Fighting for love and freedom

"The issue of pro wolf marriage or pro love marriage, we shall resolve," said Ariston, now chief magistrate among the elders. "Tatin may resume his arguments."

Tatin stood up from the bench. He looked at the audience, as he always looked steadily.

"Love moves the world, not war, as we have witnessed for the past years that the government restricted pro alien marriage. The repercussions of a wolf-wolf marriage are dire. Destruction of established infrastructures, physical or even non-physical as relationships was the result of the strict enforcement of that law—loss of lives—rioting among the wolf communities and clans—and marriages and families broken, among other things. Need I demonstrate? We may look around and see for ourselves what I am trying to say.

Whereas, liberalizing such law would result in peace, harmony, organization, partnerships, building and re-building infrastructures, happy marriages and ergo, happy families, happy children that can protect the wolf-dom. Most of all, there will, finally, be peace between wolves and aliens and that's because of inter-marriages. I don't see any reason why we should restrict marriages among pure blooded wolves. That would be limiting. Do we talk of love where there are boundaries? Love does not set boundaries nor walls. If I may quote again one of the greatest writers of all time, "it looks on tempest and is never shaken." It is unreasonable, sir. That is an observation. I am sure that everyone listening would agree with me."

"Well said," Ariston smiled. "What about the party on this side?" He looked at the pro-wolf advocates.

"It has been overdue, sir, that she be punished and killed for marrying an alien, putting hundreds if not thousands of wolves' lives in danger. She evaded the law, disappeared for an indefinite time. She is a fugitive from the law. Now, is she coming back to reclaim her life by evading the law again? If her wish is not granted, will she escape again? If by love, you say, 'looks on tempest and is not shaken' then, why escape instead of acknowledging that she made a mistake? I have no other point here, sir, but that she put the wolfdom's security in danger, once, when she escaped, doubly, in that other world where she lived for a long time, --with her own incredulity."

Is it true that you put the wolf community in danger?" Ariston asked Isabella.

"That is a lie, sir."

"Then, defend yourself in front of all these wolves."

Tatin would not be moved. They had prepared for this.

"First of all, the charges are all lies meant to feed the greed of one man who, unfortunately, would not be around to testify for himself so that this should put these matters to rest. They falsified documents to make up those charges of her being married to Benjamin and make it appear that she violated the anti-alien marriage law and put public welfare and security in danger. Those were the charges, sirs, as Benjamin was a foreigner she was engaged with but with whom, unfortunately, she was never married, and she never did. The papers in front of you were all fabricated. Tom Pennywise, the half-brother of John Liberty harbored an ill-will against the respondent because she is the daughter of John Liberty, with whom their parents left a significant portion of various real estate properties. He thought he was being deprived of his rights to these estates and so the story.

Truth was, he was not deprived of his inheritance but was instead asked to comply with certain requirements by his brother John—his wife was Nenita; both were killed in a fire, which I am afraid and assume that you know by now, was also perpetrated by Tom, but fortunately survived by their daughter, Isabella, the accused. I would like to show you, sirs, real documents to the effect that she wasn't married to such a foreigner that time that the law on alien marriages was first adopted. The ulterior motive now revealed, I move to crush the trumped up charges against the accused."

Tatin faced the tribunal.

"That, sirs, is the first issue, which we are destroying with our documentary evidence—we kept in this invented "timeless vault"—so that even as a long time had passed, they were made intact, for all your eyes to witness and distinguish which were forged and which were not."

Tatin handed over a bundle of papers to the magistrates, who, because they were old, examined the documents by means of their magnifying lenses and eyeglasses under their noses.

"On the first issue, sirs, I am done away with. On the second issue, sirs, I wouldn't back out on my defense that Love without which the world would stop moving- that explains why I would always represent the pro-love policy of our government."

The audience started to applaud.

The magistrates were smiling, happy with the arguments.

"We have a new generation of wolves," Ariston stood up. "We will now resolve the issues."

The other judges handed over a piece of paper to Ariston, who gathered the votes, then announced. "The accused is acquitted of the charge of violating the wolf-alien marriage law."

The audience applauded.

"As a gift to our citizens because of the outstanding arguments of the pro-love advocate, the law prohibiting the wolves from marrying aliens is hereby lifted. Mark this day."

The audience was ecstatic. "Hurrah! Hurrah! Long live the kingdom. The wolf constitution wins."

They added: "Death to culture intolerance."

Ariston announced: "Silence!"

"Let this day of love commence in the kingdom and let this day be remembered that this generation put a stop to culture intolerance and embraced love instead. Let other generations revere this day as thanksgiving."

The audience were overwhelmed with joy.

Tatin and Isabella stood up, smiling, and gazed all around. Suddenly, a confetti of small colorful flowers were coming out of nowhere and slowly filled the courtroom.

The wolves were happy as Tatin and Isabella embraced.