{"id":5361,"date":"2022-03-02T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=5361"},"modified":"2022-02-26T14:05:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T14:05:53","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2022\/03\/02\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-94\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 94"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll distract those things,\u201d said Marina. \u201cYou two get out of here.\u201d She handed Maite a small object. \u201cMeet me here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNon?\u201d asked Maite, looking at the object in her hand. It looked like one of those die Dungeons and Dragons players used, except there were no markings on the faces. \u201cHow do we use this\u2026?\u201d she began, but Marina was already gone, rushing through the crowd, knocking people over as she dashed to the other side of the hall. The spheres, red lights flashing and reflecting against the ceiling and walls, gave chase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maite-and-kepa-v3b.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4558\" width=\"277\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maite-and-kepa-v3b.png 369w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maite-and-kepa-v3b-215x300.png 215w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/><figcaption>The Adventures of Maite and Kepa<em> is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I&#8217;ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren&#8217;t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don&#8217;t know where it is going, and I&#8217;ll probably forget where it&#8217;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\n<p>\u201cOrain!\u201d hissed Kepa. \u201cNow! Goazen!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kepa grabbed Maite\u2019s hand and pulled her through the door and into the hall. Scanning the room, he noticed a large entryway that seemed to lead to a tunnel. People were flowing in and out of the opening. Marina had gone in the opposite direction, drawing the spheres away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis way!\u201d he said, tugging on Matie\u2019s arm. \u201cIt must be the exit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They weaved their way through the crowd, deliberately trying not to bump into too many people to avoid a scene and draw the attention of the spheres. They heard a crash behind them. Turning, they saw Marina at the far end of the hall, standing on a table or something, smashing one of the floating monitors. The spheres were converging on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kepa stopped. \u201cWe have to help her!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEz!\u201d barked Maite. \u201cMarina will be fine. Her vessel\u2026\u201d Maite shrugged. \u201cShe knows what she is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crowd had begun drifting toward the end of the hall where Marina was making a scene. Kepa and Maite continued to make their way upstream, toward the exit. Reaching the large circular opening, they stepped on a sparkling white conveyor belt that took them out of the hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAre you sure she\u2019ll be ok?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite nodded as she looked at the small dodecahedron in her hand. \u201cWe just need to figure out where we are supposed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conveyor belt took them through a glass tunnel through which they could see outside. The strange buildings, with their organic shapes that seemed to meld with trees and vines, towered over them. The tunnel above them ended as the conveyor belt dumped them onto a small plaza. The ground seemed to be made of solid stone rather than the bricks or concrete they were used to from their time. People rushed around them, moving in all directions. Kepa watched as one particularly large man approached what looked like to him a large, human-sized egg. The man simply walked through the shell and moments later the egg shot into the sky, carrying the man with it. Another egg seemed to form out of nothing to take its place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kepa shook his head. \u201cCan we find somewhere to sit down a moment?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write <a href=\"mailto:blas@buber.net\">blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI\u2019ll distract those things,\u201d said Marina. \u201cYou two get out of here.\u201d She handed Maite a small object. \u201cMeet me here.\u201d \u201cNon?\u201d asked Maite, looking at the object in her hand. It looked like one of those die Dungeons and Dragons players used, except there were no markings on the faces. \u201cHow do we use [&hellip;]<\/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-5361","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-1ot","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361","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=5361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5362,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions\/5362"}],"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=5361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}