Kada Rihn

"*Guns, guns, guns! Life is imperfect without a gun by your side!*"
—Kada
**Kada Rihn** is a gunsmith and arms dealer in Shuigang. He co-owns Rihn Weapons and Munitions with Benji Nlethor.

## Appearance

Kada is an anthropomorphic hawk with a slender body covered in brown feathers with white stripes from the upper to lower chest. He’s always ready for a firefight, sporting wings with Kevlar armor built around them. His wingspan reaches up to five feet on either side when fully extended. He also has a white and black beak sharp enough to cut right through wood.

## Personality

Rihn is an impulsive, dogmatic hawk with a subconscious bias against "prey" animals such as rodents, rabbits and even smaller species of birds. Despite this, he's very careful to restrain his "bloodlust" at all costs. The one exception to this is his friend, Benji the rabbit, who he hurt at a very young age but vowed to protect from anyone else seeking harm. Benji also holds Kada accountable in the matter of holding back bloodlust.

Though he's an arms dealer, the Hunt still calls to the predator within. From time to time Kada will take on bounties, some of which can take up to several days in the wilderness.

## Abilities

### Innate Abilities

* **Flight:** He's a bird.
* **Talons:** Kada's reinforced talons are extremely strong and wickedly sharp
* **Acute senses:** As a predatory bird, Kada has above-averate sight and hearing
* **Sharp Reflexes:** Avians are known for their quick reactions, but Kada is even faster due to a life of training.

## Skills

* **Gunslinger:** Kada has lived around and trained with guns his entire life.
* **Gunsmith:** His parents raised and trained him to continue the family line of work as a gunsmith and private arms dealer.
* **Wilderness Survival:** His parents taught him how to hunt and survive off the land if society were to collapse, or if he was in the wilderness for an unknown period of time while stalking his bounty.

## History

### Backstory

Kada and his family have devoted their entire lives to the production and usage of firearms. Trained by his father, Kada himself has been building firearms since he was eight years old and using them since he was five. But cans and cardboard cutouts were not enough to sate the young hawk’s hunger to hunt.

### The Hunted

One day at the age of six, Kada and a similar-aged neighbor, Benji Nlethor, were playing Cops and Scarves in the yard. While fake-sparring each other, Kada’s instincts flared up, and the hawk began to perceive the rabbit as nothing more than prey at a subconscious level. No longer in control of his actions, Kada gashed Benji’s face open with his talons. But it didn’t stop there. As he looked down at his bloody talons, then directly into the rabbit’s eyes, the instinct only grew stronger: seeing a creature in its weakened state caused Kada to lunge for the killing blow.

The hawk didn’t have experience in holding back such strong instincts; as a result, they overrode conscious thought. The part of Kada who loved his friend was in a state of abject shock and despair, but could do nothing to hold back the bloodlust running through his veins.

But as Kada was in the motion to kill the child, Kada’s father intervened, preventing his son from killing the rabbit. As he wasn’t close enough to interpose himself, he had no choice but to shoot his son with a tranquilizer dart. Thus quickly stopped Kada from causing any more harm to the child.

After this incident, Kada’s father made sure to teach the young hawk an important life lesson: “Do not always follow your instincts. Those at the core of your being will tell you to satisfy their lust for blood by killing a creature they deem necessary. A true gunsmith knows how to control those instincts. Without control, you become the prey to them.”

### The Blood Pact

Taking what his father told him to heart, Kada sought to set things right with the rabbit and his family. Guilt-ridden and deeply troubled, Kada made plans to visit Benji at the hospital. Of course, his father would have made him visit anyway. Upon seeing the frail, bandaged Benji in his hospital ward, Kada lost his composure and broke into sobs. The experts at the hospital were able to repair the vast majority of the damage and, luckily, both eyes were left intact. The only trace that remains is a scar running across Benji’s left ear.

“Benji, I- I’m so sorry,” he finally manages, after sniffling once. “I... lost control of myself.” He takes a deep breath. “Whatever it takes, I won’t let it happen again.” Still unable to meet the rabbit’s eyes, he nervously shuffles on the sanitary, white tile. “Can you forgive me?”

The rabbit smiles weakly, his swollen and bandaged face still able to convey some emotion. “I forgive you, birdbrains. The Scarves probably won’t, though—even if I lost an arm, they’d want me back first thing tomorrow morning. ‘No excuses!’” he mimics an edgy voice. Then he looks back to the television, where the theme song for Kalaw Crusaders had just begun. “I did pull off a pretty good Red Scarf, didn’t I? After all, a real cop would show a Red Scarf who’s boss!”

Kada freezes. Even though he had asked for it, he didn’t actually expect forgiveness, much less humor. The painkillers probably helped a little with that. He stammers, “W-wow… thank you. Um… what do your parents think?” he inquires, fearing the worst.

Benji sighs to himself. His parents aren’t in the room with him—they were probably out talking to the doctors or worse, lawyers. The rabbit had been left alone, and Kada was his only company. “I don’t know how they will react… they haven’t even spent much time in the room with me” He covers most of his body underneath the bed sheets… but still leaves a gap to watch the TV. “I wish they would spend more time with me…”

Kada remains silent, his gaze drifting to the television. “I’ll stay here with you,” he suggests, sitting down in a chair near the bed. Kada’s father, who had held back in the hallway to observe, eventually leaves.

Benji’s father is outraged, but is pacified by his wife and son’s pleas. Kada makes the same apology, and they accept… on one condition: protect him from now on, from both physical and emotional harm. Don’t let bullies, Scarves muggers, or even pushy salesmen get near him. Kada accepts the charge from Benji’s parents, and makes it a personal goal to train quicker and hone his skills to perfection to fulfill his obligation to protect his friend. Since that day, Kada has dyed an identical mark in the feathers across the left side of his head, mirroring the scar on Benji’s ear.

### Two Lives Entwined

Though they were now inseparable friends, Benji and Kada’s childhood took different paths. Benji developed into a geek skilled in numbers, applied mathematics, and gadgets. Kada, of course, continued to hone his skills with crafting and using firearms and hand-to-hand combat. When they came of age, the natural move was to form an arms dealing business, with Kada making the goods and Benji managing the books. So that’s what they did. Running an arms dealing business has allowed the two to hone their skills, but with Avalice rapidly changing, their journey may encounter some turbulence.