Ben (Benedicto) Camino is the son of Alfonso and Magdalena Camino who live on the outskirts of Linnom. The family are trappers and fur traders hunting and trapping in the lands around Linnom as well as buying furs and skins from itinerant trappers and traders.
The family business was steady and they had a reasonable standard of living selling goods to local traders as well as supplying businesses in Selbern and Mellinara and occasionally attending larger markets and festivals in Tamish.
Young Ben spent his formative years with Domino Pellano, Hacienda and Harold Smithson on the edge of a group of older boys lead by Cullo Manil who the youngsters idolised and were convinced they were his personal guard and confidantes, whereas in reality they were affectionately tolerated by the older boys.
As the boys grew older they drifted apart as they developed their own ideas and plans, but a few years later Hacienda, Harold and Ben, now Stoney, were reunited as they and others decided to seek fame and fortune in the world beyond Linnom.
Part of the reason for drifting apart was that Ben spent a lot of time with his Father tending and setting their traps and hunting larger animals. He loved his time in the forests and wilderness studying the flora and fauna, marvelling at the wild life and it was here that he felt truly free.
It was on one of these hunting trips that they had some dealings with the local druids glade and whilst his father tended to business matters young Ben talked to the druids feeling an immediate empathy with their beliefs, lifestyle choices and use of acorns.
He started to spend more and more time at the glade and, as is the way with many teenagers, he took the views and ideas far too seriously and became a bit of a radical. This resulted in him falling out with his family because of, as Ben perceived it, their cruel and pointless slaughter of the beautiful animals. He moved to the glade full time eventually being inducted into the Druidic order and taking his Druidic name of Stoney Tangawizi.
Under the calming influence of the older druids and acorn tea Stoney became reconciled with his family realising that the animals were merely another crop that, when harvested responsibly, was unaffected by the hunting and trapping and his Fathers hunting methods were not cruel.
By this time Cullo Manil had become Alfonso's right hand man and was being trained to take over the hunting and trapping business. Stoney realised that there was not really a reason to stay in Linnom and there was a whole world to travel and see. As he had been coming to town more he had become reacquainted with his childhood friends who felt the same way.
So one clear morning he bade an emotional farewell to his parents, strapped his sandals firmly, shouldered his acorn supplies, met his friends and........................