The Life and Adventures of Benjamin Finn

Page 4

Chapter 2. In which the author sees the real world for the first time.

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What little gold I had saved in my youth had gone in the quick succession of funerals described in the previous chapter, not to mention paying off the gambling and business debts of those now in the ground.

And so it was that I left my so called home as penniless as I had entered it seventeen years previously.

Unable to embark on my career as an explorer, I found myself gravitating towards the main cities and doing a variety of jobs. I stocked books at the Brightwall Library, absorbing as much knowledge about the world from those precious pages as I could. I served drinks at the Cow and Corset in Bowerstone (once I'd established that my comedy routines were getting me nowhere among the ever slightly more sophisticated urban rabble) and eventually managed to put my shooting skills to proper employ as one of the many bodyguards who protect traders as they go from town to town.

At last I held a real rifle in my hands, and using it against the bandits, hobbes, and other undesirables who the trading caravans attracted, felt as natural as breathing.

Not only that, the wages were so superior to any I had earned before, I'd soon put away enough gold to make my dream come true. I loaded myself with provisions, weapons and a good set of leather boots, and set out to experience the sort of adventures I'd read about since so young an age, exploring every corner of Albion as I did so.