How far would you go to save someone you thought you loved? How far would you pursue your secret desires? What would you do to fill the heart felt dreams you had? Would you chase them? Follow them into the unknown and step through the fires of hell for them? Would you be willing to lay down your life, or maybe take a few lives for it? Just for some feeling you think you might have but never truly knew in the slightest what those feelings were? Or would you be more sensible and see the logic of staying safe while you secret crush was in the unknown possible suffering or even dead?

Most would probably wise up and realize they don't truly know anything about love and decide to stay home. Some would take the call and run after them, but turn back the moment things looked sketchy. But every so often a very slim number of people charge head first into the dangers to save them, when the hand of fate reads out a brave soul to go after them. Brave or stupid; to my belief it is mostly the later.

But I believe I'm jumping ahead of myself. If I'm going to tell this story then I might as well start it the way it's meant to begin. But to do that I think you will need a few details on how my ex-society worked, and why I left it in the first place.

Life was never hard by any means there. There was no violence, no plagues, nor anything else to disturb the melancholy that was life there. But it was never a full life either; just as there was nothing on the negative end, there could be nothing on the positive end. No sense of adventure or thrill of meeting new faces, not even the joys of freedom existed there, well to some extent. We lived our lives the way we wanted; choose our jobs, our mates, and our living quarters. But we never choose who was in control or where we could go. But the biggest constraint was that no one was allowed out of the underground city, no one was leaving and no one was entering.

And that was life there; everyone knew it and everyone accepted it. I had found a sort of… understanding, to that knowledge. Ever since I was a small boy I had been classified as a troublemaker by their standards. I was the youngest of three children, me my two sisters. My dad had died before I had been born, so I was the only male in my family; meaning I was the one expected to do the work. But of course being the daring rebel I was did almost none of it. Which was bizarre seeing as I was so capable of it I was large, strong, and magically inclined, but the work load ultimately fell to my sister who simply flirted enough to get someone else to do it.

But of course there was always one person who could get me to do anything, and I mean anything. A single soul who could get me to bend to her will, heck she could tell me to jump of a ledge and fly, and I would find a way. Winter breeze, the single most beautiful female in the encampment; she was the town's clothing store owner, and every piece of clothing that left those shops was the most beautifully crafted in the town, probably the world, if that still existed.

I can still remember the first time I saw her; it was when we were both still young. I won't forget the day my friend Glow Stone, my fellow delinquent and trouble maker, dared me to cross over to the female side of youngling school. With quick swipe of the hand to brush the red hair and blue, lightning bolt streaks out of my eyes I was off. I quickly snuck the door of the room and ran off down the hallway to the female side. I poked my head in and a tuft of red streaked my vision on the pink room, but my gaze fell on the young female with the light blue hair threaded with deep blue streaks. I was caught by the instructor shortly after and sent back to class and told no snacks. Looking back now it was worth it.

I told Glow Stone about her and he just struck a face and told me that females had nasties and that if you got to close you turned into a female. I wonder if he still remembers saying that, as he was flirting with the third female in two weeks. I think it's his green and gold eyes that attract them, so unique. Sorry rambling, back on track; now I got to see more of her as I moved from youngling to midway school.

I had talked to her a few times after that little trip as a youngling, and we were friends through midway. But soon my feelings outgrew the friendship kind, and she wanted nothing to do with those. But I might have stood a better chance had I not made a fool of myself trying to impress her. I still remember that day, it still reminds me of how foolish I was and for the most part am.

One thing about the city is that midway is just to hold you until you learn what you are best out and start working. So they have one day where you can work anywhere you think you will do well in. That was the day I decided I was going to try absolutely everything so I could start work first and impress her with my maturity. And I did try everything, except the one thing I do well, making and mixing music, being a DJ.

Of course looking at me it seems reasonable that I would have a physical labor job, so Glow Stone and I headed off to the mines to try and see what we could do. We were given a brief lesson and sent off to find gold or glow stone. (I'm thinking you might have noticed the relation to the rock and my friend's name.) Within a mere fifteen minutes Glow Stone found a soft glowing green rock that looked similar to his hair in color, and in thirty minutes found the precious gold. Needless to say he was put to work the next day, ruining my plan

But I didn't lose hope and moved on to construction, and failed, so I tried farming, and ruined the crops. Then to combat training (yes we had combat training in a town with now violence, we needed some safety in security.) I wasn't horrible at that, but not skilled by any means. Then I decided to look to the arcane practices, again not a horrible upchuck on the world but not great. So I decided I had one more thing, rock breaking. It's similar to mining but much easier, you break the rock to see if the miners missed anything.

This was my point of shame; I had thought that with all I had learned in all the hard work areas I would be able to smash rocks easy. But the gruff oversized behemoth of a worker lowered my hope that I could. But I had to try, for her. So I found a big rock that looked to be promising, and called everyone over to watch me show of strength. As they gathered I raised my hand to strike it the way I was shown, and used a little magic to make my force carry more wait for some help. I struck down on the rock and immediately broke every bone in my hand. Everyone laughed at me, as the medic came and healed me with a combination of herbs and magic.

When Winter Breeze came over to see how I felt, I had quickly made myself seem better than I was. She didn't buy it at all. She asked me why I had gathered the crowd and did that, why I had made a fool of myself. And I explained how I felt and my plan to impress her, the sheer look of shock filling her frosty light blue eyes told me how she felt. But the words when she told me that she didn't want that still made my heart break. Yet I still had not given up hope.

I had known then not to try to chase my dreams of a relationship with her just yet and decided to see if I could save the friendship. I spent all day think what I was going to say to her. When I had exhausted my energy pacing the hospital room I laid in the bed and thought. And thought, and thought, until something happened. A soft tune played in my head, a slow, gentle, soothing tune. Quickly remembering something from magic that I had done well I grabbed a recorder and used my magic to play the tune for a fair amount of time. After that was set I played countless times while thinking of lyrics to go with it. And after week of thought and some heart felt apologies it was ready.

I was given the all clear and left the hospital, fist stop, Winter's home. I decided to leave a message at the end apologizing and asking for friendship from her at the end then left the recording at her doorstep. And the next day when I left for class I had sent a prayer that it worked.

The class had been growing smaller and smaller, as more and more people found their jobs. The class had seven students left, and both Winter and I were in it. I thought it would be the most awkward class ever, but when she came up to me with her eyes watering and the recorder in her hand, I know otherwise.

She had a lovely dress o that day, and it complimented her porcelain skin very well, but the outfit only barley distracted me from her approach. I knew she had heard it from the smile and moist eyes, but I had no idea that it was good enough to earn me a hug, especially from her. When she let go she had told me how she had hear the recorder and couldn't help but cry the first time, describing my song as beautiful, and heart touching. This made my face turn a shade of red to match me hair, making the blue bolts pop, which brought forth a compliment about how my hair had always looked so great.

I couldn't handle it and had to change the subject, as she pushed paly on the song. When the tune started I rushed to change the topic and try to get her to stop the recording. So my first thought was

"W...Wh...Whe... Where did you get the dress?" I had stammered the question, still flush with embarrassment.

"Do you like it?" she asked, twirling a little, as she caught on to the change. "I made it myself actually." Her voice was every bit as soft and lovely as her.

"It's… beautiful." I stated in a hypnotized state. Only to be interrupted as the instructor decided to but in.

"Excuse me ma'am but did you say you made that? Would you please come with me?" the instructor had asked her in a quizative tone as she led Winter into the hall. As the door closed I heard the muffled voices back and forth as they talked followed be a squeal of delight.

"I found my talent, I'm a dressmaker!" Winter had shouted triumphantly as she barged into the room with a broad smile from ear to ear. "Oh and she wants to see you Static Shock." Uh-oh, I wasn't sure what to expect given my past as a troublemaker and slacker. But I headed out the door and closed in behind me.

"'Miss Breeze told me you made the song she had started playing? Made the music and the words?" I had barely heard the question as I ponder the Miss Breeze; it seemed odd to call her that. "Well did you?" the instructor asked growing impatient.

"No...Um...Yes...Sorry, yes I made it." I was still thinking about the hug.

"Well it was a very well made song, for a novice performer." I finally started to see where this was going, focusing on the conversation.

"Wait is you saying...That I..."

"Should be the DJ and music maker." She finished before I could ask the question.

I didn't squeal, or giggle, or bust out in fits of thank yous and hugs. I couldn't believe it really. The whole time the thing I was best at was making music, and it took shame, heart break, and a week or two of thinking to find it. I wasn't the first one to find my job, but dang it there was no person happier than me to find it.

The fact that I did get a job, and wasn't the last one to get one, made me ecstatic, and the fact I got a chance to start work almost immediately was even better. Winter held a party for the finding of our talents, and seeing that I was the first DJ in tree generation meant that I was naturally the one to bring the music. For as long as I could remember, the radio station we had was set to simply set to loop through a list of nearly a hundred songs; if you wanted to hear something new, you either made it yourself, or decided it wasn't worth the trouble and just listen to what was already playing. It had been three years since anyone made a new song, and even longer since one of the songs was added and the list re-shuffled.

So at parties and other events requiring music, you had three choices, play the radio, re-shuffle the list, or hire the DJ. So when Winter had the chance for a real DJ there she decided to leap to it (even though I had just found out I was any good with music that same morning.) but that didn't stop from giving her a free, first time appearance of the town DJ.

Of course I wasn't completely new to the DJ experience, I had made a few mixes before; and I had every one of the songs recorded on my personal portable terminal (small information storage device that can be folded down and used for limited access, or opened for full access to its entire feature.) The device was not something uncommon to see in the town, and most people had one. It was a useful item to have as even closed, the small screen on the outside gives you access to the music and recording storage, inventory checker, and friend or foe compass that could be seen when the complementary visor was worn. I always wore my visor because I though it looked cool, not so much for the compass. When opened you gained access to everything from the closed access, as well as a map that could show you any part of the world you've visited, and text based storage. All in all a rather useful piece of magic enhanced technology, MET.

When I arrived at the party it was fairly under way, people were mingling and talking with one another while enjoying a plethora of snacks and party favor, but I didn't see winter anywhere. I decided I'd look for her (harder than you'd think when so many people decide to ask you what it's like being the first DJ in what seemed liked forever.) the crowds was not such a big deal, as the fact that all of them were swarming me like flies to fruit. But after leaving the lower floor the crowd had thinned to couples retreating into dark areas to begin the make out sessions and who knows what else.

I found Winter in her room, and asked what she was doing here instead of at the party. She had quickly informed me that she was finishing some touches to a dress and wanted me to make an announcement when she would walk down.

"How?" I remember asking.

"Did you not notice the sound station set up when you walked in? It's set so you can hook it up to your MET to it and play any music you have on it. We also made sure that there is a microphone set so that you can make the announcement. Would please do it, pretty please?" how could I have said know when she had stepped up and batter her long eyelashes and put on a pouty face. She was using my feelings against me, but I didn't mind it.

"Yeah sure I'll do it." It was a reluctant answer, I would have been happy to draw the attention away from me. So I quickly headed downstairs again and fought the mob as I looked for the station. Took me five minutes, and I had my MET hooked up and was sorting through my music making the best party songs to play first with a few slow songs playing in between.

Before I could play the first song I decided I was going to make sure I was not only the first DJ in about a hundred years, but I was going to be the best DJ the town ever had, and to do that I was going to make my time fun. "Goooooooooood aftanooooon, boy and girls, Static here ready to play some music for the first time in who knows when, let's get this party kicking." I let the first song start with low volume in the background as the song's intro played and I gave mine, checking the song's time I saw I timed it perfectly as I slammed the volume all the way up the song began blasting out of the amps, making the floor vibrate form a mixture of the song's bass, the yells of the partyers, and the beating of their feat as they began dancing to the music.

The whole party was off to a great start as the first song ended and I lowered the volume of the song to make another statement, "How'd you guy like that song?" my question was met with an entire crowed shouting as someone began to cheer my name. "Well you love this one." I turned the volume back up as the amps let forth a single electric note that started low and began building, halfway up a drum began beating in the background setting a quick beat, finally the note help at a higher pitch then erupted into a beat matching the beat of the drum and throwing in so many other quick notes I couldn't stop my head from bobbing.

A few songs later I had a single person approach me to let me know that Winter was ready and was going to head down when the song ended. I quickly noted it and prepared something to say; as the song began drawing to an end I lowered the volume and prepared the mic. "Alrighty now, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls would you please give your attention to the beautiful host of this party, and fellow special guest, WINTER BREEZE!" I shouted the name and got the next party song building up, I looked over to the stairs as the song started playing, and winter walked out.

The beautiful comment I said in the announcement did not even come close to cutting it. She stepped down the stairs ant the first thing I noticed was the black heels and the dress chasing her ankles. The further she walked down, the more I saw of her dress. A black dress that opened around her knees and allowed for movement and dance for the party, all along the dress there was black plastic gems tracing the side and coming around to entwine themselves together at the waist and then wrap around, forming the waist line.

She looked absolutely marvelous and caught all the attention. The song went unnoticed for the most part, though it was rather fitting as it was a bit slower than the rest. When she reached the bottom of the stair she stood tall and looked over the crowd. "DJ let's get something fast playing in here, I came to party!" she had addressed the crowd almost as though it was planned.

"How about something like this?" I played a slow song and everyone looked shocked. "Got'cha!" I smirked as I clicked the real song I planned to play and the amps vibrated as the song burst through.

"Now that's how you start a party!" I heard her shout as she rushed into the crowd and stating dancing with the rest.

The party was a great, the music got everyone dancing and cheering for more, and I knew I had done a good job for my first time. But all good things have to come to a close. Tomorrow I would start working in the broadcasting station, and Winter would head to the clothing shop. But I had one little plan to wrap things up. "Okay party fans, I know I've been enjoying myself, how about you?" my question was met with a simultaneous cheer from the crowd. "Well unfortunately this can't last forever, so how about we slow things down some. Grab that special person, or someone you've been trying to talk to, or maybe just a random stranger," that got some chuckles, "so here we go, a slow one to wrap things up." I let the last song of the night play and saw almost everyone couple up and three go after Winter. That wasn't my plan but I decided to give her space. This is why I was so shocked to see her say no to them and come ask me if I would dance with her.

Even more shocking then that was when she invited me to step outside with her to escape the crowds. A little flag popped up in my mind, wasn't I chasing her. But I choose to follow and see what happed. We left through the back door and sat out on a porch overlooking the small stream in the town. I soon saw a little set up of a couple of blankets and some pillows set up for a small sitting place.

"I hope you don't mind me asking you to come out here I just figured we should talk. We haven't got the chance since the first day in the hospital." She sat down and pulled blanket over her legs.

"yeah." I replied sitting nearby but giving her some space as well. "I'm sorry for putting you in an awkward position."

"Oh it was okay…" it wasn't. "I just don't have those sort of feelings for you yet. It's not your fault."

"Yeah but i… wait did you just say yet?" I was utterly shocked by the notion of feelings even possibly becoming mutual. She just turned and gave me a smile, a true smile, not forced.

"Yeah, even though the feelings aren't quite ready for something like a relationship with you, I'm not going to lie and say there are absolutely no feelings. And the idea isn't new to me either." She scooted a little closer to me, nothing like sitting next to me, but closer. "I thought maybe tonight could be a little test run, see if those feelings could lead to something like yours." She scooted in a little more and tossed the blanket over my legs as well.

I was frozen with shock; I had no idea what to do. Should I scoot in, back off, wait there, what was I supposed to do? I didn't need to know what to do though, the next thing she did, removed my frozen state. She scooted in as close as she could, and I could feel her warmth against my side, as her head rested on my shoulder. On instinct I lifted my arm and rested it across her shoulder and I felt her snuggle in closer to me.

We stayed snuggled up like that for quite some time before either of u spoke, she was the first to break the silence. "Have you ever wondered what it was like before whatever happened above happened? Like what was daily life for them?"

"I used to think about, but it always ended with me making a copy of this world. I guess when the only thing you know is the town, then it's hard to think of what else there could be." I looked down to find her staring up at me with an odd look.

"Yeah I guess you're right. But what if it was a great life? What if they had made a place filled with all kinds of wonder?" her look seemed to shift to one of mild excitement at the idea.

"I don't know really. I don't know if anyone really knows what it was like up there." Her eyes seemed to a have a sad look for the briefest of moments. I didn't want to just ruin her little pleasure she found in the idea. "But I think there is a good chance it was a world filled with wonders, better then we'll ever dream up." That returned her glee.

"Yeah. You always did know ways to make me smile." She looked out at the stream as she wrapped her hands around me, giving a slight yawn. I took it as a queue and began to lie down. She quickly followed and lay next to me with her head resting on my chest. I looked up and gave a slight chuckle.

"What's so funny?" she asked as she looked up at me quizzically.

"I guess there's no goodnight kiss in a test run." I answered in a joking manner. My little joke was met with a light smack and a warm smile as I laughed a little more. But I stopped laughing when she scooted up a little and pressed her soft, warm lips to mine. It was the best night of my life, and I remember that her lips tasted like fresh blueberries that night.

I awoke the next day in a groggy state as I tried to piece together everything that had happened. I remembered that there was a party, and Winter asked me to follow her outside, which one way or another ended with a kiss. I sat up, and then noticed Winter was gone. I stood up and shook the sleep from me and started to head home.

"So this is how you're going to end the test run?" I turned and saw Winter standing in the doorway with a tray of food.

"I'm sorry I thought…" I noticed the smile on her face and knew she had been joking. I walked up and took a piece of toast. "Thank you."

"Well are you just going to sit out here all day or what?" she turned and walked back inside. I followed her to the dining room where she had already set her own plate. I sat in the seat with the tray set down across from her. "I wasn't sure how you liked your eggs so I played it safe and just scrambled them. And the waffles have some sausage mixed in with the batter. I hope you like it." The food was heavenly.

"Wow this is amazing. Never thought about mixing things with the waffles. Where'd you learn to cook like this?"

"Oh I learned it from the chief, in case I needed it you know?"

"Why would you ever need it?"

"In case I ever had to cook for myself."

"When would that ever happen?"

"In case we ever left the town." I sat there and gawked at her. Leave the town? For what? Or better yet, to where? The outside was just… well no one really knew what the outside was. But the few tunnels that didn't lead to the mines, led to other underground cities, and most were blocked off years ago.

"Leave the town? Where would you go? To the other towns?"

"No. outside. To the upper world. Don't you want to know what it's like? What it was like? What happened? You said yourself, no one knows. Wouldn't you like to be the first one to find out?"

"Not really, no. what if the upper world is just a poisoned wasteland and kills whoever steps outside?"

"But what if it's a secret wonder covered in marvels waiting for someone to find?"

"Well I guess I could see your point there. But still the risk is just too much it's not worth it."

"Maybe not to you, but I still think that it would be worth it. Oh well it's all just speculation anyways."

"Okay, But I think it would be better to just push those thought away." For some reason I didn't believe her when she said it was just speculation.

"Well I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yeah, I guess, bye."

And that was the end of that. The conversation was one that startled, marveled, and filled my head with questions. What was the surface like? What did happen to it? I quickly beat the thoughts down, couldn't be thinking like that or I would drive myself insane.

The next couple of weeks went along like normal for the town. My new job allowed me access to the one part of town that was truly isolated from the rest of it. Though I could still see them from the window, no one stopped by to talk unless they were suggesting a song to play or to give me a song they made. (Singers were rare but not as rare as DJ so the ones we had no longer needed to do live performances.) The only person who would stop by to say hi was glow stone, but his mining job kept him very busy. Winter and I fell back to the friend stage and I realized I didn't have much of a chance with her after all, but I still had faith.

Though everything was normal there were a two days that really stood out to me. The first wasn't unusual just fun. I invited glow stone to my job one day while he had the day off. The various jokes, games, and mindless shenanigans made the day quite the experience. Several times he came on as my guest star. And that led to several people wanting to be my guest star.

But the second day was one that was very disturbing. Winter breeze stopped by to visit me during her break, Again she asked a bit about the over world. But when I asked her not to speak about it she stopped. But what came next was worse

"Listen I'm sorry but I'm going to be… busy… and I probably won't be able to see you." She sniffled with tears in her eyes.

"What? But we already don't get to see each other much. Are you sure there is no way?" the news was both startling and saddening

"Yeah well I guess goodbye."

"Goodbye."

What I didn't know at the time was that that was the prelude to what I became today.

Footnote: skills set

Strength=6

Magic=6

Agility= 5

Intelligence=4

Perception= 7

Endurance=7

Charisma=5