What the Fire Was For: 1

On a bitter winter night, Wren loses the road - and with it, the one thing he was trusted to do.His family's wagon lies broken behind him in the dark, and he can't find his way back to it. Cold, frightened, and certain the disaster is his fault, he stumbles toward a small light between the trees: an old inn, warmer and bigger than it has any right to be, where a stranger opens the door before he can knock twice.The innkeeper asks nothing of him - not where he's from, not what happened, not whether he deserves to come in from the cold. Just one thing: tend the hearth fire until dawn, for a traveler still out on the road who won't survive without it.It sounds simple. It isn't. As the wind rises and the fire burns low, Wren has to decide whether the flame's survival - and his own worth - depends on getting it right.A quiet, warm-hearted story about guilt, grace, and the fires we're trusted to keep, What the Fire Was For opens The Hearth & the Road, a new companion collection of standalone stories for readers ages 8-12.