"The Foragers"

Regan, Day 150

	Torrent chose the heavily forested Southeastern side of the town for his 
approach.  Torrent's Stealth Corps training had given him an appreciation for 
not being seen, even when he wasn't hiding from anyone in particular, and the 
forest provided the best cover at the moment.  He stepped lightly through the 
foliage, finally finding a spot behind a large growth of bushes and other 
plants.
	He kneeled down and froze, not moving a muscle while he listened for any 
sounds to indicate anyone nearby.  There wasn't anyone else in the forest, but 
he heard some voices coming from the town.  Slowly, he reached up and carefully 
pushed some of the foliage out of the way.  Through it he saw a group of people 
rummaging through what was left of Regan.
	Torrent had heard reports about these people.  They were a group of 
Mantas who came to towns that had been destroyed by the Rampage Corps and looked 
through the rubble for anything of value to them.  They generally traveled 
several days behind the Rampage Corps so that they never run into the Rampage 
Corps itself.  Torrent had always thought of them as parasites, bugs who took 
advantage of the Rampage Corps' work.  What they were doing wasn't against 
Hyru's law, though, so he saw no reason to interfere.  Besides, there were at 
least 25 of them, too many for him to kill without help.
	However, he did decide to watch them.  He had never seen them foraging 
through the remains of a city before, and found an interest in it.  Anything 
worthwhile had been destroyed or taken by the Rampage Corps.  These Mantas were 
just searching for junk, yet to them it was their livelihood.  He couldn't 
imagine living like that.
	He watched them dig through pieces of wood and rock, picking up old 
clothes, dull swords, half empty vials of Rico gel, and whatever money they 
could find.  He watched one man who had found the body of a townsperson under a 
pile of wood.  The man looked all over the charred body for anything he could 
take, finally finding a ring on the townsperson's left hand.  Not being able to 
get the ring off of the burned finger, he pulled out his dagger and cut the 
finger off before putting the ring, finger and all, in his pouch.
	As he watched, Torrent pulled out a glass bottle full of water.  He had 
gotten it from a the traveling merchant.  Torrent had ordered the merchant to 
bring him here in his carriage.  The Spyre agent uncorked the bottle and took a 
drink of water.
	Suddenly, he heard some shouting coming from the town.  He quickly 
looked back through the hole in the bushes and saw some of the Mantas arguing.  
One was holding something strange.  It was a small, round thing that was letting 
off a weird purple glow every few seconds.  The rest of the Mantas were 
gathering around the two that were arguing.  It looked like there was going to 
be a fight.
	Then, the man holding the tiny orb starting running, directly toward the 
bush Torrent was hiding behind.  Torrent dropped the bottle of water and put his 
hand on his dagger.  The man ran right by Torrent, not noticing the hidden 
Stealth Corps agent, and kept going into the forest.  Torrent watched him run 
off and turned back toward the town to see the rest of the Mantas.  They were 
all running right for him, too.
	He knew they were probably after the man that just ran past him, but he 
didn't want them to find him instead.  He jumped up, stumbling back a little, 
and started running.  He sprinted as fast as he could through the woods, hoping 
he hadn't been seen.  After he'd been running for a while, he looked back to see 
if he was being chased.  Just as he did his foot hit the top of a hill and he 
fell, landing on the hill and rolling down it, stopping when his shoulder hit a 
big rock.
	Torrent groaned and spit some of the dirt out of his mouth.  He felt his 
shoulder, it hurt but it would probably be fine.  He started to get up, but as 
soon as he did he saw him, the man who was carrying the strange purple orb, 
looking at him with an expression fear.