Aeneas's Greed

by AR

Why are raccoons selfish and greedy thieves? Before there were small animals in the world, predators only ate plants and other animals of their kind. No big animals were hunting for weak prey. Once there was a handsome young man named Aeneas. Aeneas was on his way back to Greece after eight months of trading along The Silk Road. He had collected lots of goods, including silk, wheat, wine, grapes, dye, cheese, salt, copper, and many more wonderful things. He had one more stop until he would get back to Greece, where his wife lived with their two children. 

Aeneas was not usually the type of person to be selfish and greedy. He was a nice guy and had lots of friends back home. 

“We are almost at the last stop!” Leonidas, the leader of the group, announced. The caravan stopped at a large fenced in a building made of big grey stones. There were sections for the merchants to put their camels for the night so that they could rest. There was a room that was filled with small cots for all the men to sleep on. 

“Aeneas!” Leonidas shouted. “Pass the message back to the others!” Aeneas halted to a stop and went down the line, all the way back to the man who could barely sit up straight from exhaustion.  Aeneas propped up the young man and told him the message.

They were with two other caravans there. Both were groups of about ten, and most of them were Romans. Then, something caught Aeneas’ eye. 

It was a bag full of shiny gold coins. The sunlight hitting each one blinded him. They were so beautiful, and he knew they were worth a fortune. He met all of the merchants in both groups so he wouldn’t look suspicious. Although, he was only interested in the man who had the valuable gold coins. His name was Adonis. Adonis’ bag was filled with other valuables, but all Aeneas wanted was the coins. He tried to trade for them, but Adonis wouldn’t budge. Aeneas had tried everything in his bag. Even the beautiful silk that he had no intention of attempting to trade, for it was highly requested in Greece.  After every time that Adonis politely said no, Aeneas grew angrier and angrier. 

Eventually, Aeneas had reached the bottom of his bag. 

“Will you trade ten of your coins for all of these olives and this much silk,” he said proudly, showing Adonis the goods. He said no again. It seemed that Adonis knew how much the coins were worth as well. That whole day as they traded, Aeneas’ mind was filled with all of his strategies and plans to take the priceless gold. His selfishness and greed had completely taken over him. 

Later that night, when everyone was asleep, Aeneas crept out of the room, went outside in the enclosed area, and got his camel unhooked, being as quiet as he could. Then he crept over to Adonis’ bag, which was by his side, and carefully took it. Aeneas tiptoed away, got his bag and all of the goods contained in it, jumped on his camel, and he was off. He went slowly and quietly so no one would hear his camels hooves until he was far enough away from the shelter that it was just a small structure off in the distance. Aeneas knew traveling by himself was a bad move, for there were bandits and thieves everywhere along the silk road, trying to take all of the treasures that the helpless merchants' bags contained. But, his greed got the best of him. 

Hermes, the god of merchants, travelers, thieves, and orators, was watching down on Aeneas. As he watched him ride away, not feeling the least bit empathetic for Adonis, Hermes knew that Aeneas was greedy and selfish. So, he pointed his finger at him and gave him a zap. Aeneas felt it, and then he started to feel funny. He felt like he was shrinking, but he just thought he was hallucinating from dehydration. But then dark circles formed all around his eyes and made him look like he hadn’t slept in months. He felt something start to pop out of his skin and soon realized that it was dark grey fur! It coated more and more of his body by the second. Then, more weird things kept happening. A long striped tail popped out of his lower back. Silky whiskers have grown out of his face. Pointy ears formed on his head. Little hands replaced his normal ones. He wasn’t himself. Not anymore. 

Aeneas was soon completely coated in thick, matted fur and was the size of a giant rat. Aeneas looked into one of his stolen, stowaway coins reflection and was astonished and terrified to realize that he had been turned into a small animal. He didn’t know which kind. He sat there for days waiting for help from passing merchants. At last, a caravan passed and noticed all of the exotic goods lying on the ground with a raccoon sitting on top. They shooed Aeneas away from all his foreign treasures and picked through all of it, taking everything, including his shiny, beautiful gold coins. Aeneas was left stranded in the desert. No food. No water. No gold coins. Now, all raccoons have evolved from him. Today, the gods still look down from the top of Mt. Olympus and chuckle when they see a raccoon stealing food from a garbage can.