RESOURCES IN THE PINNED COMMENT! It's Finally out! I'm so excited to show this au to everyone oh my GOSH!!!!!! Co-host: ‎⁨@OFUKITTY (stares at you) SONG: Pine Barrens by @mangybones Premise: On Alderheart and Needletail's journey to the moonstone, they end up finding themselves in lost territory. Blood is seen dripping from above, but can't be traced from where it's coming from. They eventually run into higher up entity and all knowing creature, promising them sanctuary if they stay with him. Alderheart drags Needletail away in fear, but she remains staring back at . On their way back, they find two kittens, later on known as Twigpaw and Violetpaw. Time passes, and now our main characters are shown at a gathering, in the middle of deciding the separation of Twigkit and Violetkit. The leaders are then interrupted by the entity, Darktail. He preaches his promise that he told Needle and Alder earlier, which deeply disturbs and frightens the clans, but only fully taking the attention of the gullible ones and luring them into his promise. He takes these cats with him into the darkness, with only Violetpaw running after her protector, Needletail. Once guided into Darktails layer, they become less and less aware of themselves and their surroundings. Violetpaw gives herself no choice but to watch her friend decay, as she praises and worships Darktail. The group fills with a rotten smell, as they slowly grow sicker and sicker the more attention they give to their leader. Real danger strikes, once Violet realizes she will be killed if she doesn't become one of them. Violetpaw then tries her best to escape, realizing her friend is too far gone, and the same fate will happen to her too if she doesn't escape. Chased by a rotten Sleekwhisker, Violetpaw watches as a healing Needletail runs to her aid. Needletail then launches in at Sleek, with every ounce of strength left in her decaying body, tries desperately to fight off the rotten clan. But ultimately fails as Violetpaw is able to run away from the chaos. The story ends with Violetpaw running from everything, eventually and thankfully stumbling across Alderheart. To her horror, these creatures appear to be changelings- Alderheart actually being Sleekwhisker. She ends up not surviving through the worshippers, reuniting with Needletail in Starclan. Now that the au is explained^, I also wanted to share an important message to the Warriors community that some might have missed, so if you'd like to and haven't read yet, please take your time to read it! From my community post announcement: Important message so please take some time to read! A few months ago I posted my departure from the Warriors community, and I know you may be thinking if I did leave, why am I making another au? To answer that very very directly, it is indeed because I would love to come back, but definitely not let things fall like how they did before my departure. Before, I was extremely confident in leaving. The community wasn't making me feel comfortable, nor did I feel a sense of security due to behind the scene events with SOTW 2. But when Halloween rolled around, that's when I relived SOTW again, and realized how much I truly missed making my own stories. I Took a small while to think about it, then eventually decided to slowly start engaging again, but to never ever have myself in such a deep hole like how I did prior. Now I truly feel awful for canceling the sequel to SOTW. That project I was very excited to host, and it was an absolutely difficult decision to make considering how much work both me and the artists had on it. And for that I am truly sorry. But again I will bring up, I did wait months after events took place for my comfort with the project in general, but unfortunately I caved in and I'm so sorry. The project in itself took a toll on my mental health and sense of safety for the worst, and I hate how that is what it has become. Scavenger on the wind will remain as its own story, amongst the future infection Halloween maps I will be hosting. Every map will be set in its own universe! As for Pine Barrens, that will be its own story as well! Amongst what will now be part of my yearly Infection Halloween maps, and the map for 2026! This map will be handled so differently from any other map I've hosted. Preproduction is already in place and every artist that helped me with this, as well as SOTW 2, did an amazing job and I cannot be more thankful. Please if anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in the comments! I appreciate every one of you who have given me support on everything, thank you all so much!🖤 #warriorcats #mapcall #infection