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Madelaine (I'm going play this like they didn't talk at the Gathering)
For once, Shrewstep wasn't doing something shady whilst lurking at the Riverclan border. He wasn't hoping Marigoldleap would show up, he wasn't looking for trouble to start, he was just....hoping to exist. Fiercefire had given him a bit more to think about in their conversation than he would have liked. Maybe he was holding on to the past too much. But he couldn't just....ditch it. He had TRIED and even after two moons of freedom from all past constraints, he was still thinking about the two scraps of his past he had left far more than anything else. And the fact that he was now an Enforcer and had to figure out how to do THAT because he had never been given any scrap of power, had simply tried to stay out of the way. And now he was sort of mildly trusted and didn't want to throw that trust back at Dawnstar because if Blackhaze's life had taught him ANYTHING, it was that Dawnstar didn't like being backstabbed. No one did, but she was particularly violent about her revenge.
But, of course, because Shrewstep had been looking for quiet contemplation, the cat he would sometimes lurk about hoping for was there waiting for him. Marigoldleap. He was happy to see his friend, tail rising and gait quickening as he gamboled towards the border to stop just short of it. He DID have a lot to tell her, though he wasn't entirely sure he would like the answers he was going to get.
Marigoldleap! How are you? This was really more of a cursory question, not one he was planning to react to the answer for immediately. HE had words to say!
Things have happened? There is news? he continued, unsure how exactly to explain and in what order to do it.
Ummmm maybe just to get it out?
Fiercefire is back. Your.....whatever. Had they still been mates when they both left? He couldn't quite remember.
He was asking about you and Lynxpaw he assumed Marigoldleap would know who he was referring to
and I told him I didn't know anything! that was important, no trust had been betrayed!
But, um....what's going on in Riverclan? Besides apparently ticking off every single one of the other clans in the forest.