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Zero was humming, as he usually did, gliding cheerfully through the trees, out on his daily patrol through the woods, making sure the perimeter was clear of any unsavory guests. Leaves rustled as he passed, but were generally undisturbed. He could not crunch leaves below his hooves, he barely had any substance below his knee caps to do so! His curly tail bounced behind him as he slipped between the towering trees and over gnarled vines.

He wrinkled his nose, something or someone else was here, his little herd of misfits wouldn't come out this far, not even Jet with his love of adventure seemed to like venturing into these woods, but he enjoyed them. The quiet was lovely, the air was crisp and the leaves were fun to roll in (when no one was watching of course) His nostrils flared as he peered from behind the eyes of his costume, there was a patch of darkness, a little ways off, darkness was nothing unusual around these parts, there was quite a lot of it really. But this particular patch was moving. He stared hard at it, tilting his head a bit, his long costume ears lolling comically to the side.

" Is that...a ghost?" He had never seen a shadow ghost before, but he hadn't been in this land all that long, perhaps they were a common occurrence? He thought about hiding and perhaps finding a better place to see from. But then he smiled, finding the thought quite silly, he couldn't "hide" after all, in these woods he shone like a beacon of white. So he figured if there was someone there, he might as well go and say hi! He curled his tail up and trotted towards the distant shadow, the soft flapping of the costume fabric heralding his approach.

" Oh! I wasn't sure if someone was actually here or not" He chirped.
He found that the shadow was in fact someone, a lady someone! He was pleasantly surprised, and it shown out of his jet black eyes, his tail curled and uncurled as she laughed. He stopped a good few feet before her, a smile plastered across his face, shining below the billed cap that made up the head of his costume. " Well that's true enough!" he chuckled warmly, the mare had seemed pure black and more wispy than even he, but upon closer inspection s he had white markings, bright splashes of color that lit up the darkness, why, even straight from her forehead sprung a single horn. He had never met a unicorn, but he had heard of them. " Oh that's fine, i'm surely used to it! Costume, half mast vanishing act n all" He tilted his head " surely you get looks just as much as I~ I've personally never met another that shared the, ah~ wispy trait."

He tilted his head down, eyeing his legs " Well you get the idea" His chest rumbled with laughter " So Hi! My name's Zero. What's yours?"

" Ah, yes, well~ unusual is the word for it! Mhm, "costume" That's what the two leggers called it, a young one made it for me, she thought I'd make a good "pet" I suppose this is a canine thing." He chuckled, shifting a bit to make the material flap and bounce comically. " I could take it off, it's just something that makes others feel better around me I guess~" He tossed his head back a little, the head piece dropping back over his neck like a hood, a spill of white mane framing a friendly, very normal equine face. His eyes were black like twin spheres of onyx. " There now" He grinned, his strange tail curling and uncurling behind him.

" Really?" His ears perked " I've never had a family that I can remember, maybe they had this too? Hah, and then there's the tail, sometimes i wondered if i was not just a very large horse snail!" He tried to make jokes, noting that she seemed a wee bit uncomfortable at times in the conversation.
" Ya-mi-ka" He sounded out and beamed at her " that's a lovely name, it suits you as surely as that pretty horn on your head." He dipped his head, his mane, poofing and curling in odd places, goodness, costume hat hair!

" Nice to meet you as well~ you just out for a walk then Yamika? Out in the "spooky woods" no less! i'm sure the others outside this place think you're a brave one!
I like this place just fine, it's quiet, peaceful even in the dark."

"No? Sometimes it's fun to wear" He chuckled " lots of folks are uneasy with "ghosts", especially when they get lost in these woods, but not a lot will be scared of someone in a sheet an a puppy face. They don't question the feet~" He wiggled his nose " I have met others who use pelts to ward off skin walkers, who'll think that they are one of their own. Neat tactic against those fluffy rotters you know" He grinned " suspicious lot, they don't ghosts either~"

" We're both unique ey?" He laughed " Well at least there you have a family to compare to? That's a good thing. Perhaps someday I'll find out if I have one as well! Mayhap my father was a snail and my mum a ghost raised as a dog? No? too silly? Heh~" He was a jolly sort, but not much slipped by his attention, including her uneasiness with the topic of her family " Huh~ well that's a waste, I'd like to think all mothers were nice sorts, your father nearly disappearin too? Why you're great at keepin it together~ Must be an interesting family for sure~

He blinked at her and tilted his head in question " hidin? Why would ya be hiding Yamika? Your mean ol mum or somethin?" He breathed in deep, the air was crisp and loamy " Well that's true~ dark is quite nice, comfortable. I've lived in it most o my life. Daylight is just dandy sure, but in daylight I can't even see my own legs! It's pretty disconcerting you know, thinkin that perhaps they ran off without me~"

He blinked at her and then laughed heartily " Oho! you got me there~"
He shrugged a little, cloth rustling " Simply, you would have more reason to be used to it. But true, sometimes my unusual outfit surprises others." Now that he thought about it that did happen quite a bit, but most folk he found lost in the woods just wanted to get out, so he would quietly lead them to the edge of the forest. Oh they'd never come back, n that was fine. He never understood why they were so very frightened anyway.

" Gawsh" He replied, making a goofy face " Well maybe so! Perhaps my parents would be as silly as me, or maybe just as silly lookin, you think?" He chuckled, peering quizzically at her. He didn't want to pry about her family if she didn't want him to, since it seemed to fluster her so. How bad could they really be? Perhaps it was best not to ask sometimes~
" Different, oh yes, we're both a pair of differents ourselves, no?" He shifted a bit, making his costume sway " boo" He twiddled his ears at her.

" Unwelcome?" He raised an eyebrow, a frown slowly dragging down his smile " why would any family say their child is "unwelcome" why that's just rude you know! All family should be decent to one another, in my opinion anyway. Love what you got n all that." He wrinkled his nose " So you do not have a home? Thats...just plain awfulterrible!" He exclaimed with a huff. " So you're just out wandering looking for a new place or hidin from your past Yamika? How long have you been gone from home?" He looked down, concerned, true he often led frightened foals and lost two leggers out of the woods, but when they got out, they always had somewhere or someone to return to. Home. But what if they didn't?

He wrinkled his nose, the whole situation like a bad scent on the wind. Why, it was if her family was made of skinwalkers and hooligans. Who would throw their perfectly nice daughter out into the world and have her be unwelcome back?That was just rude in his book! Humph!
He curled his tail, thinking of something, he nearly congratulated himself for thinking it! " Well if you've nowhere to go, would you like me to show you around here? I live in these parts with a little rag tag herd I'm sort of...babysitting for now." He chuckled " Oh they're all a little strange but we're a band of merry misfits you see~" He looked around, all was quiet save the occasional rustle of dry leaves skipping over the bones of the trees.
"Somehow all the lonely souls who don't belong anywhere come find us in these woods, perhaps it's something magical, who knows really" He barked with laughter " Perhaps i'm a fairy gosh dog! Or somethin...haha"
He tilted his head, his mane getting tousled by a slight breeze " What do ya say?"

" Of course I would" He answered promptly, a comforting grin plastered across his face " Granted some of them may be a bit stranger than others, but they're all good of heart, the previous leader made sure of that. I met him when I first came here, he was sure a startling looking guy, but a good stallion at the core, he had to leave to go looking for something, or someone, but he figured I could watch his friends for him, make sure nothing bad happened."
He chuckled " There are some nice ladies and awkward young stallions, nothing too odd" His tail twitched behind him " Besides, I wouldn't drag you into any kind of danger, that wouldn't be very gentleman like at all!" He cracked a goofy grin " I definitely promise i'll stay right next to ya" He pricked one ear in the general direction of where his little rag tag herd stayed " Eyup, they're that way, actually we found the nice parts of these woods, you know, there's even sunshine and some flowers this time of year, oh! and a little spring, it's a pretty quaint little patch for us strange folk."
He stared in that direction for a minute " it's the heart of the forest almost, kinda like our little herd, we look odd and spooky to most, but we've got a nice place and some sunshine in the soul, huh? I must be a poet or something, huh!"
He laughed merrily.