Journey of an Evil Henchman (1)

Benjamin Rekhmire sat alone in the back of a bar, trying very hard to be inconspicuous. At seventeen he was technically underage and it didn't help matters much that it was nearly two o'clock in the morning, but this hole in the wall wasn't the sort of place where people ask a lot of questions. It was the sort of place where people got routinely drunk. Another fight broke out while he watched but these combatants were soon thrown out, just as all the others had been. There weren't a lot of people left inside by that time. Eventually one of the few remaining patrons drained his mug, stood up, and made his way unsteadily back in the dimness to sit beside him.
    'Buy y'a pint, kid, if you tell me what you're doin' here,' he said.
    Benjamin could tell the man wasn't half as inebriated as he wanted to seem. Perfect.

EDIT:

    Benjamin Rekhmire sat alone in the back of a bar, trying very hard to be inconspicuous. At seventeen he was technically underage and it didn't help matters much that it was nearly two o'clock in the morning, but this hole in the wall wasn't the sort of place where people ask a lot of questions. It was the sort of place where people got routinely drunk. Another fight broke out while he watched but these combatants were soon thrown out, just as all the others had been. There weren't a lot of people left inside by then. Eventually one of the few remaining patrons drained his mug, stood up, and made his way back in the dimness to sit beside Ben.

     'Buy y'a pint, kid, if you tell me what you're doing here,' he said.

     Benjamin could tell the man was a trained assassin, or at least a thug, by his constant alertness. The man must also have the constitution of an ox; he'd been drinking all night, but showed absolutely no sign of it. Ben would have to be cautious.

The Evil Henchman

    The Evil Henchman's Guide. Ever heard of it? No, probably not. Follow the link and read it. I promise you'll laugh, though maybe not out loud; we can't have everything. But yeah, it's pretty much awesome.
    My brother The Hermit introduced me to it, and then this week I was reading it over again and... I had a thought! (Another one? My god!) So I talked to my friend Adelle about it and she helped me flesh it out a BUNCH. Here it is (though it has most likely been done before);
    Write a story about an evil henchman who is smart and makes the right choices. He would work for a string of evil overlords and end up actually doing almost everything in the guide.

Here's the henchman's basic back-story, from his perspective (and I apologize for the quality, but it is just a rough draft):
    "My mother's name was Miriam, my father's Alsechtarith. We lived in a mud hut for the first few years of my life, and I like to think we were happy together. Then my mother died and my father reverted to his former brutal ways. He soon set out, with me in tow, to resume his life of crime. Father was a gunman and all-around thug for whomever paid the most so we moved around quite a lot, and I was exposed to more than my fair share of violence, mayhem and the like. By the age of eight I could reassemble a pistol blindfolded.
    "So I doubt it will greatly shock anyone to learn that when my beloved father was beheaded by a rival gang I immediately stole his equipment (even the clothes on his back and especially his boots; far more comfortable than mine, and, unlike mine, waterproof) and set off without a backwards glance on his ancient motorcycle for parts unknown. Having no experience at anything else, I began advertising my services as a 'gun for hire.'"

    His name is Benjamin Rekhmire; half Egyptian (or actually his world's equivalent), half... just about everything else. The world he inhabits is vast and mainly unmapped, and though parts of it are just as technologically advanced as we are today, there are still many untainted areas, where kings rule and the sword is the law (or something).
    More next time!

A story by correspondance

My cousin and I have been pen pals for a few years now, and recently she had a wonderful idea; to write a story together through the mail. Not many people still write letters regularly anymore, but I love it. It is so much fun to send off a letter and then, a few days or a month later, be surprised to find a reply in the mailbox. To open a letter and read it, what could be more exciting? So anyway, I immediately latched onto this idea. I hope that the story will make us write back and forth more often. I think even if the letters are shorter it would be compensated for by frequency.
We batted some ideas around at our last sleepover; plot, main characters, writing style, you know the kind of thing. I mentioned steampunk, but we dismissed that because neither of us know enough about it. I mentioned time travelers, so that we wouldn't have to pick a specific time period, and I'm afraid I got rather stuck on that concept.
The day before yesterday I got a letter from her.

Gentlemen,

the GAME

IS ON!