My destruction is 70+ so wanted to use a master trainer but Bralsa was no where to be found, I saw a dead deer in the grass and followed the trail and stumbled across her body.. I take it I'm [censored] now? is this a common occurrence?

It's extremely common. Funny that a Destruction Master Trainer can't protect herself from wildlife, but there it is.

Lol. I just came across her for the manieth time. As usual, she was getting her butt kicked. This time a mountain lion was standing over the pink glow of her body while she gradually regained consciousness. A long time ago I made Bralsa essential; I try to do that with most of the NPCs with sucidal tendencies or NAFOD (No apparent fear of death). Anyway, she'd get up, summon an axe and get knocked down again. My character hated making a choice between her and the lion, but reluctantly decided to kill the lion.

If you're on the PC, you can resurrect her. If you do so, then I recommend you make her essential also. There just aren't enough NPCs in Cyrodiil as it is!

Oh, for anyone not familar with her, here's a link (with spoilers): http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Bralsa_Andaren

Kynareth must have extracted revenge for her being such an oddball.

Seriously though, it is very annoying when Alawen, Bralsa Andaren, Tooth-in-the-Sea, or Torbern die before beginning you begin the master training.
The unoffical patch fixes this- or perhaps console command.
Or reload an earlier save if you know when they died- only handy if you happen to kill them yourself.... :brokencomputer:

She doesn't deserve protection, if you ask me. If you're not on her quest, she's quite rude. <_<

can she die, die or only knocked out die like that annoying guard..

She's essential in my game, but honestly I can't remember if I did that with the command console or if it was done by the Unofficial Oblivion Patch. I make loads of NPCs essential so I can't remember. Sorry.

Yeah she is dead dead as I'm on xbox.

I just checked her in the CS. She's definitely not essential. Whoever created these wandering trainer NPCs didn't put enough thought into what they were doing. *sigh*