The Eight Wilds Bestiary: The Lantern-Carry

In the snowy wilds of the west, on moonless nights, a lonely lantern sometimes hangs in the air, with neither post nor flame, its light a small bean of brightness, shaped like a fisher's little lamp. The locals call it the Lantern-Carry.

A traveler lost in the dark snow who spies this lantern afar may follow it home. Yet the path it shows is never the near road, but the place the traveler has most longed for and could never return to.

There was an old merchant named Zhou, who traded far from home for years; his wife had died and was never buried beside him. One night a great snow fell, and he lost his way on the open waste, cold to the bone. Far off he saw the Lantern-Carry hanging in the wind and snow; rejoicing, he followed it on tiptoe. The lantern moved slowly; Zhou followed it into a lane, and came at last to the door of his dead wife's old home. The door stood ajar; within, his wife was warming porridge over the hearth, and turning, smiled: "You are home." Zhou sat by the stove, warmth filling the room, and forgot he was a guest of the snow. At dawn her figure thinned and faded; Zhou started awake, to find himself in a snow hollow, the lantern out, the wind stilled, and only white waste around.

After that, whenever a snowy night came, old Zhou would go out to the waste and watch for the lantern, yet it never appeared again. The village elder said: "The Lantern-Carry leads the soul back to its old place, not the man back to his road. Once in a lifetime is enough."

Later Zhou gave up the far trade and built a hut beside his wife's grave, where each snowy night he sat alone until dawn.