Fairy Tail: Next Generation - Volume III

Chapter 3: Marigold's Prayer

12 Years Ago.

Natsu lead his team towards the town. With every step the number of corpses increased. Lucy held her breath and covered her eyes. A mix of fear, disgust, and sorrow filled all of them.

Carla held onto Wendy's hand, trembling.

"This is horrifying...why did the master send us...?" Carla shivered.

Happy buts on a brave face and raises his paw. "Don't worry Carla! I'll protect you!"

"What are you going to do? Throw a fish at it?" Carla snuffed.

"I'd only waste a delicious fish if it meant protecting you Carla!" Happy announced.

"Wow Carla." Lucy smiled, feeling as if the mood had lightened a bit. "He must really love you if he'd waste a fish for you."

"The thought is sweet, but also a bit repulsing..." Carla sighs.

Natsu throws his hands up.

Gray, a bit flustered and irritated, snaps. "Hey, what's the big idea-"

"We're almost there...I can smell it..." Natsu sniffs in the air heavily. "Smells a bit like strawberries, flowers, and rotten flesh."

"What?!?!" Lucy jumps behind Natsu, using him as a shield.

Natsu steps forward, he turns to Erza gently. "Erza, get ready..."

Erza straightens her back and gives a confused look to Natsu. "Natsu...what exactly are we preparing for..."

The monstrous scream echoes through the air. Everyone clamps their hands onto their ears, trying to drown out the noise.

As the scream dies down, the team looks to the center of the town, where a mountain of bodies built up where a market once took place.

On the top, throwing half eaten limbs down the mountain like it were the unwanted food on her plate, was a child.

Her skin was soaked in blood, dry and wet. As was her once white dress, that now looked faded, stained, and torn with every stab from a sword she'd received. Her hair was golden, it almost glowed under the sun, but the most stunning features were the white feathered wings that stretched out of her back and flapped ever so slightly, the long claws that grew from her fingernails, and the blood stained fangs that dug into the flesh of a corpse.

The child looked no older than five years, she was most likely about the same age as Natsu and Lucy's child, Liddan.

The beastly girl jerks her head to the team, and gives a soft growl.

She licks her lip and flaps her wings, pulling herself off the mountain of bodies. Landing on the red gravel that was once the market road, she steps barefoot towards the team, anxious for another meal.

"What...is that...?" Lucy shook in her spot.

"The monster, this girl...or something in this girl...is what killed all these men women..." Erza turns to the disembodied head of a young girl, "and...children."

"You're kidding me!" Gray shouts, stepping back a bit. "We're supposed to kill a little kid?!?"

"There's gotta be another way!" Lucy shouts.

"Well at the moment I'd like to focus on not being slaughtered by the child!" Natsu shouts.

Erza jerks her head to the team. "We're not supposed to fight, we just need to-"

Wendy drops to the floor and covers her mouth trembling. "My...stomach hurts..."

"Wendy!" Lucy kneels down. "We've gotta get out of here!"