Northbound by Narrowboat
Gosie follows the canal routes in search of Fuzzypuffling, only to discover she’s heading the wrong way entirely
By Saturday afternoon, Gosie had become increasingly convinced that either:
she was on the edge of an important breakthrough
or
Hedgehog had sent her on an elaborate educational detour for personal amusement.
Possibly both. The northern canal routes had revealed useful things:
unusual seed manifests
boats appearing under different names on different stretches of water
recurring broker marks on cargo seals
But no sign whatsoever of Fuzzypuffling. Eventually, somewhere near a damp lockside café where the tea tasted faintly of radiator water and disappointment, Gosie encountered Wolef, who listened to the entire situation with the patient expression of someone watching another creature walk confidently in the wrong direction.
Then Wolef said: “You’ll have to find Fuzzy first.”
“Yes,” Gosie replied tightly. “That is the current objective.”
Wolef stirred her tea. “She’s not in the Midlands.” Long pause. “Head south.”
That was all. No elaboration. No map. No explanation of why Hedgehog had first sent her north before someone else immediately redirected her south again. Wolef merely looked faintly amused in a way Gosie found immediately suspicious.
And somewhere, many miles away on the canal network, Hedgehog was almost certainly feeling very pleased with herself indeed.
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