He hated this season. Absolutely hated it. Being a homeless beggar was degrading enough as it is, but the rest of the year he could at-least comfort himself with the fact that people's generosity would save him from starvation. But the early December weather changed everything. Had it been snowing the few people that had to venture outside might have mustered up enough sympathy to stop and give him some extra cash or the occasional hot meal. But as it was the few people that noticed him through the cold fog would rush uncaring on by as quickly as possible to get back to their warm homes.

The hunger drove him up on his feet. Going around hassling people for money was usually something that the little sense of dignity he had left kept him from doing, but the hunger pangs where screaming at him to do something! That’s when he saw her, the old bird lady, sitting as usual feeding the stray pigeons from a big loaf of bread. Under normal circumstances he would have found a certain joy in this display of kindness, but these were not normal circumstances. “How dear she” he thought to himself, “sit there and waste perfectly good food on those fat, spoiled birds when actual people are starving!”

Almost mechanically, driven by his hunger, he rushed up to the old woman, snatched the bread out of her weak, cold hands and ran off as quickly as his undernourished feet could take him. When he finally slowed down he had a moment to regret what he had just done before a tortured scream from his starving stomach persuaded him to finally dig into his loot.

Unbeknownst to him the bird lady was not just any old crone. In fact she had more than just a little proficiency in the dark arts of ancient magic, and at this moment she was trying to figure out a fitting punishment for the insolent thief. “Now who would steal all the bird feed for himself” she thought, “but one who really is nothing more than a big, fat, over-stuffed pigeon!” And, as soon as he had swallowed the last mouthful of bread, that was exactly what the thief found himself as.

But at least he wasn't hungry anymore.