Two children. One promise. A forest that tests them both.

After losing their home, Soren and Elia set out through the woods in search of a place spoken of only in whispers—a refuge for children with nowhere else to go.

Carrying their mother’s lantern, they follow winding paths deeper into the forest, where hunger, fear, and strange wonders wait beneath the trees. But when a mysterious cottage offers everything they have lost, the greatest danger may be forgetting why they entered the woods at all.

To find a new home, Soren and Elia must hold fast to each other—and to the light that remembers the way.

One part of Hansel and Gretel has never sat well with me: the children’s parents—or stepparents—deliberately sending them into the woods to fend for themselves. In my version, Soren and Elia are orphans, and the people of their struggling village simply do not have the resources to continue caring for them. That allowed me to preserve the children’s vulnerability without making their abandonment an act of cruelty.

The story also weaves in elements from the lesser-known Grimm tale Brother and Sister, along with a touch of Baba Yaga in the strange cottage waiting within the woods.

The title came before I had written much of the story. I wanted The Guiding Lantern to evoke hope, survival, and the promise of light in the darkness. That idea became the lullaby their mother sings to them, and the song follows Soren and Elia throughout their journey. The lantern is more than something they carry—it represents the love that continues to guide them when the person they love is gone.

I really loved this short story! I got into it really quickly and read it in one sitting. The pace is great… It’s a great twist on Hansel and Gretel, and done in a way I’ve not seen before.

— Charlotte Patrone