Merlyne Lilia-Acia never could explain her unnatural connection to everything. It all seemed more alive to her, as if everything had a golden aura, except for fiery threads around everyone's ankles. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't follow all of hers to their ends - there were just so many! Not only that, but they were so long! Some of them seemed to be connected to other people in the village, like Will and old man Simmons and her mother, but others seemed to be endless, and they seemed (as a whole) without number.

However, there were only two Merlyne found more pretty, intricate, long, and vibrant than all the others: an electric blue thread instead of fiery orange or crimson red, one that seemed to vibrate with her touch and made her feel more like herself. This one, rather than her ankles, was tied on her pinkie finger, and on her wrist on her other hand was an acidic green thread she could feel was equally important to her as the blue thread, if not more.

No one else in the village seemed to see these threads. They weren't just around her extremities, either; all around their ankles were threads, but try as the auburn-haired girl might, she could never find anyone else that could actually see or feel them. All her life when she wasn't preoccupied with her chores or work, she would try and follow the threads, one by one. The one with the most frequency and determination would have to be the blue thread, but she knew she would have to go beyond Ealdor if she was to find what was on the other end of that thread.

Another strange thing Merlyne noticed was that no one else had a blue or green thread. When she asked her mother about it without thinking, Hunith froze up and seemed to realise something, then told her daughter to go work in the fields. Merlyne tried three times after that, but quickly took the hint that Hunith wasn't going to answer when all the response she got was 'would you like some dinner' or 'go work in the fields'.

This wasn't the least of her unusual abilities. No, not at all. She could move things around with her mind before she could speak one word. Not just this, but Merlyne accidentally once lost control over her powers and summoned a tornado made of fire and it only stopped once it came into contact with the lake (thankfully, it happened on a camping trip at the lake, and only Merlyne and Hunith were present). In truth, these abilities were solely magic. No non-magic person could possibly hope to summon a tornado made of fire.

Magic wasn't her only talent, though. Cenred constantly sent soldiers to steal supplies from Ealdor. Because Merlyne was the only one with any natural fighting abilities, she was the only one who could accurately protect the village from brigands and a king who was constantly demanding war. Merlyne kept weapons taken from the dead soldiers she was constantly forced to kill. She became incredibly fierce and a force to be reckoned with, not just in magical abilities, but she was also physically gifted, so it was incredibly difficult to kill her.

In any case, it was because of the tornado incident that Hunith made the choice to send Merlyne to Camelot to study under a physician to learn magic under his teachings.

This had been planned for months, and considering the direction in which Merlyne was sent, most of the other 'thread-bearers' lay at the other end of her journey.

Merlyne took up her pack and set off down the path to Camelot after waving goodbye to her mother and Will and the others in the village she cared little for and didn't bother learning their names. With all her daggers, she departed from Essetir to Camelot.

So concludes the first chapter to Connections. Hope you enjoyed.

-Sapphy Ink.

678 words.