Elora Stone and The Box of Punishments: The Cage of Strife

Chapter Ⅱ

The next day was when everyone decided to go crazy. Elora was constantly getting asked questions about her and Will and she felt like she needed a break. While everyone was playing Capture the Flag that night, Elora slipped away into the woods and ended up at a beach, she kicked the sand at her feet and sat down in front of the water. Elora brought her hand upward and watched as the water moved with her hand, she giggled. Elora hadn't really used her powers since her mom passed. Elora watched as the four elements spun in a circle around her hand.

"You've got specialties as well?" Elora jumped at the sound of someone's voice. An elvish, latino guy about Elora's age was standing about 10 feet away from her.

"I uh, well—" Elora panicked.

"I wouldn't bother, I already saw you do it," The dude chuckled.

"I don't like to brag about it, sometimes I feel if I told people, they'd see me as a—"

"Freak," The boy finished,

"Yeah..." Elora said sadly, she gazed out to the water. She looked away when she felt the person sit next to her. She saw him take a few objects out of a tool belt around his waist and start tinkering with them, "Hephaestus?" Elora asked,

"Yup. Leo Valdez at your service," Leo grinned.

Elora laughed, "Elora,"

"I wasn't at the campfire yesterday, I was working on a project, So let me guess...Posiedon? You can do what I can do, just with water. For me it's fire,"

Leo held his hand out, a flame suddenly started dancing around in fingers and palm.

Elora's eyes met his, "You can control fire too?"

Leo had confusion painted on his face, "What do you mean?"

Elora brought her hand in front of her, suddenly there was a flame flickering in the center of her hand.

"How—" Leo started, Elora extinguished the flame and made some water rise, she swirled it around and made it turn into snow,

"Fire, water, earth..." Elora made some pebbles float and created a patch of grass underneath them. "And air," She made a mini tornado with her fingers.

"The elements," Leo whispered, "How?"

"I—don't know. My dad always said that I got the power from my mom but she was mortal," Elora sighed,

"Who's your dad?" Leo had stopped playing with the items he took out of his belt.

"Apollo. Will is my twin brother, Will doesn't have these powers though," Elora sighed,

"Well I guess we can be freaks together then," Leo smiled, "So other than you and Will, do you have any other siblings?"

"Nope, just us. Will and I lived with our parents in Maine. Will worked with our mom most of the time and I trained outside most of the time with our dad, Will was never one for fighting. Both our parents taught us music and healing," Elora chuckled at the memory of her and Will when they were younger. She saw Leo looking at the horizon with a familiar look in his eyes that she had seen before, Loss.

"How?" Elora asked softly, Leo's eyes met hers, for some reason she trusted Leo, even though she just met him.

"How what?" He asked,

"How did you lose her? I can see the loss in your eyes, the way you look at the horizon. It's the same for me," Elora scooted closer to him,

Leo sighed, "I was eight. We were at the workshop, she had to finish a project, when we were leaving she stopped and said she forgot her keys. She told me to wait where I was while she went to get them, a couple seconds later the door shut and locked on the inside. I heard something crash inside. I tried calling for her, someone behind me said that she couldn't hear me. It was a woman I didn't know, she sounded like she was asleep. She was made of the earth," Elora listened carefully, "I was so scared, my hands caught on fire and—" He choked, Elora grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, "The building burned down. And it was all my fault,"

"No, it wasn't your fault. If that earth woman never was there then your mom would've never got locked in," Elora tried to reason, "My mom passed when Will and I were six, she was sick," Elora sniffed, "Our dad was gone on a trip, we tried to take care of her but by the time our dad came back, it was too late. If I had just tried harder, called the doctors or something—" Elora caught her breath, "Anything," she whispered, "I could've saved her,"

"What happened back then is in the past and we can't change it," Leo said softly,

"Yeah," Elora whispered,

"Ok, changing the subject, since neither of us can handle this topic," The two chuckled, "What other powers do you have miss sunshine?" Leo smiled,

"What makes you think I have more?" Elora smirked,

"I can tell, you seem like you have more to what you lead on,"

"Alright, well I guess I was a favored child to the Olympians, I was blessed by a couple of them. Aphrodite gave me this necklace," She showed him the chain hanging around her neck, "It let's me change my appearance to look like anyone,"

"Cool!"

"I can change my voice because of my dad, y'know the music thing. Anyway, Ares gave me these," Elora showed her hands and fingers, on her left wrist was a simple charm bracelet with a bow charm, on her right index finger was a ring that looked like an arrow.

"What are they supposed to do?"

Elora mimed knocking an arrow and pulling it back, suddenly a bow was in her hands with an arrow knocked.

"Woah! Sweet weapon. I gotta make one of those," Leo said with wide eyes,

"The other Olympians that blessed me were with gifts like wisdom and agility and speed and that sort of stuff. I probably have more powers from my dad that I don't know about,"

"Well, I'm honored that you told me about this," Leo joked,

"Well just don't tell anyone, not yet," Elora made the weapon disappear.

"You know anything about machines?"

"Hephaestus blessed me with the ability to understand blacksmithing, so uh yeah I guess," Elora chuckled,

"Make something with these," Leo placed a bunch of parts in front of her. Elora giggled and set to work.

"You done yet? When can I see it?" Leo whined,

"In a minute! I'm almost done," Elora laughed,

Leo groaned, "It's been like five hours sunshine, I want to see it,"

"Shut up, it's only been 15 minutes," Elora hit him playfully. "I'm done,"

Leo shot up from his lying position and looked at the machine she had made, "What is it?"

Elora's brows knit together, "I think it's a music box," She wound the crank up and waited. A soft melody started to play, one that Elora recognized all too well. "I thought I'd never hear this song again," she smiled, "My mom and dad would sing this song to us when we got scared at night. It's been six years, gods,"

"Elora!" A voice from the forest behind them yelled, Will emerged from the trees, "Oh hey, I see you've met Leo. I hope he hasn't killed you with his jokes yet," Will smiled,

"We've just been talking," Elora said calmly, the music box still softly playing it's song, Will must've noticed by what he said next,

"Is that—?"

Elora nodded, "I'll show you in the cabin,"

"Well it's almost past curfew so we might want to head out so the furies don't rip us to shreds," Will said blankly, Leo and Elora stood up, "See you in the morning Mr. Joker?'' Elora joked,

"Until then madame, adieu," Leo continued, Elora laughed as she watched him walk away. "Let's go," Will smiled and they parted ways to their cabins.

"Night Will,"

"Goodnight Ellie."