The plague?

"What have I seen today?" Alex mumbled to himself while holding a feather in his hand.

Earlier today, when the carriage just left Olep, he asked the crew if there was any way to record the trip, he'd seen paper in this world after all, and the crew happily gave him this extremely long parchment made of thin writing paper that was the closest thing to a notebook one could find in this place. They asked him if they could do it in his stead but Alex refused so they instead gave him writing feathers and ink. Although the paper was a bit rough, the ink too runny and the feather rather uncomfortable to hold, they did the job.

He then wrote down in English the places they have passed through today. So, many, mountains...

Alex never thought he'd one day grow sick of seeing mountains but today he has seen the biggest variety of mountains; Extremely tall mountains, extremely wide mountain ranges, barren mountains, lush mountains, mountain tundras….you name it, he's seen it, and he wouldn't be surprised if they saw a mesa next. He never felt so excited at the thought of seeing flat land as now, so when he saw a small grassy plain, located between....two mountains, Alex ran off from the carriage and started running from the end of the plain to the other, it was to 'exercise', mind you, not to replicate scenes he saw in his childhood cartoons and anime.

Alex complained about the mountains a bit too much but he had to admit that he could get used to the sight of the sun setting on the mountains, a landscape B*b R*ss would have definitely painted.

The peaceful trip continued as such, other than the occasional bandits that the mercenaries on the crew beat up, and the carriage plowed through mountains, hills, plains and small farming towns and stopped when the moon became the only major source of light.

At twilight, when the rest of the crew was snoring, Alex snuck out and laid down, looking at the ever revolving night sky. This mundane activity became a habit of his, naming the stars and constellations he knew and giving names to the others. Tonight, there was one ball of light much brighter than the others, perhaps it was the planet Venus.

The population here must have already devised the locations of planets and some of their basic properties, after all, the ancient Greeks were renowned for their astronomical knowledge.

After a bout of homesickness, Alex closed his eyes and tried to sleep, the bed upstairs wasn't very comfortable so he preferred sleeping under the stars.

He tried to sleep, however, a distant but sharp noise rang out in his ears and cut through his attempts to sleep. He stood up, analyzing the tone of the noise.....It sounded like rushing water in his opinion. Alex followed the direction of the sound and, after walking through a valley and hiking up for a bit, he found the source of water. It was a small lake with a picturesque waterfall.

There were a lot of things Alex wanted to photograph in this world, but he's have to contend with taking pictures with his eyes, unfortunately.

He dipped his hand in the water, it wasn't very cold.

Alex wanted to take a nighttime swim in the clear waters. He removed his clothing and plunged his whole body in the water. It felt refreshing.

It seemed like the waterfall brings over sediment since the ground was rocky and the depth varied according to distance from the waterfall and directly under it was a deep plunge, although how deep it was didn't really intrigue him too much, as he was afraid of deep waters in his past life.

The waterfall wasn't too tall and it formed a sitting platform on the rocky cliff so Alex sat down directly under the current of the waterfall. The speedy water applied high pressures evenly over his body, relieving any tension he might have had from the time he spent sitting inside the carriage.

'I really like this feeling a lot...I should ask Hermes if I can build an artificial waterfall in the bathhouse back at his place' Alex thought to himself. He wasn't too worried about wasting freshwater. This was Antiquity and water scarcity and stress weren't really a thing, especially in Olympus where water resources were plentiful.

After finishing his now routinely relaxation water therapy, Alex left the lake and dried his body then wore his clothes and got ready to go back, if, he didn't suddenly hear the sound of running.

A woman, wearing plain clothing, was running while holding something in her hand and screaming for help, it seemed like she tripped on a stone and fell. Alex ran up to her and at second glance, she was holding a baby and even as she fell and hurt herself, she didn't let the baby get hurt one bit.

'She must really love her baby' Alex wanted to help her because she seems to have injured herself while falling, and her love for her baby reminded him of his mother.

He approached the woman and helped her up, the woman stood up then looked at him and stepped back with her baby in hand, glaring at him with cautious eyes. Alex couldn't really blame her.

"Don't come any clos-*Cough* *Cough*" The woman told him but her words were interrupted by dry coughing and it kept getting worse and worse, as she tried to stop her throat she looked like she was choking and her coughs only stopped when she collapsed, although fortunately Alex ran up to her and held both her and her baby.

'She needs a doctor' thought Alex. If his memory serves him right, there was a doctor on board of his carriage. Alex put the woman on his hand and held her sleeping baby gently in his hand and ran towards the direction of the carriage. By the time he reached the carriage, he opened the door and was going to try waking up the doctor gently but the baby's loud cries seemed to have done the job as the crew woke up, looking groggy and scanning their surroundings.

Alex didn't have any time to feel bad for them as there was a person in need of medical aid so he ran upstairs, laid down the woman and her baby on the bed and went down and brought the confused doctor with him and informed him of her state. The doctor examined her and proceeded to give him his diagnosis "She has light sickness and a severe lack of oxygen. If she rests tonight and eats well tomorrow she will be alright"

Alex sighed in relief, and as if they understood the doctor's words, the baby smiled and chuckled. It looked happy to be near its mother. Alex thanked the doctor and gave him a few gold coins, which the latter accepted, thanked him and went back to sleep with the rest of the crew.

The carriage was now silent again, and Alex started speculating on the reasons the woman was running with her baby, her sickness and her severe lack of oxygen. Answers for those questions would have to wait for tomorrow.

Alex then slept under the stars, as he originally intended, and woke up at dawn, as usual. The rest of the crew woke up too and the chef prepared breakfast, which was a bit lackluster but filled up his stomach, at the very least. The woman upstairs woke up too, and she relaxed when she saw she was in safety and there was food next to her, although she didn't look ready to talk yet.

The carriage then resumed its ride peacefully.

However, something strange appeared in Alex's sight after a bit. There was very faint smog in the air, and it looked like the others could not see it, but Alex could distinguish the yellow suspicious-looking smog with his enhanced eyesight. It didn't seem to be anything bad so he ignored it.

A few minutes later though, the smog started getting thicker and all of the crew started coughing, just like the woman he saved last night. Alex told the driver to stop the carriage and went upstairs to interrogate the woman, who maybe knew something about this.

She looked to be in a better state then yesterday but she was still coughing. Alex waited for her coughs to stop, gave her a cup of water and asked her.

"Would you perhaps know something about why the crew is getting sick?"

"It's the plague! It killed Atreksos and now it will kill even innocent travelers!" The woman was speaking anxiously and in a fearful tone. When she calmed down, she looked at him and spoke "A few days ago, a sickness started spreading in my village and the surrounding farmland. It didn't spread through people, but it was in the air around us, EVERYWHERE! I-I e-escaped with my baby from the village yesterday!" The woman spoke as she caressed her baby's face, the latter chuckling and unaware of her distress.

Alex comforted the woman and connected the dots in his mind. The smog in the air, the sickness and the woman running from her village. They were all related.

He left the carriage and asked the driver where Atreksos was, and the latter stated that it was a dozen kilometers east of here. Alex admired the mother a lot, running a dozen kilometers in one night to save her child, she was a good person and a good mother. He then told the driver to go back in the opposite direction where the smog was thinner and wait for him there.

He used the excuse of washing himself but in actuality he was going to go to the village of Atreksos to investigate this disturbance. Alex ran as fast as he could and was able to see buildings in the distance after 5 minutes. The village located in a plateau surrounded by farmland looked beautiful but that was the last thing on Alex's mind right now.

He entered the inconspicuous village and was greeted with a horrible sight. The people had dull eyes and were very pale as they walked aimlessly and coughed terribly. The markets were empty and the produce on display had gone spoiled. The village hospital was full and people were laying on the solid ground, awaiting for their demise and the crematory and graveyard had unburied bodies and ash splattered everywhere.

Alex was incredibly traumatized by the scene straight out of a horror movie and felt weak and powerless that he could not help the citizens as he didn't have any medical skills whatsoever. He tried asking one of the healthier-looking locals about the sickness and he gave him interesting information. The sickness seemed to affect the people living on the north side of the village more severely, and in fact, the smog Alex could perceive north was much thicker than the one found here.

Maybe he can't help the villagers directly, but Alex will investigate the source of this smog and see if there is ANYTHING he can help them with....

Alex looked at the distant mountain north, where the smog looked so thick it obscured sight.

He was going to get to the end of this.