u2019s chest as he tried to wrench the suitcase from his hands. Both men looked up as the door smashed open. Kepa let out a primal yell as he charged, throwing his body against de Lancre, knocking him off of the much younger man. Somehow, Blas kept his grip on his suitcase as de Lancre was violently torn away from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresaka!\u201d yelled Kepa. \u201cHurry! Get him out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite rushed to Blas\u2019s side. \u201cLagunak gara,\u201d she said as she knelt beside the young would-be sheepherder. \u201cWe are friends. Goazen. Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buber’s Basque Story is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n

She helped Blas to his feet and they dashed out of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

de Lancre bellowed in rage. \u201cYou again? I thought I took care of you last time! This time, I will make sure you die!\u201d he screamed as he launched himself against Kepa. Though de Lancre was much older than Kepa, his strength was remarkable. Kepa could only guess that he had somehow magically augmented it. The wind was forced out of Kepa\u2019s lungs as de Lancre buried his shoulder into Kepa\u2019s stomach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou fool!\u201d de Lancre yelled as he stood over Kepa, who tried to catch his breath. de Lancre raised his head, almost as if he was sniffing the air. A twisted smile spread across his face. \u201cMarina isn\u2019t here, is she? She can\u2019t save you this time.\u201d He grabbed Kepa\u2019s hand, his eyes fixated on the glowing spot in the middle of Kepa\u2019s palm. Kepa tried to pull it back, but was still too weak to offer much resistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve saved me the trouble, boy, of finding you and your magic,\u201d said de Lancre with a sneer. \u201cI\u2019ll just take that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He placed a claw-like hand above Kepa\u2019s palm, his long fingernails digging into Kepa\u2019s flesh. As they penetrated Kepa\u2019s flesh, they began to smoke and then catch on fire. de Lancre quickly pulled his hand back as he screamed, flailing his hand as the fingertips burned. Kepa simply looked at his hand in amazement as blood trickled from five small cuts around the edge of his palm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His breath returned, Kepa scrambled up to his feet as de Lancre waived his good hand above his burning hand and the flames were extinguished. The older Frenchman glared at Kepa with murderous intent. \u201cYou will pay for that, you wretched dastard,\u201d he snarled as he took a step closer to Kepa. \u201cYou will beg for mercy as I watch your limbs slowly rip from their sockets.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He creeped closer as Kepa stepped warily back, his hands feeling the counter tops behind him for something, anything he could use as a weapon, his eyes fixed on de Lancre. Kepa\u2019s hands found something large and metallic. He grabbed it and threw it at de Lancre, who batted the metal tray aside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to do better than that, boy\u201d said de Lancre with a twisted smile, his eyes alight like a cat teasing its prey. He charged as Kepa\u2019s fingers grasped a wooden handle. He swung the object – a brush – as hard as he could at de Lancre\u2019s head, smashing the brush into the side of this temple. de Lancre screamed as he fell to the ground, blood flowing from between his fingers as he held his head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa rushed from the room and nearly collided with Maite as he burst into the hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the other side of the door, Kepa saw the two men struggling for the suitcase. Blas was lying on the ground while de Lancre was hunched over him, his knee in Blas\u2019s chest as he tried to wrench the suitcase from his hands. Both men looked up as the door smashed open. Kepa let […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Artboard-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-17r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4306,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4305\/revisions\/4306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}