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I was awoken by Odysseus this morning.

Feeling myself shaken, I opened my eyes to find the General's face close to mine. -He had a wide grin, and particularly funky breath.

"We've spotted land, Eurylochus!"

Dressing quickly, I followed Odysseus out to join Baius and a few soldiers at the bow.

It was true; in the predawn light I could distinctly see the dark outline of hills on the horizon.

Moments later, the sun broke behind us and bathed us in a fiery light. -It kind of gave me a tingly feeling.

I suppose Odysseus felt it to, because he raised his arms and beamed: "Helios smiles upon us, my boys!” -This brought a crisp cheer from the few soldiers present.

After basking in the moment, Odysseus, Baius and I shared an early breakfast.

As we ate, we talked about our raid and how we might approach the beachhead. -We are going to land at night, just out of sight of the city. Baius figures we are about a day south of Ismara, but I have no idea how.

Elpenor and Polites walked up before we finished.

It's very odd. Those two have never gotten along at all. -To be honest, seeing Polites with Elpenor disturbed me more than his crying fit did.

Of course, Polites just ignored me.

Anyway, our breakfast was concluded by another fortunate event. One of our missing ships has returned.

It wasn't the barge, and it wasn't Achaemenides' ship. However, I think the appearance of this vessel gave new hope the remaining two might not be lost. -Not to mention that nearly 200 of our men haven't drowned.

Odysseus and I spent much of the afternoon on this ship called the Sea Dragon.

The boat's captain is a wiry lieutenant named Mnestheus. I've met Mnestheus many times before, but don't really know much about him.

In fact, I’m pretty sure he's Samian. At least he hangs out with the Samians that are with us. -They're a clicky bunch.

Mnestheus told us he hadn't seen Achaemenides' ship or the Milesian barge. His crew did see what they thought was a mast-light last night, but lost it soon after. -As it was far to the east, he doesn't think it was us.

Knowing we were headed for Ismara, Mnestheus said he hoped to find us there. He loudly announced he was glad they hadn't missed the fight, and his crew cheered on cue. -This pleased Odysseus immensely.

In fact, the General was in high spirits for the rest of the day.

As Odysseus likes to micromanage when he's in a good mood, we spent the remainder of the day going from ship to ship on the Lil' Tethys. -I took a ridiculous amount of notes that I'll never use.

Antiphus is a funny guy. He did a great job of entertaining the General as he ferried us about the fleet.

I can't remember how it went, but Antiphus told us this hilarious joke about Aphrodite and Hermes. It was something about how Ares was so impressed with how fast his sons Phobos and Deimos were.

Damn, I can never remember a good joke.

Anyway, I guess we could be raiding the Ciconians as soon as tomorrow night.

Oddly, I don't feel nervous at all.

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