Tuhka

Tuhka Thunderhorn Appearance/Personality: Tuhka is somewhat larger than your average Tauren female and is covered in a thick coat of white fur adorned with brown spots. The thickness of her fur and her size can be attributed both to her past residency in the forests of Winterspring and her inheritance of her mother's looks. Her glossy, bleached horns point outward from her face. Tuhka is generally a very emotional and occasionally boisterous character, prone to outbursts of passion regarding her father's lineage and other aspects surrounding her calling towards the hunt. She also is very vocal about her resentment towards the class of druids involved in the Cenarion Circle. However, her years spent in the wilderness not only dulled her connection to her people's culture, but rendered her ignorant of the Horde's presence in Kalimdor over the past decade and a half. In general, her communication with her Horde brethren is hindered by an uncertainty in both the Orcish and Taurahe languages, and as a result she is believed to be a typical "strong-but-silent" Tauren. For now she is slow to respond to her fellow Horde, picking her words carefully, but as she becomes fully immersed in her people's culture, the huntress is bound to open up. Past: Tuhka Thunderhorn was born to Kesek Thunderhorn and Maide Mistrunner, a rather tragic couple whose coupling had been the result of a very brief period of intense infatuation. Kesek belonged to a tribe of renowned hunters, veritable heroes in the war against the Centaur. Though rough around the edges, the Thunderhorn were lauded by the Tauren populace as great protectors of their collective goodwill. Maide descended from a long line of druids, whose docile nature and fixation upon nature made them prime diplomats with the Kaldorei druids. The tribe was somewhat divided, as a significant portion of them resided in north Kalimdor and were rather integrated into Night Elf culture and tradition. Shortly before she was to follow her mother up towards Moonglade, Maide had a chance encounter with Kesek after he had returned from a successful hunt. After straying away from his brothers, Kesek saw Maide across the bonfire. At first sight, he was struck with longing for this fair Tauren. She stared back, drunk with a lust for the celebrity of these Thunderhorn hunters. Immediately they began courting and, in spite of her parents' disapproval, the two were married. Shortly after Tuhka was born, the fighting began. Maide's parents continued to harp on their disappointment of her rejection towards her druid calling, undermining her feelings for Kesek. His prolonged stays in the wilderness inspired much frustration in Maide and his occasional wounds would send her emotions reeling. After a few years of this, the tensions and minor quarreling erupted into a massive fight and Maide took the infant Tuhka, leaving Kesek behind for an indeterminate amount of time. After only a few days, Maide received word that a Centaur ambush had resulted in Kesek's death. After the burial rites, she reconciled with her parents and her obligation to the Cenarion Circle was renewed. Tuhka spent her formative years in Nighthaven watching her mother rise in the ranks of the Circle. Despite her mother's urgings, Tuhka took no interest in the role of the druids. Through the thinly-veiled criticisms her aunts gave of her mother's past, Tuhka began to learn more and more about her father. Instead of seeing him as the caricature of recklessness that her relatives provided, she glorified the other half of her ancestry. She often wandered off into the wilder growths of Moonglade and sometimes would be gone for days, driving her mother into hysterics over her well-being. She eventually befriended a moth, which she dubbed Poli and began to take pleasure in watching the occasional Kaldorei hunter exhibiting his excellent marksmanship. After several years of her mother's pressure, Tuhka stormed out of her mother's domicile very much an adult Tauren and very much disowned. As she traveled outwards from Moonglade, she sometimes took to learning from adventuring Kaldorei hunters about the finer points of her class. As she roamed northern forests, she became more skilled and eventually took to icy Winterspring to master her abilities. For a period of time, she abandoned the valley due to the insistence by a band of Kaldorei, warning of massive creatures called "demons" marching from the south. After her brief flight into the mountains, she returned to find the great tree that towered over the land missing. After that event, many of the Furbolg that she traded with became hostile and she retreated deeper into the wilderness. Living off the land she was cut off from most aspects of society and it wasn't until she was in the middle of her adulthood that she began to encounter her own kind in the frosty reaches of her hunting grounds. Adventuring Tauren, though not very common, would approach her and offer kind words. She was hesitant to respond, but after several encounters she began to tap into the free flow of information about the world she had been whisked away from. The events of the past decade had mostly shocked her, but the news of her kind conquering the Centaur and founding Thunderbluff filled her with glee. Now into her prime, Tuhka longed to reconnect with her brethren and to bask in the glory of the Tauren resilience. She felt ashamed that she allowed herself to leave her father behind at a time when his cause, no the entire Tauren cause, needed unity and strength the most. Resolving to rejoin her heritage, Tuhka and her moth Poli began the long trek south towards her new homeland. Present: Though she has been inducted back into the Horde, Tuhka still feels an overwhelming sense of alienation in the face of the Horde masses. Unable to find a connection with any fellow soldier (just yet), she traverses the land mainly focusing on her various assignments and little else.

She was weary of the endless sea of gold and brown that colored the landscape. The persistent sun jabbed at her back and neck like hundreds of dull needles. She was hot, dusty, and tired from her migration south. The lingering surroundings of the Barrens were becoming unbearable for the huntress. Up until a day ago, the dry lands had been but a distant memory...a brief moment obscured by the mist of time and an underdeveloped perception. The Barrens were merely a fuzzy brown spot in her infancy before she was whisked away into the lush forests of the Kaldorei. She sprinted across the bridge spanning a small ravine, looking back to make sure that Poli was keeping up. She smirked at the flutter of blue behind her and turned back to the path ahead. I hope that greenskin at the break of the forest had given me the right directions. This path is longer than I had expected. Regardless of her mistrust towards the foreigner, she was thankful to have found a post along the path where she could unload the contents of her herb pouch. Her prolonged stay in the "Crossroads" gave her some time to jog her memory of Taurahe, and become a bit more familiar with Orcish. The rugged tongue of the greenskins stuck out in sharp contrast to the more eloquent Darnassian that she had become accustomed to, but this made it easier for her to memorize. A particularly boozed-up greenskin provided her with a rather awkward dialogue that she replayed in her mind to alleviate the monotonous brush that dominated her vision of the Barrens. "Bull, gib me dat bottul tingee. Me wantz drinkee." It was pleasant to see some of her kind in the settlement, but she had difficulty working up the courage to talk to them. Not that she was a particularly shy Tauren, but her eroded grasp of Taurahe kept her clutched in the throes of social anxiety. If it had not taken her five minutes to find all the words to her sentence, she might have actually met a kindred spirit that mirrored her appearance. Instead she sat back and observed her long-lost brethren from afar, only interacting for the purpose of business. Lucky for her, the herbs she had found in the deep wilderness of north Kalimdor were in high demand and she managed to liquidate her inventory into a small fortune. She remembered seeing some of the wealthier Kaldorei flaunting their coins, lounging about Nighthaven on summer holiday. Their money bags were almost full to bursting strapped to their elegant robes, planting seeds of envy into the less fortunate around them. She was surprised to see that the greenskins were using the same currency that had changed hands while she stayed with her mother in Moonglade. A bit of bitterness welled up on her tongue at that thought and she spit on the ground as her hooves continued to pound toward her supposed destination. Tuhka Thunderhorn couldn't help but grin at the image of her mother bursting into melodrama over her daughter returning to Mulgore a rookie huntress. Her spiteful fantasies, however, would have to remain as such as her mother hadn't communicated with her in well over twelve seasons. No, that section of her life had been cauterized once she left Moonglade with a bow in hand. "You're a Mistrunner too, young lady. You have no place seeking out your father's life. If you want to be slain early on in your days, go be a Thunderhorn. Just see where it gets you. Dead. Now come to your senses and let me teach you the ways of the Cenarion Circle." The acidic memory redirected her attention towards her goal with a renewed sense of passion. She was going to return to the open arms of her people a proud descendant of Thunderhorn, a true testament to ages of tradition rooted in the Great Hunt. As her steady jog accelerated to a hearty sprint, pillars of smoke rose over the horizon. Grinning with delight, she entered the settlement. Not only was this camp brimming with her fellow Tauren, but a verdant grassland was beginning to take a hold on the brown canvas of the Barrens. Tuhka Thunderhorn was home for the first time.