να′

Another day of battle.

Early this morning, the fighting began just as the day before. -Small skirmishes sporadically broke out along the line of our two armies, without a unified engagement every taking place.

By noon, these small clashes had further diminished into melees of not more than a dozen men from each army.

These scuffles were almost ceremonial in nature.

Most often, either a Trojan or Achaean commander would lead several of his best men out in between the two armies, and issue a challenge to the other side.

Sometimes the challenges were general, sometimes they were specific.

In response, a commander from the opposing line would gather a similar number of his own men and advance to battle in no-man’s-land.

The larger armies in proximity to these fights would shout in support of their respective comrades, however, they wouldn't otherwise get involved.

Late in the afternoon, Odysseus dragged me out with him to begin one of these fights. -Coincidently, Agamemnon was riding by when Odysseus became so motivated.

At that moment, it just so happened that I was taking a report from Odysseus’ goat-hand, Achaemenides. The poor sap got pulled into the scuffle too. As Achaemenides had just come from our camp, he had no weapon and wasn’t wearing any armor. -Some guy tossed him a spear after we got out there.

Anyway, some Ciconians answered our call. –The Ciconians have had a beef with Odysseus ever since we raided one of their settlements early in the war.

Our fight was quick.

Odysseus set the tone by killing two of their guys right off. I managed to stick a guy in the leg, but he smashed his shield in my face and knocked me down. By the time I got to my feet, he was gone.

Surprisingly, Achaemenides did more than hold his own. He broke his spear in one Ciconian’s back, then without pause, clubbed another down with the shaft that remained. He did so right in front of Odysseus. -I could see the General was impressed. It’s kind of sick, but I felt a bit jealous.

Anyway, the Ciconians didn’t fair well. We lost two guys. They lost seven. After about two minutes of fighting, they retreated back to their line.

Odysseus walked back to our army with his arm on Achaemenides’ shoulder. Agamemnon personally congratulated them both. Achaemenides was so overwhelmed he threw up at the Commander-in-Chief’s feet.

Fortunately, that made Achaemenides even more endearing to Odysseus and Agamemnon. The Commander-in-Chief began to invite Achaemenides to dinner, but caught himself and said: “Maybe that’s not such a good idea!”

Laughing heartily, Agamemnon continued off down our line.

These small battles continued until the sun set.

Today was kind of surreal. Although our armies were slowly killing each other throughout the day, we somehow adopted an unspoken agreement that was almost cordial.

Like the two nights before, we are again sleeping on the Trojan plain.

An update: Achaemenides just stopped by and finished giving me his report.

Apparently, Dolon is nowhere to be found. Achaemenides also added that the lamp his grandmother gave him has gone missing.

Just in case I couldn’t connect the dots, Achaemenides once again suggested foul play.