{"id":4324,"date":"2021-01-27T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4324"},"modified":"2021-01-27T14:14:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T14:14:35","slug":"bubers-basque-story-part-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/01\/27\/bubers-basque-story-part-37\/","title":{"rendered":"Buber’s Basque Story: Part 37"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s de Lancre?\u201d asked Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still in there, mad as hell. I only slowed him down a little. Where\u2019s Blas?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite grabbed Kepa\u2019s hand and pulled him down the hall. \u201cI stashed him in one of the side rooms so I could come back to help.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They ran down the hall. \u201cHe knows us,\u201d said Kepa. <\/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

\u201cWhat?\u201d yelled Maite. \u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, but he said something about \u2018last time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI bet it\u2019s the time travel. This is the first time we\u2019ve fought him, but maybe it\u2019s not the first time he fought us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they reached the end of the hall, which forked both left and right, they heard a rumbling sound, almost like a growl, come from behind them. They turned, looking back at where they had just come from, just in time to see the door to the laundry room blast off of its hinges and smash into the opposite wall. They stood there, stunned, as they watched de Lancre, literally floating above the floor, emerge from the room and turn towards them, fury in his eyes. His hands glowed as sparks flew between his fingertips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow dare you!\u201d he bellowed, his voice causing the walls to shake as his body floated down the hall towards them. \u201cYou insignificant worms! You dare challenge me?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He raised his hand, the sparks growing more intense. Kepa pushed Maite aside as he himself fell to the floor just as a bolt of electricity shot from de Lancre\u2019s hand and fried the wall behind where Kepa had just stood just seconds before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRun!\u201d yelled Kepa as he looked back up at de Lancre. The man\u2019s face was twisted in rage as he approached. Maite ran down the hallway to the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, run!\u201d screamed de Lancre. \u201cRun, so I can hunt you down. So I can sear the flesh from your bones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa dove to the right as another bolt of electricity scorched the tiles where he had just been lying. He scrambled to his feet and ran down the right hallway, hoping to draw de Lancre away from where Maite had gone. As he ran, he turned to look down the hall behind him. His heart sank as he saw de Lancre turn toward the left, down the hallway that Maite had disappeared in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMadarikatu! Damn it!\u201d cursed Kepa as he turned and ran back the way he had come. He chased de Lancre down the hall and around a bend. As he turned the corner, he saw Maite, maybe thirty feet ahead of de Lancre, push open a door and enter a room. \u201cWhat is she doing?\u201d he thought, panic filling him. \u201cShe\u2019s trapped!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He pushed himself, running as fast as he could ever remember. His lungs were burning but he was gaining on de Lancre. \u201cEz!\u201d he screamed as de Lancre burst through the door Kepa had seen Maite enter. A few moments later, he was at the door, dreading what he might find on the other side. As he pushed it open, he saw de Lancre, his back to the door, approaching Maite, who was pressed against the far wall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere is he?\u201d hissed de Lancre. \u201cWhere is that Basque bastard? Where is the magic he carries?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHemen naiz!\u201d yelled Blas as he jumped out from behind a partition and flung his suitcase as hard as he could, smashing it into the back of de Lancre\u2019s head. de Lancre\u2019s body crumpled to the floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhere\u2019s de Lancre?\u201d asked Maite. \u201cHe\u2019s still in there, mad as hell. I only slowed him down a little. Where\u2019s Blas?\u201d asked Kepa. Maite grabbed Kepa\u2019s hand and pulled him down the hall. \u201cI stashed him in one of the side rooms so I could come back to help.\u201d  They ran down the hall. \u201cHe […]<\/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-4324","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-17K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324","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=4324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4325,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4324\/revisions\/4325"}],"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=4324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}