(This is in direct response to an RP event dealing heavily with Antelope tribe headcannon for the tribe Sana is specifically from. All text marked < > is in the Antelope tongue.)
The moment Sana became aware of herself, she knew that she was not awake and yet not fully asleep. It wasn’t the Dreaming, she knew how that place felt, had been there enough to know the odd twist in her stomach that she got from being in that odd space between realms. This was something different and she couldn’t find a way to qualify it, if it was even meant to be qualified. In exploring the path that should have been hers among the tribe, she’d learned quickly that not all things had qualities that could be fully described in language alone.
<”Stubborn girl. You should have listened to us.”> She knew the voice well enough by now. One of the more talkative of her ancestors, though she didn’t know if it was by virtue of the woman being her grandmother or the fact that she was the youngest of the soul imprints left in the soul stone. <”You weren’t ready and you still went ahead and did it.”>
<”There wasn’t time to wait. I’m not a child.”> Sana winced inwardly with the last statement. It was always a surefire way to prove exactly the opposite. She might have been a full grown woman, but her ancestors had a way of making her feel like a petulant child. <”I need to understand so I can fix whatever is wrong with the caves and bring A’dorel back...or at least let him have his rest.”>
A ‘tsk tsk’ came as a more masculine voice took over. This one didn’t speak as much, usually only speaking up when Sana was being particularly insistent. <”The damage is done but it is not beyond repair. You only risk making it worse and harming yourself by rushing.”> Sana could see the shadowed forms of her ancestors just outside of her vision. They shifted out of view the moment she tried to focus on them. <”You need to learn patience and humility. You also need to learn how to use the gifts of your bloodline. Until you can learn these things, the punishment stands.”>
<”Punishment! You’ve crippled me!”> She could feel the ripples of disapproval shift through the multitude of ‘souls’, knowing they didn’t care for the tone she took. <”I can’t live my life with just aether sight. I need to be able to see to function. To fight and protect my family.”>
She was met with silence for much longer than she cared for, frustration and anger simmering bright in the back of her mind. She was trying to keep their ways alive and they were fighting her every step of the way it felt. Instead of teaching, they were admonishing her for something she didn’t even know she’d done wrong. She still didn’t know what misstep she’d done to earn the punishment her ancestors had deemed needed. Having her physical sight stripped from her was too harsh as far as she was concerned.
<”That you see it as being crippled is why we chose it.”> The masculine voice was firm in his resolve to be justified in their choice of punishment. <”You have hidden from your gifts and from yourself. Instead of learning to use what should have been natural, you have left yourself hobbled. Now, you will learn.”>
<”Learn what!?”> Her shout fell on deaf ears as she jolted back into waking. A few moments later the upset cry of her son reached her ears, the shout she’d woken with having brought him rudely out of his nap.
Growling in frustration, she lay there for a moment, trying to make sense of what she’d been told and waiting to see if Alvin would settle and go back to sleep on his own. He didn’t and so she carefully eased herself from bed, still struggling to make sense of the swirls and eddies of her aether sight without any physical input to go by. Thankfully, she knew the house well enough to maneuver mostly on her own.
With her focus on her son, she let the dream settle to the back of her mind. It settled there, nagging but not in focus. She’d figure out what her lesson was supposed to be later.
