Chapter 3
"Do you want some water with that ice?" A few days had passed and Cascadia was sitting at one of the tables, chewing miserably on ice, when Gray had to sarcastically disturb her meal.
"What's it to you?" Cascadia said with a mouthful of ice, "I prefer ice to water."
Gray put his hands up, "Sorry I asked." He ran a hand through his black hair, "I actually came by to see how you were doing. You haven't been very sociable and you've been through a lot."
"I'm fine." Cascadia snapped, her gray eyes narrowing.
Gray opened his mouth, as though readying for a sharp response, when their conversation was interrupted. "Gray, put your clothes on." The woman who approached was right, of course. Gray's shirt was missing. One thing Cascadia has learned in the short amount of time she had been in Fairy Tail that Gray did indeed seem to have a habit of losing his clothes and needing to be reminded to put them back on.
The woman who spoke to Gray seemed to speak with an air of authority. It was clear she was respected, or at least feared because Gray looked down to see she was correct and said, "Yes, ma'am."
The woman had long, scarlet hair and wore armor that looked rather uncomfortable to Cascadia. As Cascadia was studying the woman, she looked at her and her expression softened, "Hi, you must be new. I'm Erza Scarlet. I've been gone for a couple of days, so you must have arrived while I was gone."
"Must have," Cascadia agreed, and then added, "I'm Cascadia Vasilakis. I arrived a few days ago."
She nodded in understanding then looked at Gray, "You two seem to be rather friendly."
Gray rubbed the back of his head, "Not really, we met the day she joined. I brought her here. That's all."
The woman, Erza, raised an eyebrow, "Is that right?" She looked at Cascadia, "Sounds like you have a story."
"We all have stories." Cascadia said warily, "Just some longer and more depressing than others."
Erza sat down as Cascadia began her story, nodding her head once in a while, "I see. So that's how it is." She stood up, holding out a hand, "Well, I'm glad to see you safe and I assure you if you get in trouble, we'll be there. Fairy Tail is your family, after all."
Cascadia narrowed her eyes skeptically, but took her hand all the same. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
"So what kind of magic do you use, anyway?" Erza asked as she guided Cascadia to the request board.
"Just ice magic." Cascadia said.
"Well," Erza put a hand on her hip, "I was planning on going on another quest. Rather simple. It might be good experience for you to come with me."
"Might as well." Cascadia shrugged.
"GRAY, fight me here and now." Cascadia jumped to the yelling behind them.
Erza sighed, "Leave them alone for two minutes and they get in a fight."
She was right, of course. Gray was fighting the man known as Natsu in the middle of the guild hall. It seemed as though Gray had done something to peeve Natsu.
"What did he do, I wonder?"
"With them? Anything's possible." Erza muttered before stepping forward, "If you have all that energy to fight, you might as well come with Cascadia and me on our job."
She grabbed each by the collar, or at least Natsu. Gray was missing his clothes once again.
"Lemme me go!" Natsu whined, trying to get away before looking at Cascadia, "Who are you again?"
"Cascadia Vasilakis." Cascadia answered, "An ice wizard."
"Another one?" Natsu groaned before grinning widely, "Fight me!"
Erza gave him a sharp glare, "Later. We're going on a job first."