A Unicorn's Tale, Part 11

11.

     We got off at a floor with one room which seemed to run the length and breadth of the whole building. Sound echoed in the tiled room, absorbed only by the floor-to-ceiling gold drapes obscuring the windows. Mikey, Larry, and a hundred other unicorns were already arranged for the court hearing.
     Guards brought me to the front, where I stood to testify. As I was speaking, the other unicorns nodded and murmured amongst themselves. I recognized some of the clean and serious unicorns from the clearing of my first race. Every once and a while some darted harsh glares across the aisle at the defendant.
     I finished my account of my involvement with Larry. It only took a couple of minutes, but by the end of it I was sweating sparkles.
    “Thank you for being truthful with us,” one of the older unicorns said. I could not tell if it was male or female because of its great age. Not that it mattered much. “You may stand there, please,” they said, and indicated a space bounded by gold rope and more guards.
     I listened while Larry gave his defense. There are no such things as unicorn lawyers. We must speak for ourselves. Our peers understand the value of different viewpoints, and help us present the truth when our stories become cloudy or tend towards pure fantasy. Sometimes Larry slipped up, and the speaker had to gently remind him not to lie. My mentor admitted to using our group funds for personal use, and to skimming a little candy off the top when we trusted him to put some of the earnings into our personal accounts.
     The real kicker was when he looked at me and said, “I’ve never done anything really right. I thought I was screwing up with Eight.” He swallowed and glanced at the chief speaker before saying,      “It wasn’t about betting against him. I thought it would be better if I bet against myself.”
     “Thank you for your…honesty,” the speaker said. “You may go back now.” A guard escorted him to his former position.
     Mikey spoke next. He was not the clean and serious unicorn I had become acquainted with. They warned him several times to keep his emotions under control. He railed against Larry, while he seemed to have comprehended my bystander role sometime between his last visit with Larry and the end of my testimony.
     “He did it,” he said, pointing a horn at Larry. “Not the kid.”
     The speaker thanked him and gave him leave to return to his station.

Read the Twelfth Part