Zira has light grey fur with black stripes, she wears a widebrimmed hat, cloak, waterskin, and a weird backpack. Occasionally she is wearing barding with a city gurd patch on the shoulders.
She otherwise looks like a tiger with unusually intelligent blue eyes.
Zira was born to a somewhat wealthy elf family. From an early age she had shown an innate talent for magic, and a stubborn streak the size of a continent.
When she was older she was sent to the city to study magic in depth and learn to wield her gift under the guidence of expert spellcasters who would hopefully be better suited to special cases then the aging human tutor the had in town.
She finished school and decided to visit her uncle a few counties away before returning home only on her way there she came across some bandits who had caught a child in the woods. It appeared they were going to do unthinkable to her, so Zira attacked them to to free the girl. She was successful but had taken a couple arrows too many.
She awoke later that night to the girl and an elderly man watching over her. She was shocked to discover that she hands. The man, who introduced himself as Garret, had apologized profusely but stated that there was just no way to control what form an individual took with the spell he used. She, eventually, calmed down and continued her journey to her uncles house to seek help with her situation.
Her arrival was however met with disbelief and aggression (her uncle was thoroughly convinced it was a trick by some enemies he had made earlier). Zira was very unhappy about this as she got chased out of town by the town gaurd.
She returned to the school to seek some help and after some convicing of her teachers that she was who she said she was, they told her that a wish spell could change her back to her old form but no one at the school could cast. They were kind enough to verify for the city gaurd what happened and so she started working for the guard patrolling the area around the city.
She had decided not to go home because she didn't want her family to reject her the way her uncle had. Eventually the town had fallen and Zira lost contact with and she didn't know what happened to them.
Eventually a package was sent for her to the school from her cousins, she was no longer a student but she still kept in contact with the school she went and found that the package was the puzzle cube her mother had always worn. Now having the knowledge of where her cousins lived she sent them a letter of tthe fact that some people were going to retake the villiage and she invited to meet her there as she was going to help. She also warned them the she didn't look like herself anymore, though she didn't say what she did look like.
