Summary: In which Ornstein procrastinates.
Ornstein awoke the next morning with a tad of surprise that no nightmares had visited him this time. He pulled himself up in a sitting position and his gaze fell on the scroll on the table. Oh right, he had decided to write the speech today... He got up and completed his usual morning routine before sitting down on the table to take a second look at what he already had written yesterday. "Keeping it together" was scribbled all over it in his messy handwriting, even messier than usual he had to admit. A long sigh escaped him. That turned out to be a challenge. A part of him wished he would stand against a dragon on the battlefield instead, that felt easier.
He picked up the quill but a growl of his stomach distracted him. Right, he lately hadn't eaten much and a lot of it had got right back out. He didn't really had much of an appetite or generally felt like he wanted to eat, but his body gave him clear signs and he certainly didn't want to faint from not eating. Ornstein decided to get a snack for breakfast, something he could eat with one hand so that he could focus on the speech.
Ornstein returned to his room with some bread with a meat filling. He sat down, put the food in his left hand and picked up the quill with the right, thinking about which of Artorias deeds he should write. After he had munched away half of the bread, he still hadn't written a single word. Why had this to be so difficult? He should get it over with and just write something already.
For what had Artorias been known? Fighting the creatures of the dark had certainly been one of his deeds. Ornstein dunked the quill into the ink and lowered it to the paper to write about the New Londo situation, when his stomach acted up.
"Oh no, not now.", he muttered and put the food down back on the plate, taking some deep breathes to help getting the nausea away. It didn't really work. Ornstein felt like he had to get out of there, get some space from writing this speech. He still had the whole day before him to write it. Maybe he would figure out how to write it when he would do something else.
Ornstein remembered the drawing he had started the day prior, the one of the flowers he had been working on when he had fallen asleep. He searched his room for the drawing and his utensils and went back to the garden to finish the drawing.
This time Dusk wasn't in the garden. Figures, she probably was busy getting everything done for the burial ceremony. Ornstein felt another pang in his stomach and hissed. He stressed out far too much about this whole situation. Who could blame him though? He had lost not only one of his best knights, but also his best friend. His first friend also to be accurate. And here he was, instead of writing the speech to honour the person he considered his best friend, doing a drawing of some flowers, perfectly knowing that he was just procrastinating. Artorias had always gotten mad at him for procrastinating the paperwork. He wondered if Artorias would scold him from whatever place his consciousness went would he see him sitting there like that.
It didn't took Ornstein long to finish the already started flower drawing. He didn't had any colours with him and sketching the pictures out was an easy task for him. Maybe he would colour the sketches after he returned to Anor Londo. When he would have time for it... after being absent for several days there would surely be lots of work awaiting him.
Well, that should have been enough distraction. He really should try and work on this speech now. Ornstein went back into the mansion, but before he could make it to his room, he ran into one of Dusk's maiden, who noticed his drawing, was very impressed by it, promptly called the other two and before he knew it they had talked him into making a portrait of them and Ornstein felt like he couldn't refuse and was silently drawing the maidens who flawlessly kept their poses, even though he spotted at least one of them blushing and giggling a bit. After he was done with the picture and handed it to the women, noon already had started to approach. Ornstein returned to his room and saw the rest of his breakfast sitting there next to the speech he didn't wrote. He sat down on the table, picked up the bread and took a listless bite out of it. For him, it felt like the food didn't had any taste at all and he only ate to fill his stomach a bit. If it wouldn't decided to act up again... He took up the quill and scribbled a few notes, stuff about Artorias that just crossed his mind. Sighing, he laid the quill back down. This was going nowhere. Maybe it would be the right decision to ask for some help? Ornstein put on his armour and headed for the arena, he stopped shortly to look at Ciaran in front of the makeshift grave and then ascended Gough's tower. The giant stopped his carving when he heard Ornstein's footsteps.
"You seem troubled.", he said.
"...Yes.", Ornstein admitted. "Princess Dusk wants me to hold a speech about Artorias at the burial ceremony, but I feel stuck with it."
The giant hummed, concentrating on his current carving. Ornstein flopped down on the floor waiting for an answer.
"How did you tackle this speech?", the giant finally asked.
"Uh... I was thinking about telling of Artorias deeds and accomplishments.", Ornstein said. "After all that is what people want to hear.", he added, a bit quieter.
"And you are unhappy with it.", Gough said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "But your problem is solved quite easily actually. Just think about, what would Artorias have done?"
"Huh..?", Ornstein asked. "I shall write this speech as I would have been Artorias?"
"Kind of.", Gough said, chuckling. "When you write this speech, try to stop being Ornstein and try being Artorias for a change."
"That's easier said then done...", Ornstein said and fell silent, watching the giant whittling away.
"Say.", Ornstein suddenly broke the silence. "This Undead... the one that, uh, killed Artorias." That felt so strange to say. Ornstein could feel the nausea rising from his stomach and quickly tried to swallow it. "I want to know more about them.", he finished.
"Oh yes, the Undead.", Gough said, voice strangely content. "They were a determined little fellow. They would pick up the fight against Artorias again and again, no matter how many times he killed them. It was amazing to hear how they adjusted to his fighting style and slowly, but surely got the upper hand. And even after freeing Artorias from his corrupted state, they didn't stop. They even slayed Kalameet."
Ornstein could feel his heart plummet into his leggings when Gough mentioned the black dragon. "Wait, what?", he asked and then stood up. "Kalameet? THE Kalameet? The dragon I never was allowed to hunt after...", Ornstein's voice trailed off and broke. "...after he burned me badly.", he finished in a whisper.
The memory, while decades ago, was still in his mind. The memory of a young, cocky dragon slayer, who thought he could take on the world and challenged the black dragon without waiting for any orders from his lord. Needless to say, Kalameet wiped the floor with him and Ornstein got into great trouble with Lord Gwyn. At least he had made it out alive. Badly burned, but not dead. The scar that stretched from his left shoulder down to the left side of his beck started to itch. Ornstein wriggled a bit on the floor in discomfort.
"Yes, THE Kalameet.", Gough said. "Although they had a little help. From me." Another one of the giant's low chuckles filled the air.
"What kind of help? And why?", Ornstein asked, a brow knitted in confusion. The giant very much looked like he hadn't left that tower in ages and also, why should he help a human, even worse, an undead?
"I owed them one for freeing Artorias from the grasp of the abyss.", Gough said. "So I took my great bow and shot Kalameet right out of the sky for them."
It took Ornstein a few seconds to process the words of the giant. Then he jerked up. "You SHOT Kalameet out of the sky despite not SEEING anything?", he shouted.
Gough let another one of his hearty chuckles loose. "I didn't shot out dragons out of the sky for a decade for nothing.", he said. "Kalameet was often flying by my tower. I knew his acceleration, altitude and speed by heart. I could hear and sense it in the wind. It only took me one try to get the arrow through his wing."
"That is... impressive, Gough.", Ornstein said. "Still.. I always wanted to slay Kalameet. It feels a bit strange that I now will never be able to do it... Say Gough, where does his corpse lay?"
Gough pointed away from his tower and Ornstein followed his finger to see a basin and a waterfall in the distance.
"I want to take a look...", Ornstein murmured and was already descending the ladder when Gough said: "Don't forget that you have a speech to write."
(Author's note: Aw, come on guys, I am sure we all have left to look at dead dragon's to avoid to do our homework or papers ^^)