{"id":6189,"date":"2023-03-16T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=6189"},"modified":"2023-03-16T12:27:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T12:27:05","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-143","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2023\/03\/16\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-143\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 143"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Maite and Kepa slowly hiked up to the peak of Santa Klara. They were in no hurry. Neither relished the idea of hurtling into another bubble, another unknown time filled with new dangers. It felt like they had just gotten back from their excursion to future Bilbo and here they were, being asked to enter another bubble. While, physically, they were unaffected, as if they hadn\u2019t gone, mentally these trips were a bit taxing.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<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 class=\"wp-element-caption\">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>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Once they got to the peak, they stopped to look back at the city. Their future home.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDo you ever wonder if we\u2019ll make it back, if we\u2019ll get stuck in one of these bubbles?\u201d asked Kepa.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite reached out and took his hand. \u201cTo be honest, as long as I\u2019m with you, it doesn\u2019t matter to me where we are. What time or place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kepa sniffled back a tear. \u201cMaite zaitut. I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite smiled. \u201cMaite zaitut ere bai.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They turned away from the water. In front of them flashed the white light that would take them to the next bubble. As it flashed, dark shadows bloomed in and out of the rocks and trees around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kepa sighed. \u201cPrest?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite nodded. \u201cBai, prest nago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She heard a rumbling in the back of her mind. \u201cAre you not going to ask me if I\u2019m ready?\u201d Garuna\u2019s voice echoed through her skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite grimaced before mentally replying. \u201cEz. No, I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kepa, still holding Maite\u2019s hand, reached out, his finger extended, toward the center of the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a bright flash, familiar and disconcerting, that temporarily blinded them. They heard before they could see explosions, seemingly coming from all sides. As their eyes adjusted, they saw a fleet of ships in the bay, canons pointing to the old part of the city. Explosions burst into flames. Maite and Kepa could hear screams from the distant walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat the hell is going on?\u201d yelled Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe city is under attack!\u201d exclaimed Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy who?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite vigorously shook her head. \u201cEz dakit!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garuna\u2019s voice popped into her head again, eerily calm against the chaos that was erupting around them. \u201cThe flags on the ships\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maite looked at Kepa. \u201cIt\u2019s the British and Portuguese!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background\"><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>Maite and Kepa slowly hiked up to the peak of Santa Klara. They were in no hurry. Neither relished the idea of hurtling into another bubble, another unknown time filled with new dangers. It felt like they had just gotten back from their excursion to future Bilbo and here they were, being asked to enter [&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-6189","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-1BP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189","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=6189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6190,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions\/6190"}],"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=6189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}