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I’m too exhausted to sleep.

While I was eating lunch today, Odysseus strolled up and informed me that he wants to leave tomorrow.

I have no idea why he couldn’t have told me yesterday. Most likely, it’s because he just decided upon it this morning.

Anyway, the General’s decision made for a very long day.

After confirming that Odysseus wasn’t joking, I tossed my lunch aside and immediately got to work.

Actually, I tossed my lunch into the fire in front of Odysseus, but I don’t think he picked up on my pathetic statement. -He just smiled and walked off.

The first thing I did was to find Macar.

To my surprise, Macar was down at the beach, rigging one of our ships with Baius. -Apparently, they started preparing the ship immediately after I informed them of the journey two days ago.

Those guys are incredible.

I sincerely thanked the two of them for their forethought. However, Macar is my best supply officer, and I had no choice but to reassign him to supply duty. -Soon after, I sent orders to Elpenor to help Biaus finish the rigging.

Unfortunately, I think Elpenor now wrongly assumes he is going on the trip. -I didn’t really have the time to clarify it with him.

After preparing a list of necessary supplies with Macar, I then assembled the troops on the roster.

Considering as much time I spent preparing the list with Macar, I should have just asked Polites to ready the troops for me.

Sometimes I am too hesitant to dole out responsibility. -In fact, I waste a lot of time that way.

After assembling the troops, I came to this realization, and handed off the job to Polites. -He was more than happy to take over.

Polites has a great rapport with the men. However, once he assumes authority, they quickly fall into line behind him. Polites might be a goof-off at times, but he has the rare ability of being both friend and officer to our soldiers.

Anyway, once Polites had a taken over, I was able to get back to supplying the ship.

As we hadn't sailed in some time, I also had to find the relevant maps Odysseus would need.

Unfortunately, finding these maps proved unnecessarily difficult. -Unbeknownst to me, Odysseus lent about half of our maps to Nestor about three years ago.

Luckily, Polites had remembered delivering them. Otherwise, I would have never had known where they had gone. To make matters worse, Nestor had subsequently given them to some Cretan guy who he was paying to write his biography. -It took me nearly three hours to get our maps back in order.

Finally, just before nightfall, one of Diomedes captains came by to report that Diomedes and six of his men would be going as well. -Cracking a smile, this guy then informed me that Odysseus had offered to provide their supplies.

I didn’t want to take his word for it, but I also didn’t want to appear as pissed off and surprised as I was. Therefore, I just nodded as if I had expecting it all along, and told him I would see to it.

I then went to give Macar the good news.

It’s now well past midnight, and I just got back to my tent.

I was just down at the beach, where Baius and Elpenor were still working on the ship. -They had assembled sort of 'cabin tent' on the deck for Odysseus earlier in the day, but had to rearrange the setup after learning Diomedes would be going too.

Elpenor was working so hard, I am starting to think I should just let him go. -Still, he gets so lame when Odysseus is around.

I worry the men will be either too hard on him, or that he will dangerously annoy Odysseus in his overzealous quest to please.

If I were going, it might be a different situation. However, I worry what might happen to Elpenor if I am not there to look after him.

I'll decide tomorrow.