Born as a result of a wild night turned love-fest, Benjamin came into the world on a snowy February night in a small traveling cart owned by a man and his adopted daughters.
Blessed upon the little family, with his 'Pop-pop Cook' and 'Auntie Makkie', Benji was a mischievous but beloved gift from On High, and the apple of his camp's eye. Running his mother and auntie ragged in between listening eagerly at his Pop-pop's knee.
Even before he could shift, Benji had a passion for things that didn't belong to himself, and quickly descended into the world of thievery, using his inherent cuteness to distract and redirect target's attentions. Following his shift, his sticky-fingered routine only flourished.
The happiness of his family was not to last, and an infamous loan shark known only to them as 'The Reaver' began to hunt them down to recoup debts they couldn't pay. To keep her innocent son safe, Maddy dropped him off with his formerly unknown, estranged father in Del Cenere believing that their numbers would protect her boy.
Immediately Benjamin took a dislike to the coyote clan and to his father. Disgusted with the tired-eyed, beat-down drunk that had sired him, he went out of his way to avoid the man, and stuck closely to his cousin Pontifex and his Aunt Helena. The former who put him up in her home, so he wouldn't have to live under the same roof as John, and the latter agreeing early on to teach him her skills at dice and cards. From the two women he learned a certain refinement that had previously only been a whisper in his mind.
Seeking connection outside of his disappointment, he made fast friends with a hard-headed young girl named Hokori, a daughter of one of his father's friends. Friendship fast flourished into young love, and he looked forwards to her exciting, often edging on violent, visits with ever increasing fervor.
Finally, as he steps into his second year of life, Benjamin is tired of Del Cenere, tired of his father's attitude and of waiting for Hokori to come to him, and abandons the Gang to go to her.