My brother was missing. Of course, I knew that already. He'd been avoiding me for quite some time now. My name is Egil Steilsson and my brother's name is Lokki Thomassen. I completely expected my dear big brother to react like this, after spring that one year...

It had been a crisp April morning, not raining, luckily. I had been four, and my brother had been eleven. He woke up around 10 or 11 am, enough for the sun to be out, and the other three living with us to be gone. Markell, Thurston, and Bernard are our "brothers" though the only ones related by blood are my brother and I. Anyway, after awakening to the warm sunlight filtering through his window on his face, and noticing the nice weather outside, he decided to wake me up so that we could play. We didn't stay outside very long, though, since I was at a large disadvantage in most games, seeing as he is seven years older than I am, but we did decide on a game, it's just better played inside. The game we had decided on was Hide-and-Seek, I was hiding first. I had the most options for hiding places thanks to my small size and lean body, but I wouldn't settle for just any hiding place. It would be like insulting my big brother's intelligence if I chose an obvious place. Eventually I noticed Markell's armoire, doors open wide. There was a gap between the armoire and the wall where I could comfortably squeeze in and keep the door open so that I was completely hidden from view. Good thing, too, because I was nearly out of time.

I fondly remember how my heartbeat pounded so quickly when my brother's footsteps passed, the sound so loud in my ears that I could have sworn that he could hear me, but the footsteps passed once, twice, three times, and not once did my brother stop in front of the armoire. I bit my lip, had I hidden too well? I didn't want to insult my brother by coming out of hiding, but I didn't want big brother to get bored. I pushed the door closed slightly, not enough to uncover me, but enough to be noticed, and thankfully, Lokki did notice. Getting praise from my brother had felt amazing, but now I wanted to look for him. With this in mind, I hurried outside and counted.

...28...29...30..!

I was so excited, that my hands were on the handle by the time the last number left my lips. I mentally went over possible places my brother could fit, but they were all such glaringly obvious places that I didn't want to check them. Surely he could find a better place. I looked everywhere, in cabinets, under the coffee table, behind the curtains, everywhere but the overdone cliché places. That includes under the bed.

Of course, that was exactly where Lokki was hiding, and it was completely brilliant. My brother must have known that I'd never check there, so he hid there. I was too stubborn, though, and he had to make tapping noises to get me to find him. He still acted as if I had found him on my own, wrapping his arms around me and nuzzling my silver hair. He's such a good big brother.

"Hey, Lillebror, I have something to show you." He had a happy look in his pale violet eyes, and I just knew it had something to do with magic. What else could it be? Magic runs in our family, but brother didn't want me to start practicing until I was older, not that I ever did. I'm too scared of magic now.

Once we wormed out from underneath the bed, he had me sit in front of him. He was sitting with his legs folded underneath him and a hand - I noticed that he'd taken his glove off that particular hand - extended in front of him.

It took a little while, but frost particles eventually covered his fingertips, a soft, light blue glow emitting from the magic.

I hardly noticed, but an ice crystal had begun forming, floating suspended above his hand. Little flakes of the crystal were floating as well, growing before molding onto the main crystal. The way the light made the ice seem to glow and the flakes sparkle had me mesmerized, I noticed that he sometimes moved his fingers ever so slightly, and the ice was soon forming snowflake-like shapes, still glowing brilliantly in the light blue light it cast around the room. I saw my brother's expression soften, seeing my excitement and happiness at what he was showing me. I knew my brother liked and much preferred fire magic over other types, so the fact that my brother had shown me an ice spell made me very happy. Something seemed to be wrong though, since my brother looked troubled for a moment. The ice had gotten quite larger by this point, extremely pretty, but large. It was almost as large as one of Thurston's friend's knife blades, maybe a bit smaller, but the ice was three dimensional, so the width made up for the height. I brushed it off as maybe the ice was getting a little too big and he'd have to stop soon. I didn't mind, but it really was very pretty. All of a sudden, the light's intensity skyrocketed. Almost a blinding icey blue. I squeezed my eyes shut, the room going extremely cold. I'd find out later that the light actually froze parts of the wall and had placed a layer of frost over my big brother's eyes, which is why he now needs glasses. I remember being worried, and opened my left eye slightly, just in time to see that the crystal had grown spikes, threateningly sharp, I heard Lokki give a cry, whether of pain or surprise, I don't know. All I know is that the ice crystal exploded, sending the sharp points flying everywhere.

One of the shards lodged itself in my right eye.

I can still vividly remember the excruciating pain and the feel of the warm, wet blood streaming from my now sightless eye. I could hear my brother fumbling to find me, and the absolute horror and self hatred I heard in my brother's voice almost hurt as much as the injury itself.

"No- oh no. No, no, no..." I heard him scramble over to me and pick me up. The pain worsened from being moved, but I merely whimpered in response. It felt nice to be in my brother's arms. Safer. I noticed a change of lighting and a faint warmth. Fire. My brother must have used fire magic.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry - I'm sorry, Egil - I did this to you..."

"Big brother..." I whimper through the pain, it's extremely difficult, and brother probably didn't believe me at all, but I had to let him know that I didn't blame him. "Not.. your... fault..." I forced my left eye open, the fact that the flames in my brother's hand were so close to my face scared me, but I forced myself to accept the fact that my brother was doing this to help me. I was trembling like a leaf in the wind thanks to the unbelievable pain, and when the flames licked at my skin, my first reaction was to scream and cry. It hurt so badly. I could feel the intense heat burning me, but I bit my lip roughly to stop screaming. My brother already hated himself enough, he didn't need anymore guilt on his conscience. I don't remember much after that. I think I fainted. The next thing I remember is waking up to a major headache and having bandages over my eye. My brother looked broken.

From that day on, he distanced himself from me. He didn't accept my hugs, looked uncomfortable with me calling him 'big brother' and didn't stay in the same room for very long. He looks as if it hurts him to be around me. That's how it's been for the last fourteen years. I would have thought after we lost our parents, he wouldn't want to leave me alone like that, but he's been gone for three years now. It hurts. It hurts more than anything. I can't handle being rejected by the one person I have left. I can't...

Blood wells up in my right eye, and I remove my eye patch so that it doesn't get stained by my tears.


A/N: Ok, I feel like I have a lot to explain here. Basically, this is how lil 2p Iceland lost his eye. Norwhal and I created these two off of our knowledge of the 1p, not what everyone thinks that their 2ps should be- 2p Iceland is a precious little thing, ok. No one will tell me different, He's adorable.