The Water Dragon Slayer Soars

Chapter 15 The Harvest Festival

When they returned to Fairy Tail they found that the new guild hall had been finished. Levi greeted them at the front entrance, "Come on I'll show you around!" she cried and grabbed Lucy's arm and ran inside.
"Whoa!" yelped Lucy, "Levi slow down!" The others ran after them. Just through the gates were a new open-air cafe and souvenir shop.

Max was working the shop, "Hey guys welcome back."

"Hi Max." replied Aviana, "Is this your job now or are you gonna continue doing other work?"

Max grinned, "This is my thing now."

"Sweet," said Cain.

"Come on you two or we're leaving you out here!" Levi shouted.

"OK, we're coming!" Aviana called back, "See you later Max."

Once inside Levi showed them that they guild now had an indoor pool and game room. She explained that anyone could go to the second floor now but you had to have an S-class mage on your team to take any of the jobs up there. "This is awesome!" said Cain staring around.

"I liked it better before," grumbled Natsu.

"That's only because you've been here since you were a kid so this change is kind of sudden for you." said Levi, "You'll get used to it."

Then the master walked up with Juvia, "Welcome back you lot. I'd like you to meet our newest members."

Aviana smiled, "I'm glad to see you got in Juvia!"

"Juvia is happy too," the water mage replied.

"You said 'members' as in multiple, who else is new?" asked Katsandra.

The master gestured to where a mage sat alone, eating something. Everyone was avoiding him. Natsu growled, "Gajeel..."

With a start, Aviana realized it was indeed the Iron Dragon Slayer. Then she realized that the thing that he was eating was iron scraps. She remembered when they were kids in the past they hadn't been good friends since all he ever wanted to do was fight, so she decided to try and fix that and befriend him. She approached, "Welcome to our guild Gajeel." she said.

"Leave me alone," he growled in reply, she saw him look at her out of the corner of his eye.

Sighing, Aviana compiled and returned to the others, "I hope he doesn't stay like that. Solitude does some weird things to people." Everyone but Cain and Katsandra stared at her, "What? I'm trying to be friendly and I'm not one to hold grudges no matter what he did in the past."

The master sighed, "I wish everyone had your optimism. Some members think I shouldn't have invited him here. Either way, the Harvest Festival is in a few weeks and between that and the fact that Sorcerer's Weekly is sending a reporter to check out the new guild hall we'll be busy."

"Harvest Festival?" asked Aviana.

Natsu grinned, "Every year in celebration of the Harvest Festival the guild puts on a huge parade. We call in the Fantasia Parade. It's optional to participate but I would recommend doing it. It's a lot of fun."

"Yes on that note. Aviana, Cain, could you two possibly take part? I would like to have a water float and with Juvia being so new it feels wrong to ask her. You two have been here longer so you're more suited for it. It's up to you though." The master asked.

Aviana looked at Cain, "I'm down. What about you?"

Cain shrugged, "Sure why not. Sounds like fun."

"Excellent!" said Makarov, "I hoped you would and just in case I had some of our other members start a water-themed float. Why don't you two go take over? You can modify it however you see fit to showcase your powers best. The work area is just through there."