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!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMaite turned back to Kepa, her face red. \u201cYou\u2019d just gotten shot and we\u2019d finally escaped that sheep herder hell!\u201d replied Maite, more angrily than she intended. \u201cWe weren\u2019t ready\u2026 I wasn\u2019t ready to go through another one, not yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa\u2019s shoulders slumped as he nodded. \u201cUlertzen dut. I understand.\u201d He looked up at Maite. \u201cHow are we going to keep doing this? There might be thousands of these damn things floating around the world. We will kill ourselves if we try to chase them all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite shook her head. \u201cI don\u2019t know. We can\u2019t do them all, not alone. I hope Marina is doing her part, chasing these things down. And maybe she\u2019s recruited others to help. Maybe we\u2019re not the only ones jumping through time, chasing these zatiak?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa\u2019s eyes opened wide. \u201cDo you think there are others like us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite shrugged. \u201cWhy not? Why would we be so special? For all we know, she has a whole army, chasing these things through time for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd\u2026\u201d began Kepa, as his mind raced. \u201cAnd, do you think de Lancre is also recruiting his own\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMinions?\u201d interjected Maite. \u201cI hadn\u2019t thought of that.\u201d She shook her head. \u201cI don\u2019t think so. He doesn\u2019t seem to be one to share power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy would Marina share?\u201d asked Kepa. \u201cCan\u2019t she take on de Lancre more easily if she has more of the power herself?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a good question,\u201d replied Maite. \u201cMaybe she just wants to keep him as weak as possible, and needs us to help her by eliminating zatiak from the time stream. But, we don\u2019t know. Maybe there is something else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLike what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d shrugged Maite, throwing up her hands. \u201cBut, maybe, she has a way of sucking them out of us when we collect enough. Maybe we are just temporary vessels, storing the zatia we find until she can claim them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa shivered. \u201cI don\u2019t like feeling like a pawn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite nodded. \u201cNeither do I. But we don\u2019t have much choice right now. If we don\u2019t help Marina, de Lancre might become too powerful for her to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa sighed. He looked at the white light floating in front of them. He looked at Maite. \u201cAre you ready?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite nodded, her shoulders slumping slightly. \u201cBai. Egin dezagun hau. Let\u2019s do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa, grabbing Maite\u2019s hand, reached out and touched the white light. The light grew and grew, filling their vision, blinding them, until it flashed briefly and all went dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe just got home!\u201d exclaimed Maite as she reluctantly followed Kepa to the white light. \u201cBut,\u201d pleaded Kepa, \u201cit\u2019s here. We can\u2019t ignore it.\u201d Maite looked away, avoiding Kepa\u2019s eyes. \u201cThere was one, back in California, while you were asleep in the car\u2026\u201d she began. \u201cZer?\u201d exclaimed Kepa. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d Maite turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"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":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1mv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5239","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=5239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5240,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5239\/revisions\/5240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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