"Good morning, Ornstein. What are you doing here that early? Are you feeling sick?" Artorias was sitting on a bench in front of the infirmary, cheerfully waving at Ornstein.

"No, I came here because of my arm?", Ornstein asked more than said and sat down next to Artorias. "What are you doing here? You don't look sick or hurt."

Artorias wriggled a bit on the chair. "Well, I trained some of the silver knights with larger weapons this morning and two of them managed to get hurt.", he said.

"You were training this early?", Ornstein asked. He didn't even got breakfast yet, he had planned to go to the infirmary right after he woke up.

"Yes, we scheduled it before breakfast, so that all of us could attend to our duties afterward.", Artorias explained.

"Are they badly hurt? What happened?", Ornstein wanted to know. Worry started to rise up in him, he didn't show it very openly, but he cared deeply for his silver knights.

"Oh no, don't worry, it was a silly accident. Ledo lost balance with the hammer he picked and knocked down Ophelia while falling down. Both have hit their heads and were bleeding, so I was getting them here to get stitched up.", Artorias explained. "And you said you are here because of your arm, does it hurt?", he added.

"It still hurts of course, but that isn't the reason I came here. The splint and the bandages have to get changed. The bandages also have gone a bit wet during bathing yesterday...", Ornstein explained.

"You have taken a bath yesterday? On your own? You know I would have been ready to help you out. It must have been really difficult to wash up with only one arm free.", Artorias said.

"I had help...", Ornstein said and started to feel the blood rushing in his face.

"Really? Who helped you out?" It was an innocent question but the picture of the naked master rose into Ornstein's mind again and made the heat in his face overflowing. "Whoa, I better get you a handkerchief.", Artorias said upon noticing the stream of blood coming from Ornstein's nose which he covered with his left hand. Artorias handed Ornstein a handkerchief from his pocket which the lion knight gladly accepted.

"Sorry about that.", he said.

"Don't worry about it, the important thing is that your nosebleed stops now. It's a good thing that you are going to the infirmary anyway, they can have a look at that.", Artorias said. The both knights sat together in silence for a moment before Artorias took up the word again. Ornstein was glad that Artorias was so tactful to drop the topic about the bath.

"Say Ornstein, have I ever told you the tale how I got that scar?" He pointed at the horizontal scar just above his nose, that he already had had since Ornstein knew him.

Ornstein shook his head: "No, you haven't told me. I guess you got it in battle or training though?"

Artorias laughed. "Nah, I got it much earlier, quite a few years before I became a silver knight. I must have been around ten years old." Artorias indulged in reminiscences for a short while. "Even in my early child hood I had this idea in my head that one day I would be an admired hero. So little me was practicing some moves and thought doing forward flips would be the right thing. And then I managed to fell face first on the cobblestone." Artorias grinned. "It was bleeding a lot. My mother saw it and came rushing to me and she was freaked out so much. I had to get stitches and weren't allowed to play outside for awhile anymore."

Ornstein chuckled, putting the handkerchief down, his nosebleed had already stopped. "I can totally believe that.", he said. "Though it feels so weird to hear that your mother was so worried. I was used to be one of around ten kids. When one of us got hurt the matron normally had to try their best to comfort them while trying to keep an eye on the other. The older kids normally would help her out.", he told.

"Say, Ornstein, I wanted to ask you a thing.", Artorias suddenly said. Ornstein made a motion with his hand for Artorias to continue. "When we were in front of the infirmary after I broke your arm, you were saying that you weren't fond of getting the bone set. Did you have a break before?"

"You are right, this wasn't my first break.", Ornstein answered. "Like you, I was still a kid when it happened, around eight years old I think. I got into a fight with an older boy at the orphanage, cause he had been really mean to me. So I had punched him. But the matron didn't managed to see all what happened and got only mad at me and put me into a time-out in our bedroom. I was really upset and didn't want to stay at the orphanage. It's a good thing the window was open."

"Let me guess, you fell while trying to climb out the window?", Artorias asked.

"No, I made it safely out. There was a tree near the window I could climb down. But when I ran into the woods I managed to slip and fall down a steep hill. Broke my leg because of the fall.", Ornstein continued his tale.

Artorias stared at Ornstein for a moment before blurting out: "And then what? Did somebody find you? Did you have to lie there until someone came searching for you? Or did you manage to crawl back on your own?"

"I was found by some farmers from the village. The matron was also out searching for me when she realized I was missing. I got fixed up and then we went back to the orphanage. It wasn't so easy for her to convince me, cause I was still upset and hurt. In the end she settled on punishing us both. The older boy because he started it and me because I reacted violently. She didn't gave me anything to draw with for a few days. Was pretty bad for me back then.", Ornstein casually told.

"That sounds harsh...", Artorias said when the door opened and the two silver knights tottered out. "Oh, are you finished? I better bring you back to your quarters.", Artorias said and shot up. "We will see us later, Ornstein." Artorias waved to him. "You can give me back my handkerchief later." Ornstein waved back at him and watched till Artorias and the silver knights were out of view, before getting up and entering the infirmary himself.