"Eli what's going on? I can't see anything! Why it so dark! Eli?! Eli where are you? Eli I'm really scared! Where are you! Please this isn't funny! I'm scared!''

Eli could only stare at his little brother, stumbling around the room with his arms outstretched (and the room was very much bright). He yanked him close and held him so tightly that the five year old squealed with suffocation. But Eli held on, unyielding. Despite his little brother's struggling, he squeezed him tightly to his body with a strength, he thought he was incapable of.

He wasn't sure how long he had been holding onto the flapping flailing fledgling, but at some point, he was dimly aware of a strong pair of arms prying his own apart and wrenching Andrew from his grip.

"Eli" came a voice, barely skimming over an undercoating of horror.

"What. Did. You. Do?"

"It was an accident! I didn't mean to!" cried the barely-eight year old!

"It doesn't matter" came a calm, but urgent voice coming from the big strong arms that had stolen Andrew from him.

"He's burned. Badly"

The queen gave a shriek of shock and scooted swiftly over to her youngest son and cupped his face. There was a scalding, sweltering, scorching scarlet burn mark, coating the right side of it.

"There's no time to worry about how it happened" recited the king.

"We need to get him help. And I think I may know of somebody who can"

Eli wasn't certain of the exact pattern or details of the events following directly afterward. Everything went by in a whirlwind blur. One minute, his father was retracting a musty, leather-bound book covered with runic symbols from the library. The next minute, he was riding in a sled across the country side at a breakneck pace. His father was at the helm, and his mother was at his side swaddling a whimpering Andrew.

After the most anguishing hours of Eli's life, his father stopped the sled in a strange knoll. It was a low, earthy mound, surrounded by an endless ring of short, scrubby grass and topsoil lodge in the center of a ring of mountains. Exactly what her father thought he could cure Anna with here, she was unsure of. But wait, hadn't he said "Who?" but who could possibly live here? By the look of this lonely isolated semi-valley? It looked as though they had been the first humans to ever set foot here?

Suddenly there was a rumbling noise, as though the earth was caving in. Eli stifled a whimper, but edged toward the safety of his mother's skirt.

Suddenly a series of creatures came out of nowhere. Eli's eyes magnified. They were like no creatures he had ever seen of before. They were incredibly squat and rotund. The tallest barely exceeded Andrew's height. They had large ovular noses and skin matching the texture and color of granite. They appeared to be mostly bald, but a small number had brisk shocks of coarse straw colored hair, sprouting out their head tops like crabgrass. They were all dressed in the bizarrest clothing and some of the oldest ones appeared to have different colored crystals hung with entwined saplings around their necks. But they were no crystals that could be found in the royal treasury. They seemed uncut, rough-edged (like their wearer's skins), and were softly pulsating with a faint but unmistakeable light. They also had an earthy spiritual look about them. Had the situation not been so grim, Eli would have thought them cute and funny. Then the oldest (Eli guessed it was the oldest because it appeared the most grizzled, had the gnarliest skin, and was hunched over, using a sapling for support. Eli didn't exactly remember the exact dialogue passed between his parents and it, but at some point the troll-like creature turned to him and said "Born or cursed?"

"Born" replied his father, crudely masking franticity.

"Don't worry" Said the Troll

"It's a good thing it was only the head. That can be easily persuaded"

This been said, the troll(Eli decided that it was a pretty safe bet to assume that thatt was what it was) shuffled back to Andrew and waved a stubby hand over the disfigured half of his face. It appeared to be muttering some kind of an incantation under it's breath. Eli honed in his ears to catch the words, but the troll was muttering with a river current's speed, and whatever language it was using was no language Eli was familiar with.

But the miracle before him caused him to disregard his quest to decipher the Troll's chanting. For before his eyes, his little brother's red swollen skin turned a soft, peachy pink, smoother than a river rock. Aside from a black forelock nestled between Eli's tawny hair, there was absolutely no indication whatsoever that he'd ever been burned

"Mr.-um- Troll? What did you mean when you said that it was obly the head?"

"Child, you have been blessed with an incredible ability. One that many would desire with all their hearts. But there is no such thing as a gift without a cost. The cost of your's is that it is a dangerous one as well. Your brother is incredibly fortunate that you did not burn his heart. A burned heart is an incredibly fatal condition"

"Well this was just too close a call!" burst out his mother. Up until then, she'd been silent.

"What of this happens again? What if Eli burns Andrew's heart? He's a danger to Andrew as well as everyone else around him! Including himself!"

"I suggest the removal of Andrew's memories of his brother's powers. As well as the concealment of them from the rest of the kingdom"

The king took a deep breath, steadying himself for what was to come.

"Very well" He replied after what felt like forever.

"We'll reduce the staff, we'll close the gates, and we'll reduce Eli's contact with everybody...including Andrew"

Eli wished he was dreaming with all his heart. This couldn't be dreaming. He couldn't be forced to stop playing with his little brother. This couldn't be happening.

When he finally did manage to hold his. vouce long enough to form a sentence, he said shakily

"So then...he won't remember that I've got powers?"

"No my boy. I'm afraid he won't. It's for the best"

Seeing Eli's sisyphean effort to maintain his composure, the elderly troll patted him on the leg abd said

"Don't worry. I'll leave the fun"

Eli watched with a mixture of awe and sorrow as the troll once again waved his hand over his sleeping brother's face. This time a sort of mirror appeared in Andrew's forehead. In it, Eli could see himself and Andrew playing together. The memories looked familiar, but didn't seem quite right. With a jolt of realization, he discovered that he was watching the troll create and modify all of Andrew's memories of his powers. Only he was making them more normal.

Steadyibg himself for his new life of isolation, Eli decided to create a sort of souvenir to get him through it, stroking his brother's face one last time.