Mayela Ironleaf

Appearance
Mayela is a fairly average-sized Tauren woman, with cream-colored fur and bright green eyes. Her gear and fur tend to look dusty and weather-beaten, often darkened in patches by dried blood, caked dirt, and other, less pleasant things. Her face is partially hidden beneath the stuff, and it's ground into her clothing and gear. Her beaten tabard marks her as a scout of the Horde; the dirt marks her as an active one. A lone feather stands out against the mess, carefully braided into her dark brown mane alongside a purple flower for whatever reason. Her weapons jangle in their sheathes as she moves along, and she seems no stranger to their operation - they're old, worn, and well-oiled. She doesn't so much look as glare at people, and it is the rare (or dimwitted) individual who would believe she was at all someone to make polite conversation with.

As for the dog, well, it looks just as bad, and as an added bonus looks likely to eat any small children or animals that are left unattended for more than a moment or two.

Personality
It's fairly unlikely that anyone has ever accused Mayela of being a nice person. She's generally hard-hearted, anti-social, and disturbingly morbid. She is blunt not out of honesty's sake but simply out of a complete and slightly malicious disinterest in everyone else's feelings. She does have some redeeming qualities - she is dutiful, level-headed, and stoic to hardship, among other things - but it's not likely worth the effort involved in digging them up. She tends to a slightly softer side when around other warriors of the Horde, but she has a hard time expressing it. What Scouts she has trained generally found her to be about as loving as a wounded harpy, but every one of them was made better by her almost vicious efforts at compassion.

Mayela is first and foremost a Scout of the Horde. She finds purpose in her assigned duties, from mail-delivery to combat reconnaissance, and fixates on them to the exclusion of everything else. She actively hates company, much prefering to be on her own and doing something far away from civilization. On the odd times when she has no assigned task, she gives in to alcoholism, often drinking herself into a dark and brooding stupor until she finally passes out in a corner somewhere.

Childhood
Born to the plains of the Barrens, Mayela's life was nomadic like any other Tauren. She performed small tasks for her tribe until her forty-third year, when she was deemed old enough to begin helping with the tribe's hunts, gathering food and killing Centaur and Quillboar as they came. She was an excellent shot and an intrepid and stubborn tracker, often stalking prey alone for weeks, but was otherwise unremarkable.

During her forty-seventh year she met the wolf who would become her traveling companion, badly wounded and rife with disease, while out alone in what would later become Mulgore. She tended to him with what knowledge of herbs she had and, after two days of feeding his belly and soothing his wounds, was finally allowed to handle him without fear of aggression. She took the opportunity and quickly lifted him to her shoulders, carrying him for another two days without rest before finally reaching her tribe and their healers. The wolf had no desire to leave, and Mayela had no desire to chase him off; the two have been together ever since. Thrall and his Horde arrived during her fifty-seventh year, ushering in a new stage of her life.

The Coming of the Horde
Mayela's tribe had been traveling the Barrens and were just rounding Ashenvale towards Stonetalon when Cairne, Grom, Thrall, and the Horde arrived, seeking the Oracle. Cairne called the small tribe to his side for war and they responded promptly, pledging their braves and hunters to this new cause. This was Mayela's first taste of true war, and she saw a great deal of death and carnage during those short, bloody hours. A great deal of her tribe was decimated, but she had survived her first battle of the Third War. Many were still to come, but that first one taught her many things: the faces of this new enemy, their technology, that the world was large, and that most of it wanted to kill everyone she knew and loved. Most importantly, she learned to hate. That would carry her through much in the coming years.

The Third War
Mayela was a Scout during the Third War and earned several commendations for her cunning, fearlessness, and capability in combat. After her first battle, she was active in many historic events: she was present during the battle to redeem the Warsong clan, fought in the battle of Mount Hyjal, helped scout and clear the centaur from Mulgore during its founding as a permanent settlement, and aided in the razing of Theramore. Aside from these sections of popular history, she was also involved in many more mundane skirmishes and reconnaissance duties that few other than those present at the time would remember.

The war changed her. It made her hard to the loss of people she cared for and inured her to the many forms of death that could be visited upon friend and foe alike. She was wounded several times over, and was held from death by her own will just as often as with magic. By the end of it she knew of no other Tauren from her tribe that had survived, and what friends she once had were all dead. Honorable deaths they may have been, but that did little to sate the loneliness. She turned to drink to ease the nights after Hyjal and has seen little reason to stop.

Present Day / Northrend
It has now been nearly five years since the Third War, and Mayela is closing in on her sixty-seventh year. She has seen war and death across Azeroth for almost ten years now, on multiple continents and even different worlds, against every enemy imaginable. She is middle-aged, weather-beaten, and as unrelenting as ever, though perhaps not as spry as she once was.

She is currently stationed in Northrend, performing basic troubleshooting and message-ferrying duties for isolated camps across the continent. She was recently promoted to Scout Commander for her actions in bringing the Taunka into the Horde - a position she rapidly declined, stating that she would be of better use to the Horde using her own eyes as opposed to commanding others to use theirs. Her wishes were respected, and she and her dog continue to trudge through the ice and snow, quite content to be on their own.