<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/DYqQ6v6.jpg?1" style="float:right; padding:6px;"/>What a fine day it was at the gallows. There was a certain cheer in the salty air, though perhaps it was just the barrel of whiskey he and the other prisoners were allowed to consume prior to the event. Jace, the youngest of the lot, was standing at the forefront of the death march. See, city ports such as this one never took kindly to pirates or bandits, and, pirates and bandits didn't take kindly to young punks like Jace trying to infiltrate their operations. His luck really couldn't have turned out worse this day, being caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn't matter that he had no involvement in this particular band of thieves; he was still a pickpocket and a vagrant.  A homeless rat, if one was to borrow from this place's choice vocabulary.<br/><br/>It wasn't difficult to picture their snarling mugs behind him, seeing as he was the reason they were in this mess to begin with.  See, Jace's whole life was built on a foundation of piss-poor luck.  He was both conceived and born twenty-seven years ago in the bowels of a ship bound for disaster.  The ship belonged to none other than a slaver whom was known for his female auctions.  He took some of his slaves for his own, and as one might guess, this man sadly sired him.  If, in the event he came out a girl, he'd have been raised with the maidens to be sold in years to come.  However as fate would have it, he did not, and was thrown overboard.<br/><br/>The tales he was told of his survival varied depending on whom you asked.  He would like to believe he battled and tamed the sharks to bring him safely to land, where he was raised by savage wolves, but even he couldn't sell that riveting fable for a pence.  The slightly true version of his life story involved being discovered soon after by brutish pirates, whom may or may not have considered just chopping him up and boiling him in a stew.  He supposed he should be grateful for their rescue, but never once was there a feeling of kinship.  Anyone describing pirates to be ‘thick as thieves’ had blatantly never encountered them before; those pirates were nothing but a band of cold-hearted bastards.  He would never dare repeat the things they did to him, but they were bad.  Very, very bad.<br/><br/>The noose thrown over his neck brought him back to the present.  His forest green eyes peered out over the pitiful amount of folks in attendance.  Really, the least they could do was<span style="font-style: italic">pretend</span>to be interested in his execution.  It was like half of the port couldn't be buggered to turn their heads for even a moment.  Some of them were still going about their business as usual.  A little crow landed on the platform in front of him, letting out an unkindly caw as its awful red eyes settled on each of the bandits he was chained to.  It was probably waiting around for their lifeless corpses to dangle underneath the platform so it could pick out their eyes as a trophy.  Disgusting creatures.<br/><br/>Jace tried to kick it away, but it hopped around his boot and glared up at him indignantly.  He kicked at it again, but his boot missed this time, striking the post in front of him, instead.  The crow again glared at him, but only for a moment, as the lamp light atop the post came free from the force of his kick and shattered on top of the bird, killing it.  Jace raised his brows.  He wasn’t expecting that.<br/><br/>He had little time to admire how his unlucky aura managed to affect another, as the executioner tapped the haft of his axe to the platform, alerting the prisoners it was time for last words.  The bandits remained largely silent, save for two.  One of them pronounced his love for each of his family members.  The other turned toward Jace and spat at his face with impressive aim, and he heard the bastard executioner stifle a laugh as it rolled thickly down his cheek.  Thank the Gods below this would be over soon.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/You insolent <span style="font-style: italic">worm</span>!/</span><br/><br/>The platform dropped below him, but instead of breaking his neck with the force of his fall into the rope, he fell… right into the dirt below.<br/><span style="color: #FF0000"><br/>/How <span style="font-style: italic">dare</span> you interfere with my choosing?!/</span><br/><br/>Jace stumbled in utter confusion as the same confusion rang out above him.  He could see the other bandits, hanging as they should be around him, but when he looked up, his noose was empty.  This enigma was not lost on the executioner, whose masked head appeared above, looking down at him in astonishment.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/What are you doing?!  You must leave this place, fly!/</span><br/><br/>Fly?  What in the twenty oceans-<br/><br/>“E’s a bird!” the executioner exclaimed, sounding uncertain with even himself as he scratched the back of his head.  Jace looked down.  Well, he wasn’t wrong.  Why, or how, he was not sure, but he was in fact a bird at that moment.  A big, black one to be precise.  He scrambled out of the dirt and started to run, which proved to be difficult on bird feet.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/Fool! Open your wings or so help me!/ </span><br/><br/>The gravelly, decidedly female voice hissed at him again.  He wanted to yell at it to shut up.  Why was there even a voice in his head to begin with?  He did as he was told, and when the wind caught him he was lifted into the sky.  As it turned out, flying wasn’t terribly difficult.  He flew until he lost sight of the gallows.  Could it be?  The very first stroke of pure luck in his entire life?<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/Idiot mortal.  I will see you punished for this.  Once I find a new body, you will be damned to an eternity of torture for this act of contemptuousness.  I will consume your corpse and you will not leave this plane until every last drop of blood has been savoured-/</span><br/><br/>He was really hoping for too much, he supposed.  He found a place to land just outside the city, a small island outpost which had been abandoned after the last time it was raided.  Human again, he fell on his bum in the sand, the waves tickling his toes as they rolled in lazily.<br/><br/>“Alright, voice in my head, who in the drowned abyss are you, and why was I a bird just now?” He figured he ought to begin with the most pressing questions.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/Are you mocking me?  I am the Morrigan, the chooser of the slain, and you—you are a dimwitted mortal for destroying my body, and once I have it back I will-!/</span><br/><br/>“Be tortured for an eternity and eaten by an army of savage crows,” Jace interjected.  Just his luck.  Of all the birds he could have accidentally killed, it had to be a goddess of death.  Well, this couldn’t be all that bad.  Evident enough by his strange manner of escape, he was somehow able to use her godlike powers.  This might be fun.