Everyone was either sleeping or very busy, as it was free time, and terribly hot. Jude, however, stole away to the woods and was just walking through the trees, hoping to find one so that she might craft herself a wand. Judida had been apprenticed to Olivander in the year after Voldemorts' fall, and knew how to craft a wand quite well. Olivander was quite exacting about it.

She checked to make no one was watching when she found her favourite tree in the woods. It was a beautiful white oak, like the kind she had always imagined to be in Rivendell, from the 'The Lord of the Rings' movies. She wanted to read the books, but no-one at Camp had a set. So she hadn't yet, but she was considering asking for a copy for her birthday. But, back to the tree. She knew for a fact that this one didn't have a Dryad, because for some reason she just didn't like playing on, around, or near Dryad trees. Oh, she liked the Dryads well enough, but their trees were just not something that she liked to play with.

Oh, gosh darn it; she was rambling in her head again. She climbed up the tree, looking for the just right perfect branch. She was about to crawl down, as she had reached the very top, when she saw it. Very straight, very smooth, and pure white, the wood gleamed, standing straight up and pointing to the sky, to Olympus. It was thick enough that it wouldn't break, but not so thick that it would be hard to hold even after it was stripped of bark and polished. Jude very carefully balanced herself, and she slid the ceramic knife she had made in Arts and Crafts last year out of her small satchel; it was slim and sharp, and she really didn't want it to splinter if it fell.

She levelled it to the base of the branch and slid it around, making sure that she had a good grip on the tree with her legs, and on the branch with her other hand. It took her a couple of minutes, but she got the branch, and pretty well cut, if she did say so herself. She placed it gingerly in the satchel, and wrapped her knife and put it in, too. Turning her head to the sky, it looked about time for Dinner. Oh, for the love of Olympus.

Jude scuttled down the tree and sped to Cabin One, placed her satchel under Thalia's Bed, and hastened over to the dining pavilion just in time to offer food to the gods with everyone else and hurry over to… was she at Dad or Father's table today? It was Wednesday, so she did Dad's table yesterday… Father, then. She sat down at Father's table and nibbled on her crackers. She was so excited! She'd be able to make her wand!

Wait… would she even get a letter? Or had her magic just been her demigod powers focused into a wand? Well… her Mommy had been a witch, and wouldn't that make her a witch? Jude shook her head and stabbed a piece of broccoli with her fork. She'd worry about it later.

.

It was very annoying trying to find a wand core. Especially when you were telling everyone that the reason you kept plucking their hairs out was to see if the fairy tales with witches and wizards with wands were true. No-one took you seriously! Christ! Jude finally just ended up using some Stygian iron that Daddy had sent her for her birthday, 'to experiment with.' She had a feeling that she was missing some sort of joke in there. Maybe a family joke that she was 'too young' to understand? Did she even have siblings?

She was a little worried, using the iron as her core, but it worked beautifully. She wasn't able to polish it with wand polish, so she ended up just using some water and embedding it in the wood. She didn't expect it to make rainbows when the light hit it, and she wasn't even sure how she did it. She had just taken a handful of water from her fountain and rubbed it along the wood, just wanting it to work like polish, to be a part of the wood, really. She was actually rather surprised that it had worked.

.

When Jude had finished up each day, whatever it is that she did, she would go to her Father's cabin and practice with her wand. She liked it, it felt… closer… to her, than her Holly wand had, in a way. She wasn't really doing any spells, just willing things to happen with the wand. Once she got the affects of a certain thing right, she began trying to do them without her wand. After all, Judida had nearly been dead loads of times until she started practising lots and mastered hexes, curses, and charms and things until she could do them without a wand. Judida had said that there were other, easier ways to do wandless magic, but she was comfortable with this.

And so the years passed. Jude got her fathers to stop feuding a little, enough so that she could Iris Message them on her birthdays and Christmas without ending up in tears, anyway. She talked with Hestia, and learned a lot of history from her perspective. The Hunters of Artemis visited once, and Zoë Nightshade got a lot of the Aphrodite kids really mad. They were in an even worse mood when the Campers lost Capture the Flag with them. For some reason, just because Jude liked talking with Zoë and the other Hunters, a lot of campers thought that it was all Jude's fault.

Sticking most of them into rocks did not help her much.

Jude was really; really excited when she found out that her new friends would still be at Camp on her birthday. Zoë liked talking with her about what being a Huntress was like, and Jude had a suspicion that her friend was trying to recruit her.

On the morning of her tenth birthday, Jude frowned at herself in the mirror. She did not look ten. She looked eight. Maybe. Closer to seven-ish. It was weird. She shook her head. Maybe it was some weird affect from being ¾ Olympian. Wouldn't surprise her one little bit. As soon as she heard birds chirping, Jude zoomed out her door and to Hestia to give her a hug and drag her over to Artemis' Cabin. Hestia had probably been expecting it that day, because she didn't put up a fuss and make Jude wait while she made sure that the hearth stayed hot while she was gone.

Jude got that her first friend was all about Hearth and Home, she did, but sometimes, it was annoying. She wondered if Mr. Chiron would try and convince her to go to school again this year. He always did, every birthday. Jude snorted quietly to herself while she rapped on the door to the cabin. She was filching the college Half Bloods' textbooks to read, and he wanted her to enter the fifth grade. No thanks. She knew that she had a bit of an unfair advantage over kids her age in that department, already having been through primary school by age two and a half, but still.

She was ripped out of her musings by Zoë opening the door and wishing her a happy birthday. Jude smiled back. "Thanks, Zoë! I'm excited, but I hope that Mr. Chiron doesn't try and make me go to school again this year…"

Zoë cocked her head to the side, confused. "What do you mean, Jude? Are you not learning at Camp? And why would Master Chiron wish to send thee away when there are monsters that would surely thirst for your blood, and you are…" She paused, as if debating what to say or not. Then she shrugged. "Not quite of the age to fend them off."

Jude shrugged. "He thinks that I should interact with people my age."

"'Tis a good thought, but there are Campers thine own age here. Perhaps he worries for thine schooling?"

Jude nodded. "Perhaps. Hey, why don't we go wake up Clarisse now? She only said that I can't wake her up before dawn!"

Zoë smothered a giggle and nodded. "Lead the way, Birthday Child."

Jude grinned widely and bounded for Ares cabin.

Around an hour later Clarisse found herself sopping wet and in the middle of the lake.

"I TOLD YOU TO GET UP, WAR GIRL!" Jude yelled.

Clarisse said several very rude words. Meanie.

.

Jude looked at Zoë in apprehension. It was the Hunter's last day at Camp Half Blood, and the last day of the summer session. Zoë had brought her in while everyone else had been packing, and sat her on one of the silver-sheeted beds.

"Yeah?" she asked her friend, whose face was very serious.

"Jude, you know how girl demigods are able to choose to follow the Lady Artemis, aye?"

"Yeah, but I'm a Camper. I can't change, can I?" She was torn, she wanted to stay with Zoë, and the Hunters seemed wonderful, but… she would miss Clarisse and Hestia and Annabeth and Luke. She wasn't sure that she even would like being immortal.

"No, Judida-"

"Jude."

Zoë shook her head and smiled warmly. "Jude it 'tis, then. Jude, thou may change, and become a Hunter, as I am, as all of us are in this cabin. There is not a need to answer me now, but would you think of it, from time to time? You would be welcome to join us."

Jude slid her arms around her friend. "I want to stay with you, Zoë, I do, but… I need to stay near Clarisse, and Hestia, and Annabeth and Luke. I don't know why, but I do. And Thal-Thalia's tree. Something is going to happen, Zoë. Something. I-I don't even know if I would want to live forever. How do you go on when the ones you love die? I-I-I… I don't know. I just don't know." She hugged Zoë tighter, begging her silently not to be mad, or hate her, or make her disappointed in her. Zoë was her friend, she couldn't make her sad, she just couldn't.

Zoë rubbed her back soothingly. "Hush, Jude. 'Tis not any problem to concern thyself with now. 'Tis just something to think of, an option that you might consider. Now, finish your crying when you can, there is no hurry. I will be packing, if you wish to speak to me or the other Hunters, do not hesitate to, understand?"

Jude smiled a small and watery grin and nodded. "I promise Zoë, I pinkie promise." Pinkie promises, in Jude's mind, were second only to swearing on the river Styx. They just had the added benefit of no curses. Zoë smoothed Jude's hair once and turned to her things. Jude just sat there as she and the other girls packed.

What would it be like to be a Hunter? There was a clash and the sound of metal on the ground, and Clarisse yelling. Something wise?

Oh, bugger all.

Sighing, Jude smoothed down her slacks from where she had bunched then 'round her knees, and made her way out the door, hands out and aimed at the two girls older than she.

"Oi!" she yelled, her old accent coming back full force, as it always did when she was upset or angry. She waved her one hand wildly upward and black earth closed around Annabeth and Clarisse's feet, and moved them both a good five feet away from each other. Jude stomped in between them. "What, for the love of all that is pure, is wrong with you two nutters this time?"

Jude's eyes narrowed as Clarisse scowled and Annabeth looked away, arms crossed defiantly. She rolled her eyes and smacked both their arms, trying not to show that she was getting a bit tired from holding the earth on them. Not too terribly tired, mid you, but still not at the top of her game. The older girls rubbed their arms moodily, but didn't speak. Jude stomped her foot. "Talk!"

Nothing. Fine. Fine. Fine. Jude made Clarisse's rock make its way up to her shoulders and moved Annabeth towards the lake. Ignoring her protests, Jude made the blonde fly through the air and land about five yards from the shore. She stomped back over to Clarisse. "Tell me, Clairie, or you are joining Annabeth in the middle of the lake, and no way to get back until someone feels sorry for you and comes with a rowboat." She was sick of them fighting, and if she had to be mean right back to them, so be it! She could be sad about it later!

Clarisse huffed and said, while insulting Annabeth in every venom-coated word, what had happened.

All of that over Annabeth not shutting up about buildings.

Jude really wanted a headache cure.

She practiced making a barrier between people to stop fighting that night. And the next, and the next, and the next, until she perfected it.

Thankfully, it only took around another two or three days to do it wandless. Now how would she explain it away if she used it…? Compressing the air between them? Jude tried not to smack herself upside the head. Why didn't she practise that? Then again, she only really practised throwing people with air… glaring at her nose, since she wasn't one of the lucky people able to turn their eyes around to glare at their brain, Jude stuffed her wand in its' slim cloth holding bag and started practising compressing the air around her t make a barrier. Using the earth would be easier, but two ways were better than one.

She sounded like Daddy. Or Mad Eye Moody.

Both.

AN/AR: It took me forever to iron everthing out in this Chapter! I hope you all like it, and review. Something other than the word 'update!' I beg you. I'm glad that people want me to put more up, I am, but I'd LOVE constructive criticism, even flames, really. People that hate your story dont tend to give a flying whoop whether or not you get your feelings hurt when they point out something stupid that you did. So, Im working on Chapter 12, and thank you for reading!

Blessings,

Mercy.

Post Script: Oh, and does anyone play FarmVille on Facebook? I tried it out on my... second cousins? third? It's annoying haviong a big family... Anywhatever, I tried it, and it's SPLENDID! Not sure if I'll bother joining the site, though...