The Beastmaster Ghost...?

Vindferthe was known to be a lonesome, yet naive and blindly confident grem. He has no permanent home, and travels the world on foot with nothing but a satchel of fruit and his pumpkimp friend, Munch.

However, sometimes Vindferthe finds himself spending the night in a town or city that he accidentally wandered into on his travels, as was the case this night. However, tonight he found a small ghost town on the edge of a cold forest, with strange handmade flyers hanging everywhere.

Vindferthe sighed and grabbed one of the flyers, with a messy sketch of an angry-looking grem in a tattered top hat.

He read the flyer's text out loud:

"WE HAVE ALL FLED THIS AREA. THE GHOST OF MR. MULBERRY, THE BEAST TAMER, HAS BEEN POSSESSING THE CREATURES IN THE AREA TO ATTACK OUR RESIDENTS. FLEE WHILE YOU STILL CAN."

The green grem scoffed, "Heh! I ain't afraid of no ghost! Come on, Munch, hop on my shoulder, and we'll see what this panic is about."

The little pumpkimp climbed up Vindferthe's tail and onto the back of his shoulder, clinging onto the satchel strapped across his body.

---

Vindferthe had been walking about the town for about half an hour, and still hadn't seen anything sketchy besides the town being completely empty.

"Ugh, it's so cold... why don't we just stay the night in one of these houses? Sure, they're not the prettiest, but compared to sleeping in a tree like I usually do... I'd say it's alright. Nobody's here anyway."

Coincidentally, Vindferthe was right in front of a house with lanterns hanging on either side of the front door. A flickering light could be seen through the window.

"Alright! There's a house with power! Maybe there's a heater in there."

Vindferthe went up the stairs to the front door, and froze in surprise when he saw the sign nailed above the door... a rickety wooden sign that simply had the name Mulberry.

Vindferthe gently knocked on the wooden door, to be greeted by what sounded like a deep growl. Vindferthe shivered, both from the cold and from the fact that he was somewhat afraid of what could be inside.

"Munch, I'm kinda scared... I really hope that was just a creaky floorboard..."

He reached into the satchel at his waist and pulled out a small coconut, gripping it firmly in his hand. "If one of these could knock me out for 2 days, it'll be enough to buy me some time to run..."

Vindferthe slowly opened the door, which made a loud, long creaking sound. Munch buried his face into Vindferthe's mane, in hope that whatever danger awaits inside would not see him.

"H-hello...? Is anyone here?"

Vindferthe tiptoed across the living room, the wooden floorboards creaking with every step. He made his way into the bedroom, but what he saw next made him scream in fright.

Many beasts were laying around on the large shaggy rugs in the room, fast asleep, some snoring. But behind these creatures was a figure sitting in a rocking chair facing the window, bundled in a blanket, with only one translucent, glowing hand visible from behind!

Vindferthe hollered in fright and threw the coconut at the ghostly figure with all his might, but it missed, and instead crashed into the wall, shattering and drenching the rug with coconut water.

Vindferthe froze in fear as the figure threw the blanket off in surprise, also screaming, and yanked its head around. It was the face of... a normal grem?

The small green wanderer took a small step back, anticipating aggression, but frozen in place.

"Sir... are you Mr. Mulberry...?"

The stranger dropped his blanket onto one of the sleeping creatures, which was turning in its sleep, but relaxed when it felt the warm blanket. The mysterious grem walked towards Vindferthe, jittery from the startling intrusion, but with a smile on his face.

"Yup, that's me, just call me Mulberry though! But, dear stranger, why are you in my house? You don't look like any of my neighbors... unless I forgot?"

Vindferthe stood still in silence for a moment, still afraid that Mulberry was possibly a hostile ghost.

"Those flyers... are they true?"

"Flyers?" Mulberry had a confused look on his face, but his attention turned to Munch, who was still clinging onto Vindferthe for dear life.

"Oh, ya tamed a pumpkimp?! I've never gotten close to one before! He's so darn cute!"

Mulberry reached out to pet the little pumpkimp, but recoiled when he hissed and pointed his tail bulb at him, which was starting to glow with embers.

"We're both really scared... you seem nice, but are you... well..."

Mulberry still looked bewildered. "What do ya mean?"

"There are flyers on every building in town... they have your name and face on them, and say you're an evil ghost..."

"Ghost?! HAH!"

The purple grem slapped his knee and started howling with laughter, which was eventually cut off by an intense coughing fit.

"I ain't dead, ya little goof! HAHAHA!"

"Then why did everyone flee town?! It said you were possessing the animals to attack the local people!"

"Wait... they fled...?"

Mulberry's face shifted to a frown, and he coughed again, though less intense.

"Now I love my animals, and I may look a bit spooky, but I ain't got magic powers! I just haven't been out of the house in a while because I'm sick! Got a doctor comin' in from Santopae every few weeks, takin' care of me in here!"

Vindferthe felt embarrassment rush through him, and he looked at the ground. But then, his head sprung back up.

"Wait! If you're not an evil ghost, how come the wild animals were attacking everyone?!"

"Lil guy, I don't know if ya know this, but not every creature is friendly and tame. They been expandin' the town every now and then, but the animals are just stayin' where they lived all along! Ya try to shoo them away, and they'll fight back!"

Vindferthe nodded, his nerves calmed down for the most part.

"Say, that's no outfit for the cold season. Ya wanna stay in here for the night? I promise I won't haunt ya... heh heh heh!"

Vindferthe agreed to spend the night in Mulberry's house, had some hot tea and candy, and nodded off to sleep in the guest bedroom. This was the beginning of a long friendship between the two, and the next day they set out to find the former residents and tell them the truth about the sick grem.