Day 148
Near Regan

Title:  Overlooking Regan

	Velgut sat quietly by his fire, memorizing the poetry he had written today.  His
eyes squinting, the sun had dipped below the next ridge.  The poet was atop another
mountain, overlooking Regan.  He stood and glanced down at the town.  The vista was
hazy.  At this point, he was unsure if the ruins were still smoldering or if it was fog rolling
in.  It could have been both, he didn’t know or care.  He needed to be on his way.
	Normally, he wouldn’t care which way he headed, but he had decided to head 
south.  From what he had seen, that was the direction the Rampage had taken after sacking the
town.  He didn’t dare head north.  Hyru’s agents would be waiting for travelers there who
might have escaped.  The Rampage were extremely confident in their abilities, they didn’t
usually check behind themselves.
	Usually, there was no need.  Velgut decided to go south until dawn and then cut
east.  Focusing hard on the five poems in his hands in the quickly fading light, he felt sure
that he had memorized three of them.  He tossed them on the fire, in his usual belief that if
it were truly good writing, he would remember it.  The other two he tucked under his
cloak, for another day of study.  Then, they would start his fire wherever he slept the next
day.
	He turned to leave, but heard someone approaching.  Frozen in paranoia that it
might be an agent from the Rampage Corp, he stood still until the figure came into view.  It was 
a tax collector for Hyru.
	"Might I convince you to share this fire, sir traveler?" The Agent asked.
	"These flames are yours, I was just leaving," Velgut said.  The collector smiled
wearily and strolled up to the very log Velgut had been on for hours.  He lowered himself
quietly and began warming his hands.  Velgut squatted down, pretending to adjust his
boots.
	"Starting your travels at night, eh?" Chuckled the tax collector, "You must be an
experienced traveler."
	"Experienced enough to know that Hyru’s tax collectors don’t ask people to
‘share’ things."  As soon as he said it, Velgut mentally kicked himself.  Taking a hostile
tone with any of Hyru’s minions was usually a promise of trouble.  Preparing himself, he
deftly scooped a rock into one hand as he faked finishing his boots.  Velgut stood, hands
in the sleeves of his cloak, ready to defend himself.
	The tax collector merely chuckled, "Normally, I’d agree with you, son, but I seem
to have a vacation this week.  I was in the middle of tax collection for Regan when the
Rampage Corp came in.  If I hadn’t been a loyal minion of Hyru, I wouldn’t have made it out alive."
	Velgut had been ready to put a dent in this man’s head with a rock and run, but
now he yearned to stay.  From this evil man, he could learn how it actually happened, how
the town was destroyed, how Liam really died.  Oh, the poetry he could write after a
conversation with this collector.
	The collector sighed, dangling a bag hanging from his belt.  "This was all I got,
taxes from five people.  I was working on number six, some poet woman on her front
porch when Rampage came in.  She of course spilled her money on the ground, but when it
was all over, there were more pieces of her on the ground than her money.  What a mess-"
	Velgut couldn’t take any more.  He chucked the rock and nailed the tax collector
in the left eye.  The collector howled in pain, staggering up and pulling out a dagger. 
Velgut shifted quickly and the collector never saw the punch coming to the left side of his
head.  The poet quickly planted his right knee in the agent’s groin.  The collector doubled
over in pain and Velgut kicked him in the face.
	The agent went flying over backwards, dropping his dagger.  Velgut scooped the
blade up in one hand, pulling out his own with his other hand.  When the collector got
back to his feet, disoriented, Velgut head butted him and slashed the backs of his knees. 
The poet snatched the bag of money off the collector’s belt before throwing the immobile
agent into the fire.
	As screams of agony and the smell of burning flesh filled the air, Velgut stumbled
down the ridge, tears streaming from his face.  Twice in two days, words were not
enough.