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

Chapter V

"I was starting to wonder when you'd get back." Leo chuckled when Elora entered the cabin.

"Alright." Elora sighed, "Do you know—" Leo tossed a water bottle to her. Elora caught it with ease. "Thank you. And now all I need is a—" Leo flipped a golden drachma in her direction.

"Is that everything?" Leo asked.

"Nope." She pointed to the door. "In three...two...one..."

Suddenly Percy barged in. Leo looked at Elora in shock and amazement for a moment before he smiled, "Percy, man I told you we got it handled." Leo chuckled.

"Yeah I know but the more I thought about it the more I got concerned." Percy shrugged.

Elora created a rainbow and threw the coin into it, "Annabeth Chase."

"Why are you calling Annabeth?" Percy frowned.

"I'll explain in a minute." Elora smirked.

"Percy I swear—oh, hey Elora." The image of Annabeth appeared. " I thought you were Percy for a second."

"Don't get all excited, Percy's here too." Elora said plainly.

"Hey! And me." Leo said, fake offended.

"So what's up?" Annabeth smiled.

"Have you noticed how strange everyone is acting lately?" Elora asked.

"I've seen more aggressiveness lately, yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Yeah, it's been affecting everyone at camp. Campers and counselors. But Leo and I think we know why."

"You figured it out already?" Percy frowned.

"Yeah. That girl in your dream? That was Pandora." Leo scoffed.

"What about Pandora?" Annabeth frowned.

"So Leo and I have been issued a quest." Elora started.

"Wait what?!" Both Percy and Annabeth said simultaneously.

"Yeah. I know. We got a prophecy and everything. We've kind of interpreted some of it but we don't know about the rest."

"What did the prophecy say?" Annabeth frowned.

"Children of fire must find each curse. Through the land of dead, strife is first. The ones you trust are not who they say. One wrong move and the cage will fray."

"Well the first line is obvious, 'Children of fire' being you two." Annabeth shrugged.

"Yeah, Chiron told us that when Pandora opened the Pithos, all the evils that came out later found anchors to keep them from roaming about. We think that if something was making these anchors unstable, then it would affect society itself." Elora explained.

"Through the land of dead, strife is first." Percy recited, "So we know that something or someone has tampered with the anchor of strife."

"Right, but we don't know where the land of dead would be." Leo added.

"Well," Annabeth started. "Normally the land of dead would be the underworld but—"

"This doesn't sound like it would be a trip to the underworld." Percy finished.

"Well is there a place that could be, like, known for death?" Leo frowned.

"I don't know." Annabeth shrugged. "That could be anywhere. There were a lot of deaths in the American Revolution and the Civil war."