"In the beginning, darkness was everywhere. There was no light on Earth, and it was not possible to see the ground, the animals or humans. Strangely enough, however, an animal could transform into a human, and a human into an animal. There were several different animals, like bears, hares and foxes, but when these animals became human, they all became the same: they spoke the same language, lived in the same style of home, and hunted the same way.
It was during this time that magic words were created. A word mentioned casually during a conversation could suddenly acquire magical powers, and nobody could explain how or why.
One day, a fox and a hare were having an argument. The fox kept repeating "Darkness!" because he liked the way he could use the dark to steal the hunting catches of the humans. The hare, on the other hand, kept repeating "Daylight!" because he needed light to help him find food.
Suddenly, light shone and darkness fell away to be replaced by day. The word repeated by the hare had stronger magic than the fox's word. Since then, night and day take turns shining over Earth, and the fox and the hare take turns finding food as well."
Meriwa had a brief childhood in the far northern reaches of Alaska, born into an Inuit community where she was raised with vibrant stories of how the world came to be. Her father was a great storyteller, weaving these stories to life for his little girl. She learned to track, hunt, and survive in all the traditional ways. It was cold and practical, but there was a warmth in those achievements that could never be replicated.
Those brilliant colors of youth turned to thick black sludge. An oil drilling operation had set their sights on their home, and her father left to go reason with the company. He never returned, instead the company came back with documents - her father's signature on them. Sold, for a vast sum that was never shared with his then pregnant wife and young daughter, as he seemingly took the money and went to start a new life without them. Perhaps that was a magic word too…
Money.
Her mother packed up their things and they moved down to Washington, the state. There were no stories to be told when her baby brother was born. Her mother was inconsolable, unable to look at the boy without remembering the man her resembled. Meriwa was thrust into an uncomfortable world, seeing her mother failing to find steady work forced her into the workforce early. They were making enough money to get by, but it seemed every step forward was another step back. Meriwa didn't know where it was all going. They weren't getting anything new, the groceries were always the same, so where? It was perhaps then that Meriwa spoke that magic word one time too many.
Money.
At fifteen years old, her ability awakened. A strange push, some foreign instinct led her to check the mattress of her brother's crib. He'd never been a fussy baby, often sleeping the days away without a care in the world. It was strange, how her classmates always complained about their younger siblings crying throughout the night. There was a tear in the mattress, and inside she found bottles and bottles of sleeping pills, some empty, some half full. All different names in the prescribed to section of the label. When she confronted her mother, there was no sensible answer for it. They both had their father's eyes, and it was best that they stay shut. That night, Meriwa wrestled with an uncomfortable decision, but by the time she reached it, it didn't matter anymore. Her mother overdosed on the sleeping pills, and didn't wake back up.
Thrust into the world of foster care, Meriwa was separated from her baby brother. She was angry, desperate, and trying to find something to cling to as her foundation was lost. And finally, she did. Someone leaked the record books of the oil company... There was no money paid to her father. No, it wasn't there at all.
Money.
Meriwa had found her new hunt. Going to college for accounting put her on the trail of a dangerous beast. She graduated top of her class. Businesses wanted her to straighten things up, find where money was being stolen from them, and that she did. Her portfolio soon became packed with successful hunts. However, bigger names had bigger secrets, and it led to one of her clients attempting to have her killed once her work was complete. She'd gotten home late from a club, drunk and high and feeling good for a few fleeting hours. A man stepped out of her bathroom with a knife, explaining he was hired by her previous employer to get rid of any loose ends.
Money was a terrible thing.
As he lunged at her with the knife, something terribly right took over her. Muscles grew, nails elongated to claws and teeth grew sharp, skin grew thick and white fur made a thicker natural armor as well. The blade never made it more than skin deep. She swatted it away with such force her attacker's arm broke. That man ran screaming, and she has yet to see him again. The same could be said for those that came afterwards as she found her other totems, recalling their stories.
Her newest job is a contract for the Delaney Conglomerate. There were concerns of money being lost from a number of their subsidiaries and they would like to see it put to a stop.
