Fairy Tail: Next Generation - Volume I

Chapter 16: She Lies

Art above by  Evo_is_Birdy I just loved the picture so I asked to post it here

Trigger warning for this chapter. 

It was early July when Marigold found herself doing one of her least favorite parts of gardening, weeding. She couldn't help but despise the activity, especially in the summer. Naturally, the sun was already making its way up into the sky, burning down on her back as she dug through her flowerbeds for infectious little weeds. Luckily, as she came to the side of her house, she found shade through her bushes, where she would comfortably sink in between the two shrubs while digging through the soil, finding peace from the relentless sun hanging above.

At least, she thought she had peace until she was interrupted by a quite loud noise coming from the other side of the house.

It started with a bang, then a pop, then a blast, and soon a crash.

Naturally, Marigold was started by the collection of noises and thrust her head upward to see if Batman was perhaps having a comic book fight in her front yard. Unfortunately, not only was there no caped crusader near but by thrusting her head upwards while in between two bushes, Marigold managed to run into a large some of leaves and branches on her way up.

She spent her walk up to her front yard pulling twigs and leaves from her tangled hair and to no surprised found Liddan and Malcon standing excitedly over a pile of broken flowerpots, seemingly excited by the destruction.

"Kill it Liddan, kill it!" Malcon said, throwing his little arms in the air as he pointed to the flower pot sitting on the fence, "that pot says you'll never achieve your goals and life and he's also sleeping with your wife!" 

"Homewrecker!" Liddan shouted before blasting a shot of fire from his fingertip, shattering the pot into pieces. 

Marigold's mouth hung open, "My flower pots!" Just as Liddan was prepared to send another shot, Marigold flung herself in front of them, causing Liddan to almost burn her in the process. 

"Whoa--hey!" Liddan was annoyed, partially because Marigold had just interrupted his training, but mostly because he'd almost just burned a hole through Marigold. "No need to throw yourself in the line of fire."

"These pots are not for target practice," Marigold snatched the remaining pots off the fence. "Besides," she whispered, "they're innocent..." 

"They're pots," Liddan said with his hands on his hips.

"They don't grow on trees," Marigold said, kneeling down to scoop up the shattered pieces. She sighed, "Why are you destroying my garden this early in the morning?" 

"We're training," Malcon announced, lifting up a silver whistle around his neck. "I'm his coach, Coach Malcon." He put the whistle in his mouth and with a breath blew, but only a sad little wushhhhhh came out. Malcon frowned, "I cannot fathom my disappointment. 

"Okay," Marigold chucked the broken pieces into the bin, "what are we training for? When all my pots rise from the dead and seek vengence? Which I hope they do..." 

"S-class!" Liddan explained, quite eagerly, in fact, "I wanna make sure that I get it done right this year!"

Marigold ran through her head to find some kind of mental calendar. "Isn't that not until later this year, like, specifically not for another five months."