Riesa and her siblings were born into a very strict society of a wolf pack called Hallahampaat, living in Hallakoto on the top of the Hallatunturi fell in the northern Mantu.
Her parents were very strict, perfect examples of well-behaved hallahammas wolves. Aina had always respected tradition, and when her parents told her that they'd found a spouse for her, she was only happy. She didn't know Jalava at all, but her parents were convinced that he was the best possible candidate they could hope for. They were wed, and after getting to know each other, got along remarkably well. Both of them were restrained and calm and they were perfect for each other.

It didn't take too long for them to decide to have children. There were four pups, three of them exactly like their parents, restrained and calm, but the fourth one was more curious, more lively and more energetic, and right from the beginning she got a lot of reproach for her behaviour from her parents and her aunt.

The puppies were barely one month old when they got sick. At first it was one pup, then Aina, and eventually the whole litter was sick. The puppy that had gotten sick first died after a week, but after some alarming days, the others pulled through and started to get better.
Aina and Jalava thought that they'd be ready to something like this - death of young children wasn't that rare, and that's why the custom was not to even name them until they were four months old. But in reality it was hard. The aunt said that the sickness should've taken the energetic puppy instead, because she was just a nuisance.

After that her siblings started calling the pup a riesa (=nuisance), and after a while it caught on so much that even her parents called her that. So when it become the time to name the children, the two well-behaved pups got beautiful nature names, Helle (=heat, warm weather) and Kuura (=frost), but the nuisance puppy was from there on Riesa, even officially.

The aunt and the family had a big fight, when she suggested that Riesa was maybe a changeling, because she was so different from the rest of the family. Especially Aina was incredibly offended, because while Riesa wasn't her favourite kid, she could still tell her own child from a maahinen! Did the aunt imply that she didn't look after her children closely enough?! After the argument Aina never spoke a word to her sister.
They didn't talk about it, but it seemed that the whole family blamed Riesa for this, too.

Helle's and Kuura's marriages were arranged when they were still young, and even though Riesa wasn't at all the bouncy kid she used to be, and had long since learned to be reserved and polite, her parents didn't even try to find a fiancé for her. On the other hand that didn't bother Riesa, as she was still young and certainly wasn't at all interested in any males. But on the other hand, she felt really excluded, as if the family had only two daughters, and Riesa was the next door neighbor, that they just had to put up with.

Nothing Riesa did seemed to ever please her family and they started to drift apart. Riesa started spending more and more time alone looking for materials for her crafts, practicing and failing at that, and finally she had completely moved out of her parents home cave, and began living on the other side of the koto they lived in.

Since her relationship with her family was so strained and distant, Riesa didn't even know that Kuura had died, before she came back as a kalma, a spirit of sorts, and lured Riesa through Hallatunturi all the way to a dark lake, Yöjärvi, and through the gates of Tuonela, right to the other side.
Riesa spent quite a lot of time alone in Tuonela, the realm of the dead, until the same happened to the leader of Hallahampaat, and in the process of saving the leader, the rescue group managed to bring back Riesa, too.

Things sucked after that. Even more than usual. Riesa was plagued by constant nightmares, she was really out of shape and everything in the real world was way too loud and bright to bear. Even the slightest mention of Tuonela set her off panicking.
She managed to tell even some of her troubles to a nice shaman, Harhama Vainovalkea, even if never the actual Tuonela-part. But when the pack leader - who had been through the same ordeal - tried to talk about their shared experiences, Riesa freaked out and just completely froze, unable to say anything about anything.

Harhama, who had became something like a friend, told Riesa nervously, but excitedly about his future wedding - a subject that made Riesa very bitter. She had almost gotten married off to Kuura's fiancé after her death, but even that plan had been cancelled. Riesa never found out why, but she suspected that it was because even as a second choice, she wasn't good enough.
She told Harhama she'll probably never be able to get married, and Harhama promised that when the spring comes, he would help her find Tapio's daughters, goddesses of spring who maybe could also help with these sort of things. Riesa was looking forward to that, even if she still didn't even want to get married.

The time went on, but the Tuonela nightmares were not going away.
Once when Riesa was just minding her own business, the son of the current leader - the future leader - came to talk to her. He knew about the whole Tuonela thing and tried to be supportive, and even though Riesa was, again, really freaked out, for the first time she managed to even somewhat open up about the lingering side effects; the feeling of not being sure if she was alive or dreaming, and how everything in the real world felt impossible.
Then she realized quickly, that she was probably bothering the future leader, and snook away mortified - but maybe a bit lighter.

Summer came, and Harhama and Riesa's quest to find Tapio's daughters was a bust. They agreed to try that again some other time, but Riesa was pretty sure the goddesses just didn't want to see her.
And there never were another time, because an epidemic plague swept through Hallahampaat and killed not only Harhama, but also half of the pack.

The sickness was raging and while distancing herself from the suffering pack, Riesa found herself at Yöjärvi, again thinking about Tuonela and death. That's where she met Uivelo, who had had some similar experiences, when she had been trapped in Metsänpeitto, a strange place not really in reality, but not really anywhere else either.
For the first time it seemed that someone actually understood what Riesa was going through, and she managed to get some off the weight on her chest off.

While things weren't exactly as miserable as before, they were not great either, and on top of all the other stress Riesa had been under the last couple of years, her parents had finally found a husband for her.
To Riesa that felt like the end of the world and shw would've given anything if it meant that she didn't have to go through with it. Even the thought of it made her physically sick - not only would she have to share her life with a stranger she didn't want to get to know, but the worst thing was: marriage meant that puppies were expected in the future. It was the worst, everything was the worst.

Riesa was also developing feelings for Uikku, who continued to be understanding and kind, but not only was she a female from another pack, she was also going to remarry after her own spouse died in a terrible fire that had destroyed most of the Kaarnekynsi pack. Things would never work between them.

Despite all the wishing and hoping, the day of the wedding came. Riesa and her new spouse, Näätä got married and moved together.

this is the end of hukanpolku, and the end of riesa's official story. but here's what happened next:

Knowing that the whole point of marriage is to have puppies and continue the familylines, but never ever wanting to sleep with Näätä (or anyone), Riesa freaked out when Näätä even hinted at something in the vein of trying. She disappeared for a few of months and came back with two puppies that clearly were neither her nor Näätä's.
But it's not like anyone could ever prove it - or the fact that she had stolen them from a unfortunate mother from Kaarnekynnet, and there were only two because she couldn't carry the third one comfortably....

After suffering from her terrible name all of her life, Riesa named the puppies as sweetly as she could: Ihana, lovely and Rakkaus, love.

Turned out that Ihana and Rakkaus weren't quite as lovely as their names. Ihana is mean, cruel and a complete uncontrollable menace. Rakkaus is kinda sweet, but they follow Ihana's lead, and also they arent actually even a wolf. Riesa had accidentally adopted a tiny psychopath in the making and a maahis changeling.

At some point Ihana and Rakkaus are kicked out of the pack for either Ihana's crimes or because they found out about Rakkaus, and maybe Riesa and Näätä got the boot as well.

But at least at some point Riesa and Näätä become friends. Maybe Riesa changes her name to Reesa.