The song is Pippin's song from The Lord of the Rings which I obviously don't own. And a big 'Thank you' to the wonderful Lunatic Silver for beta reading :)

The loss of a family member was maybe the greatest loss imaginable to any person. There was no recipe to deal with the pain, no reason to the emotions flittering through everyone, no comfort found in hollow words of friends or strangers. Everyone dealt with death in their own way. Henrik's death was no different in that, everyone had a different way to deal with their emotions.

Elijah watched his mother and oldest sister cleaning Henriks body, silent and with a determination he could not understand. He watched his father and older brothers gather wood, more than they needed to burn the small body of Henrik. Elijah felt himself watching his family, trying to understand, to find something.

Maybe, he thought, his mother and sister found comfort in the motions and in the idea that the following ritual would help Henrik to cross over to a peaceful afterlife.

Maybe his father and brothers did not stop gathering wood because they did not want to stand still and think about what had happened, what would happen. He saw their pain whenever they lingered for a short moment and he knew that they had to occupy themself.

Maybe he himself searched for a way to deal with the loss of his brother in his family; maybe he was searching for some sign that everything would be okay.

There were so many maybes Elijah did not know what to be certain of anymore until he saw his youngest sister with his now yougest brother. Rebekah's eyes were pained but there was a strengh there he had not expected as she pulled Niklaus towards the fire and forced him to take of his shirt. For a moment Elijah wondered what Rebekah was doing until he saw bloodied claw-marks on Niklaus's back. His youngest sister was tending to the living where everyone else was trying to comfort themself. The little girl was stronger than all of them.

Elijah realised then that the boy had not said anything about being wounded and everyone had expected him to be fine. None had even thought to ask whether Niklaus was alright because Henrik was dead and all Niklaus had done was apologize and become distant when none had listened. He felt his own mind go back to Henrik but he forced it to stay on the scene before him. As Rebekah was cleaning Niklaus's wounds Elijah saw the boy shake, he was in shock and had probably been so for a long time. When Rebekah was finished she put the bowl of water and the rag she had used to clean the cuts aside and carefully laid some herbs on the tender skin and open wounds. Then she moved towards the head of the wounded brother and as she began to sing Elijah shuddered because he had not noticed the eery silence that had been in the air until his sister's voice had broken it.

"Home is behind, the world ahead and there are many paths to tread. Through shadow to the edge of night until the stars are all alight."

While Rebekah sang Niklaus broke apart and started sobbing uncontrollably. Carefully the younger blonde moved her hands to sooth her brother, softly rubbing his shoulders and moving sweaty strands of hair from his face until Niklaus grabbed one of her hands and held it as though it was his lifeline even long after he stopped crying. Rebekah let him.

"Mist and shadow, cloud and shade, all shall fade, all shall... fade."

It was the first time Elijah saw Rebekah overcome herself for Niklaus, the first time Niklaus was breaking apart in front of anyone. It was the first time that Elijah thought that maybe the love his siblings shared was so much more than he could understand. He did not linger on that thought though for his father called for him to help build the pyre for Henrik. Had he lingered he would have seen the soft kiss Rebekah pressed on the temple of Niklaus. If he would have lingered he might have seen the future of the blondes in all its broken glory but he left to bury the past.

In the years that followed Elijah would see Niklaus become Rebekah's greatest reason for a strengh and maturity she usually did not possess and he would see Rebekah become the only person Niklaus would open up to, the only person his brother would trust and need even when his words and actions would claim that he needed none.