Äkrä was born in the deep dark forest of Sysiaarnio, in the south of Mantu, into a small maahis clan, a family group that consisted of her mother Kährä, her father Snahh, an older sister Trilli, and a couple of years older half-sister Klurr. She grew up like any proper maahinen is supposed to: eating pretty much anyone who wasn't them and worshipping the Mother. Maybe to the eyes of an outsider the relationships between the members of the clan seemed rough, but they truly loved each other and were very close.

Even though the small clan was withdrawn and mainly got along just with each other, every once in a while they joined the festivities in Maahiskoto, a gathering place and a home for all maahiset. After one of these parties Trilli, Äkrä's sister, noticed that she was pregnant. The young female wasn't at all interested in becoming a mother yet, so - as the custom was - when the puppy was born, she made it a changeling and traded it for a tender wolf pup.

It wasn't the first time someone from their clan did that, but for the first time they didn't eat the kidnapped pup immediately. The parents had just brought down an adult wolf, who had wandered too deep into Sysiaarnio, and the clan stuffed their stomachs so full with it, that the wolf pup was completely forgotten.

There seemed to be abundance of prey that summer. The wolf cub trodded along with the clan, with them throwing some scraps at its way whenever, but for some reason eating it just got delayed and delayed. There was always some already dead carcass or some wounded member of another clan, which would have been a downright shameful to leave un-eaten.

Eventually the clan finally decided to eat the long spared wolf pup, but during the summer and fall it had half un-noticed grown into a big and fast young wolf. The thing was more slippery than any of the maahiset had know to expect and managed to get away. The clan was left licking their empty lips with growling stomachs. And the long and cold winter was already nearly there.

Hungry, Äkrä and the others were wandering around more scattered than usual, and traveled quite long distances in search of food. Every now and then they found some signs of the escaped wolf cub, but despite searching they never found the wolf itself. Little did the clan know, that at the same time someone was tracking them too.

This deep in Sysiaarnio there was rarely any danger greater than some quarrelsome other clans or maybe an occasional Syöjätär, all parts of everyday maahis life, so Äkrä's clan didn't think twice about splitting up every once in a while. It was very rare that any wolf would dare to venture this deep into the maahis territory... Rare, but not unheard of.

They learned it the hard way, when a large and unusually furious she-wolf surprised half of them by rushing through the trees and attacking them.

Äkrä and Trilli got there only after hearing the ruckus. Together they jumped the now wounded wolf and after a short but bloody fight, managed to bring her down. But it was too late for the rest of the clan. Mom, dad and Klurr were all laying dead on the ground around the she-wolf.

Trilli recognized the dead wolf as the mother of that miserable survivor of a wolf pup, and suddenly she started to wonder whatever happened to her own puppy. Clearly it had been revealed as a changeling, if the vengeful mother wolf was any indication.
Despite Äkrä's hesitation, Trilli wanted to find her child now, and didn't want to hear anything about how they might already be dead.

As customary, the sisters ate their dead family members to pay their respects, and in Äkrä's insistence and because of the scarcity of prey, the best pieces of the dead wolf too, and after that they started their travel out of the forest and towards the wolf territories.

On the way they met another lonely wolf - the husband of the she-wolf, not that Äkrä and Trilli knew that -, but after the last fight they were already wounded and didn't dare to attack him. After they told him about the she-wolf they had just killed, the wolf also left them alone, and they were on their way.

The sisters didn't even make it wholly out of Sysiaarnio. Near the edges of the forest, they were met by a group of wolves who weren't nearly as indifferent as the previous meeting. This group of Ryövärit were in search of new blood for their fighting pits. They circled the sisters, and quickly the already tired and wounded duo was defeated by the larger wolves. The Ryövärit dragged the protesting maahiset to their pack's territory and threw them into a hole in the ground, just deep enough that the short legged creatures couldn't climb out of despite their best efforts.

And that's how Äkrä and Trilli became fighters in the sick gladiator games the Ryövärit called maahis wrestling. Time lost all its meaning. Their new lives were only the size of their prison, Living Hole as they mockingly named it, and the Fighting Pit where they were dragged to fight always the next filthy wolf. They lost, they won, they lost and they won, and in the end nothing mattered.
Äkrä had no idea how long the torture had lasted, she had long since lost the count of her fights, when one night Trilli didn't come back from the Fighting Pit.

Äkrä was sick with worry and sure that the cursed crosseyed wolves had killed her last living family member. She waited until the next day, but Trilli did not come back. The day passed and sometimes a small hope flashed in Äkrä's mind; maybe Trilli had managed to escape!
But realistically thiking, she did know the most likely fate of her sister had been.

It didn't take long for Äkrä's worry and grief to turn into a blazing fire of rage against the wolves. She wasn't the best at using earth magic, but in the frenzy of anger she managed to persuade the earth at the bottom of the Living Hole to rise, and after leaping out of there, collapse the whole thing behind her.

All the wolves were already sleeping, and there weren't even guards near the prison pit, as the sisters had already stayed there for so long without ever managing to escape.

Despite being furious, Äkrä wasn't stupid enough to go against the wolves alone. So instead she escaped, deep into the forest, and back to the safe and familiar darkness of Sysiaarnio. There she stayed, alone and abandoned by her entire family, dreaming about revenge and becoming more and more bitter.