"Instead of just lying there and staring at the ceiling, you could help me with something."
Ornstein sighed and pulled himself up from the bed. He would have preferred to do nothing this day. Just lying there and staring at the ceiling felt like the right thing to do. But he knew that Smough wouldn't stop bothering him until he would give in and partake in whatever activity the executioner had planned.
"What do you need help with?", Ornstein asked. Once again he had dressed into one of Smough's tunics and didn't even bother to put on some pants, it was long enough anyway.
"You will see once we got there, but first put on some pants.", Smough demanded. "You really need to stop to steal my clothes. I sometimes feel like I hardly have anything left."
"Fine.", Ornstein grumbled and searched for some suitable pants in his pile of clothes. After he had put them on, he searched out some of Smough's clothes from the pile. "I don't wear them at the moment, you can have them back.", he said.
"That's not how this works, Ornstein. You are lucky that you look so cute wearing my clothes. Let us talk about this later. Just follow me.", Smough said and led the way.
Ornstein followed him, now getting curious what Smough needed his help with. He hoped that it wasn't just another room needed to be cleaned. After they had been walking through the cathedral for several minutes, Smough opened the door to a very sunny room. Ornstein entered after his boyfriend and nearly got overwhelmed by a beautiful smell.
"What is this place? It smells so good.", Ornstein said and took a look around. The room had barely any furniture, only some shelves were standing around. Most of the walls of the room were plastered with large windows which were letting the sun beams in. He could spot some potted plants on the shelves, mostly standing in the sunlight.
"This is my herbal garden.", Smough said. "I arranged this room to make sure that the plants are feeling comfortable. I wanted you to help me take care of them." Smough picked up a small watering can from one of the shelves and gave it to Ornstein: "Would you water the basil for me?"
Ornstein took the watering can and glanced around: "Which one is that, Smough?"
"This one.", Smough said and pointed at a plant with large green leafs. "Just make sure to keep the soil in the pot wet, don't drown the plant." Smough picked up a second watering can and attempted to took care of some of the other plants.
Ornstein watered the basil like told and then just kept standing there, taking in the smell of the plant. Smough noticed that he was finished and came over to him: "Why are you just standing there with your nose in the plant?"
"It smells so good.", Ornstein said. "Do you want me to do another thing?"
"Yes, the cress is ready for harvesting." The executioner pulled out some scissors and gave them to Ornstein. " He pointed to a pot with a lot of plants with tiny leafs and a long stem. "Just cut off the tips, we then let them dry in the sun and later can put them into the seasoning bottle."
While Ornstein was busy carefully cutting off the tips of the cress, he asked: "How long did you have this herbal garden already?"
"I have been growing my own herbs since I arrived in Anor Londo.", Smough answered. "Although, earlier it wasn't in the cathedral. I had a room in the town where I had them all stored. I moved them once the cathedral started to empty out and arranged an unoccupied room for them." The executioner stopped with his explanation, looking like he was musing in thoughts. "Actually, it was my late wife who taught me all about raising and taking care of herbs."
That piqued Ornstein's interest. He had never heard of that before. "Smough, you have been married?", he asked.
"Yes. She was called Alicia. She was so tiny compared to me. I could easily pick her up with one hand." Smough smiled at this memory. "I told you about our troubles with food in my village. Why we had to resort to cannibalism..." Ornstein nodded and Smough continued: "I normally had been in charge preparing the meat, but for lots of us it was still difficult to eat. Alicia used to grow herbs. It was one of the few things we could grow, that wouldn't die or get destroyed immediately. " He sighed. "Anyway, her herbs helped our food to taste way better and helped the people forget what it was they were eating. She normally would come to me with the new herbal mix to add to the food and we soon grew close and fell in love with each other."
"But you said your late wife... How did she...?", Ornstein asked, stopping mid-sentence, cursing himself cause he didn't want to evoke bad memories in his boyfriend.
"You want to know, how she died, right? Don't worry, that has been long ago. I am already over it." Smough finished watering his current plant and moved on to another. "One day, she got sick. It didn't feel serious at first, we thought she just had a little cold. But it got worse and worse and we didn't had the medicine or the food to nurse her back to health again..." Smough's face darkened. "And then she died... and you know what he had to do next..."
Ornstein shuddered at the thought. Having to eat people to stay alive was bad enough, but having to eat one of your loved ones...
"It feels a bit strange that I have not been your first one.", Ornstein said. "I am finished by the way. Is there another thing to do?"
"The thyme has grown quite a bit and needs a new pot.", Smough said and fetched some materials before carrying over the plant. While he was busy preparing the pot, watched closely by Ornstein, he said: "But Ornstein, I haven't been your first either, right?"
Ornstein felt a pang in his stomach and his heart sinking into his pants. "Yes... I was in a relationship with my master before you...", he said gloomily.
"I guess both of our first loves broke our heart.", Smough said.
"At least yours had no other choice and you are left with the good memories of her.", Ornstein said. "She didn't piss on anything you believed in and you stood for and just left you alone, feeling broken with that burning question of why he did it." The last few words of the dragon slayer sounded very snappy.
"True. Her death was tragic and very hard for me, but I still have the good memories and we could say our proper good byes to each other. She even asked me to make her extra tasty for the remaining village people.", Smough said.
"See? The master was not like this.", Ornstein said, starting to feel furious. "Suddenly we found him having sided with the very beings we waged a war with and if that wasn't enough shock, Lord Gwyn banished him and when I ran after him and wanted to know, why he did this, he just said to me that I would understand in the future." Ornstein took a deep breath. "Well, I didn't understand back then. I still don't understand now. I just know that everything bad started to happen when he left. I had my very first break down right at this day. And they never stopped happening. For weeks I cried myself to sleep. I was torn between keeping up with my duties and just leave and search for him. In the end... I decided he wasn't worth it."
Ornstein wiped away some tears that had started to collect in his eyes and felt how Smough pulled him into a hug. "That must has been hard.", he said.
"Even today I sometimes think about him. I think about if he ever regretted leaving Anor Londo... leaving me behind.", Ornstein said. "I was sitting in front of his broken statue at the sunlight altar for months, a part of me hoping that he would hear my prayers. A part of me was cursing him because he gave everything we had up." Ornstein sniffled. "To be honest, if he would suddenly stand in front of our door, I don't know what I would do..."
"Please don't cry.", Smough said, wiping the tears away from Ornstein's beautiful green eyes. "I won't leave you behind. I won't go anywhere, I promise."
"Besides, if one day you have a change of mind and want to search for him, I would be honoured to tag along.", he continued.
"Smough, thanks so much for saying that.", Ornstein said trying to hold back some fresh tears. "But I don't plan to go anywhere. I just want to stay here with you. Until the very end."