"What! Fifty shekels?!" cried Aeneas, incredulous. In his mind, he tried to convert between Phoenician shekels and Trojan drachmas, only to shake his head in frustration. Unlike yours truly, Aeneas had never been much of a math (or physics) person. "No, no that can't be right," he said, "He has to be worth more than that! Are you nuts?"

The Trojan prince had been invited to a feast at Dido's castle later that evening, and wanting to make a good impression on the nutty queen, desired to buy a shiny new helmet to wear at the dinner. It had not occurred to him that wearing a helmet to dinner would actually make him look REALLY weird, but then again, Aeneas was a lot more absent minded than your average great warrior. Being broke at the moment, Aeneas had decided to sell his pack mule, Achates.

"Oh, come on, look at his fur! It's such a mess!" exclaimed the prospective customer, "He must be what, like fifty years old by now? Also, look at how worn out his hooves are. What exactly did you have this poor beast carrying? Stones up the Great Pyramid? I will pay up to fifty shekels for him, and not a shekel more!"

"I must say," interrupted Brian, "He does have a point about the fur. I doubt this old pack mule would rank very high on the nymph scale of beauty."

"Oh for goodness sake!" shouted Aeneas, "You're not helping, Brian." Aeneas had originally taken with him three of his best Trojan warriors to accompany him to the flea market - Brian, Jake, and brave Serestus, but Jake had somehow gotten lost in the large crowd, and Aeneas could only hope he would manage to make his way back to camp.

"Hey brave Serestus, what do you think?" asked Aeneas, "Should I sell him for fifty?"

"Your call," replied brave Serestus, "But it could work out. The helmet costs eighty shekels, so if you sold Achates for fifty, and then sold what remains of Acestes's wine for thirty, you could afford it."

"Hmmm," thought Aeneas to himself. The mule had been a gift from his fairy godmother, Elsa, when he was 13. It had been an amazing help to him, able to carry the heaviest loads while living on a minimum of hay. It was tough parting with it, but he really did want to impress Dido.

"Alright," he said at last, wiping away a tear, "I'll give him to you for fifty."

"Deal," said the customer, a middle aged Phoenician man wearing a pair of pink crocs and a wool tie over his leather business suit. He handed Aeneas a yellow plastic bucket filled with coins, grabbed Achates's harness, and led him off into the sunset.

"Well," said Brian, "Are you going to count the coins to make sure there are fifty?" Brian had always been a very practical and down to Earth person. In all honesty, he probably should have been Priam's royal advisor instead of a warrior, although he was pretty good at wielding his frying pan as well, having been taught how to fight with it by his mother, the goddess Rapunzel.

Aeneas, somewhat shocked, only shook his head no, too tired and sad to count through all the money. "Do you think he'll treat Achates well?" he asked at last.

"Well, he had a negative ranking on the nymph scale of beauty," replied Brian.

"Dude," said brave Serestus, "That doesn't even answer his question. I'd say yeah, he seemed like a pretty good guy. Don't worry about it. Oh, hey, look, there's Jake!"

Aeneas turned around, only to see a figure that looked like Jake sitting on a bench eating a snow cone. "Could be…" said Aeneas, "Are you sure? I left my contacts on the ship and can't see too well."

"Well, I guess there's only one way to find out," said brave Serestus, beginning to walk across the market toward the figure.

Aeneas sighed, before getting up and following. "Come on, Brian," he said, "Let's go before we lose him too.