Hansel, Gretel & the Shifting Woods

Near a great forest lay a small cabin. In it lived a woodcutter, his wife, and his child – Gretel at day and Hansel at night. They were quite poor and when a drought haunted their lands, they went to bed hungry for weeks. One day the wife asked, “What will become of us? We can’t feed us all!”
The husband saw no solution, so the woman said, “You need to tell your child that they have to stay a girl, we could marry Gretel. Someone will pay a handsome dowry for her hand.” But the husband knew how much this would hurt his child, and thus he denied his wife.
As winter neared, the wife decided to take fate into her own hands. She looked down at the sleeping Hansel, and came up with a plan, “Tomorrow you and I will go into the woods, you shall never find your way back, but your father may think you ran away. He will grieve for a while, but we can build a new family. Together, him and I.”
What the wife did not know, was that Hansel had not been asleep at all, the thunderous grumbling of his stomach kept him awake. Thus, he had heard her plan and when his stepmother went to bed, he gathered some flint outside. The following day, as they wandered through the forest, Gretel dropped a stone every few steps. When night came, and his parents did not return, Hansel used them to find his way back. His father opened the door, his cheeks tear stained, and was overjoyed to see his child safe.
But with the snow’s arrival, it got even harder to survive. Early one morning the wife woke Gretel, “Help me gather some firewood.” The girl realized what her stepmother had planned, but with no time left to get flint, she used her only other resource: the last bit of bread. When night came, Hansel tried to follow the crumbs, but the birds had feasted on them. He wandered around the woods aimlessly for three days.
It was only when Gretel sunk to the ground, starved and exhausted, that she spotted a small house – its walls made from cookies, the roof from cake, and all of it covered in sugar. It smelled like heaven. The starving Gretel took a bite, and then another. When suddenly, she heard a voice from inside, “Nibble, nibble, like a mouse, who is nibbling at my house?” And the child, afraid of the consequences, answered, “Never mind, it is just the wind.”
Curious, the homeowner stepped outside. She spotted the culprit, a cookie still in hand. She immediately recognized her, “Gretel?” The girl jumped up, it was like staring into an enchanted mirror showing her future. For it was her mother who stood in front of her.
They sat talking deep into the night as the parent explained, “I went into these woods with my best friend, but she left me here. At first, I thought it an accident, but the witch who lived here showed me the truth. She revealed how my friend told your father I had been lost, how she used his grief and made him believe it was my last wish for him to marry her. I tried to find my way home, but I only ever came back to this cabin.” Mother and son, both crying now, hugged one another tightly and made a pact to never abandon each other.
The day after, a knock sounded on the door and the mother called, “Hide, my darling.” But it was the father, the long-lost husband. He cried as he spotted the love of his life and their child at her side. “I am so sorry, I had been a fool, my thoughts clouded by grief, to listen to that impostor.” And the mother and daughter forgave him, “You are our fool then.”