"I knew how much it hurt him, but he did it. It was the most selfless that he's ever been, and in that moment I loved him.

I didn't want to, I mean it terrified me, but for that moment I loved him."

VD

When Elijah woke up all that he heard was the loud sound of many animals running outside which immediately caused himself to jump up out of his bed. Immediately as he was hurriedly putting on his pants and boots he yelled

"Father the horses they're loose!"

As soon as Elijah had yelled this he heard Mikael bolt from his own bed while yelling

"Boys! Wake up!"

After finally managing to awake Niklaus and just as he was bolting towards the door he heard Nik yell out his name to get his attention causing Elijah to stop.

"come on Niklaus we have to hurry!"

The younger brother just stood there and said nearly in an inaudible voice

"I accidentally left the gate open Elijah,"

Elijah immediately stopped all motion instantly and then after asking his younger brother once more if what he had said was true he had told him to just focus on getting the horses back.

As Mikael and his sons were reigning all of the horses in he heard his father say that whoever had forgotten to close the gate would be getting a lashing they'd not soon forget. Elijah's mind as soon as he heard this went immediately into overdrive, their father disliked Niklaus and would kill him if he found out.

A few moments later after all of the men in the village had finally managed to get the last horse into the pen and Finn having closed the gate saw Mikael. Mikael was talking to the elder discussing the punishment which would be dealt out to whoever had been stupid enough to leave the gate open. Elijah could visibly see some of the men around the two flinch as the mentioned punishment was said which was to be ten lashes from a whip. The only bad part was that everyone knew that it had to have been one of the Mikaelson boys because it had been they're week in caring for the horses, making sure they were properly fed.

Suddenly there was a large yell attracting the attention to a man who pointed over towards something which was hidden by the darkness of night. Then as soon as Elijah reached the area to which all of the men were surrounded he stopped suddenly filled with dread, there lying dead on the ground was not one but two dead horses. Elijah immediately knew that the sentence which would be dealt would be much more intense then what it had originally designed to be.

After all of the men had returned to their families and their homes excluding Elijah, Finn, Niklaus, their father and the council there was a dead silence in the air. Then breaking the enormous silence their father said

"What stupid idiot left the gate open! Whoever did it better fess up now or it will be a whole new punishment for him!"

Then Mikael upon seeing Niklaus' face which was looking down to the ground walked over and after saying look up when I'm speaking to you boy did Elijah say;

"It was me father, I accidentally forgot to latch the gate correctly tonight before coming to bed."

Every single one of his brother's head immediately snapped towards Elijah's own confession even more so did Niklaus' who knew fully well that he was to blame.

"I was so tired that I forgot to close the gate properly,"

Elijah repeated again to his father who came to stand directly in front of his nineteen year old son with a look of both disappointment and rage upon his face. Elijah immediately knew that the punishment which he would be getting would not just be a low number of ten lashes.

"Elijah how could you forget to close the gate as result of you being merely exhausted?!" Mikael yelled at his second oldest anger clear upon his face then continued on to say that he had better get used to being tired because he would be doing triple the amount of chores and that he would be getting a total of forty-five lashes in addition to the punishment. Elijah after hearing the entirety of his punishment felt a drop of sweat begin to run down his brow but he disregarded it, because his younger brother would never survive the punishment.

"I was an idiot father and I understand the punishment, and accept it,"

After finally finishing with both the elders his father told him to go wait out behind the back of the house which was where Mikael administered belt whippings to him and his brothers mainly Nik and himself when they got too cocky. Upon hearing Mikael approach from nearby Elijah turned around and looked his own father in the face and tried his best to not drop then and there and tell him that it was Nik.

"Take of your shirt Elijah," is what Mikael said to his son and Elijah knew that he had better obey his father and not remotely disobey him. As soon as he stood with his shirt removed he turned away from his father awaiting the punishment which would be dealt by his own father. After handing his son a strip of leather to bite down on Elijah immediately braced himself for the punishment which his father would soon deal out.

Elijah visibly flinched as he heard the snapping noise of the whip as Mikael tested out the whip before it would be used on his own back. Then without any warning except for the slight noise of the whip cutting through the air Elijah felt pain.

"I told you to count them out Elijah," his father told him and Elijah didn't remember hearing the words probably due to his focus on his future pain.

"One," Snap! "Two," Snap! "Three" Elijah continued to count out every single one of the lashings until finally the last one was dealt onto his back. Then suddenly Elijah felt his eyes roll up into the back of his head as darkness overwhelmed him and he went unconscious.

The next morning…

"Elijah! Wake up!" were the words that Elijah heard from his father and completely forgetting about what had come to place the night before sat up as he would have any other day. Immediately he screamed out or he would have except at the last second he bit his lip causing it to bleed profusely but had not gone unnoticed by his brother Niklaus.

After helping Elijah to get both dressed and ready for all of the chores which he would have to be doing for a while Niklaus asked his older brother

"Why did you do that Elijah, you didn't do anything?"

To which Elijah responded

"Because you're my brother Nik,"