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I decided on a fancy belt for Priam’s birthday present.

At first I considered sending a meal cooked by Epeius, but Polites suggested it wouldn’t be fresh by the time it was delivered. He said even if it was, Priam would probably suspect poisoning and just toss it out anyway.

Polites thought a sword would be great, but that seemed too typical. The last thing I want is Odysseus to present Priam with his fifth birthday sword. -I decided against a shield for the same reason.

I thought some wine might be nice, but all of our wine is Trojan.

It was Elpenor who suggested the belt.

I had never noticed, but Elpenor told me that Epieus is somewhat of a belt connoisseur. -He says it’s all about the buckle.

This afternoon, Elpenor took me over to Epieus’ tent to have a look at his collection. -I was very impressed.

Epeius must have more than thirty belts. Unfortunately, he kept referring to them as his “little soldiers”. –To be honest, the way Epieus talked about his belts kind of freaked me out.

Anyway, I told Epieus about Priam’s gift, and he immediately insisted: “Yes! You simply must give the King of Troy a fine belt!”

However, when I inquired about one of his little soldiers, Epeius quickly changed his tune.

Luckily, I could draw on Elpenor’s loyalty to Odysseus to recruit his help.

It took a lot of persuasion, but we finally talked Epieus into selling one of his belts. It's pretty neat. It is composed of two bronze centaurs apparently clashing against one another in battle. -You link their bows to clasp the buckle.

I am sure I paid Epieus twice its value. Still, he seemed pretty pissed at Elpenor about it.

After acquiring the belt, I stopped by Odysseus’ tent to drop it off.

The General called me inside, but he didn’t get up to greet me. Actually, he was kneeling on the floor with some guy who was wearing white robes. Odysseus and this guy were facing each other and clasping their hands above their heads. The guy was humming loudly. I don’t think they were praying. -I’m not sure what they were doing.

Anyway, I told Odysseus that I had brought the belt. Without turning towards me, he told me to toss it on the bed.

On the way back to my tent, I ran into Achaemenides.

Looking very grave, he stopped me and whispered: “I think Dolon is a Trojan. Captain Eurylochus, I think the Trojans have Hermes!”

I nodded, doing my best to look serious, and then told him to look into it.

I spent the rest of the day watching crab races. Apparently, betting on sand crabs is all the rage about camp right now. -One guy’s crab was named “Mighty Menelaus”.