The Proposal of Chaos (PJO)

Chapter 1

Percy sighed, pushing the covers off himself with a hand and stood up, changing his clothes. He was very hungry, since he just got up, but decided to take a breath of fresh air. Slipping on a white long-sleeved t shirt, black thermal leggings and a white cloak over himself he dissipated into mist, reappearing again in a forest covered with inches of snow. 

There was a peaceful silence in the air that only nature could make perfectly. He winced when he landed on the ground, the reddish-orange leaves which were mixed with the snow disrupting the silence with their violent crunch. His breath turned into vapor immediately after exhaling. He walked to a nearby lake, the water frozen as if stuck in time. He made the water underneath crack the ice, letting the fishes free into the now liquid water, all talking happily into his mind.

He smiled, something he rarely did now. After Annabeth's death, his emotions were unsteady. He figured out that only nature could calm him down. Well, only the good side. Percy mostly stays in the forest everyday, only going to camp when he needed to eat or sleep. While lost in his thoughts, Percy absentmindedly made a water ball in his hand, tossing it around. 

The ball suddenly froze into ice, the now cold surface biting into his skin. Taken by surprise, he dropped the ice ball, the ball cushioned by the snow. He looked around, alert, knowing that he didn't have power over ice.

He heard a whizzing sound fast approaching. Percy dove forward, the snow stopping him from injuring himself. A black arrow thunked into a tree right behind where he was a moment ago. Now knowing he was being hunted, he tried mist traveling back to his cabin. He felt himself separating, but then uncontrollably being unified once again. Confused, he opened his eyes, observing he was still in the forest with one big difference; he was now freezing cold, his teeth chattering, and goosebumps appearing on his skin. 

He finally tried to take control of the water in the lake, but all of it was now frozen solid, effectively stopping him from using it. Out of options, he did the only thing left; he ran.

He darted the opposite direction the arrows were coming, not wanting to run into his pursuers. The fallen, dried reddish-orange leaves crunched under his feet while the snow was marking where he was going. His white cloak didn't help, billowing behind him, possibly giving away his position to his pursuers. He clutched the cloak tighter to his strong and lean frame to trap his body heat. He ran as fast as possible, nearly tripping on many logs. 

The wind suddenly picked up speed, blowing roughly into his eyes making them tear up; it went through his cloak, making him shiver uncontrollably; it also slowed him down, pushing against him. The few loose inches of snow that had fallen from the branches of trees were picked up by the wind and flung in the opposite direction he was running, pelting him with lots of snow. Using those few moments the snow was in the air, he flung himself as far right he could and dove into the snow, his stomach facing the ground. 

His face was full of snow and his core temperature was dropping slowly but steadily. He laid as still as he could, hoping his pursuers couldn't see him. The wind shifted positions, now hitting Percy from the side that his pursuers were coming from.

He could hear the vibrations of their footsteps coming closer. With his luck, they stopped near him. Over the howling wind, he heard a person shout. 

"Spread out and find him!" A female with a very cold voice shouted. A cacophony of growls were heard which Percy recognized as hellhounds. With how loud the growls were over the wind, he guessed there were over a dozen. He was now grateful for the wind, for the hellhounds couldn't track him using smell since the wind was blowing from them to him. 

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a shoe on his arm, all the weight of that person now on him made him silently grimace in pain. He laid stock still, hoping the person would mistake him for a branch, log, or possibly even a dead animal.