- Hookhand's Testimony

They brought Hookhand in to testify. He was the last of the PubThugs, as they called themselves, to testify. Given the large numbers of defendants they had simply gone in order from least to most wanted. There had been some grumbling in the prison over who was more wanted then whom, but that was besides the point.

"So how did you first meet Flynn Rider?" Asked the judge.

"That was a few years ago, he'd stop by the Pub to pawn off something he'd stolen. He was very smooth for one so young. I didn't really like him as he always seemed to think of himself as better than us. Holding himself away from us." Rumbled Hookhand.

"Really? And yet you broke into the royal prison to rescue him, not even offering resistance when you were captured." The official report and the testimony of the guards had made interesting reading.

"We weren't breaking him out because we liked him. We busted him out so he could go rescue the girl." Hookhand gestured to the princess with his chained stump. "We didn't even know she was the Lost Princess until you told us."

"You broke a man you didn't like out of the royal prison to save a girl, that wasn't special in any way," the judge summed up.

Hookhand barked a laugh. "Oh, she was special all right, but not because she was the Lost Princess, but because she had a dream and was going for it."

"A dream?"

"To see the floating lights, uh sky lanterns. She had captured Flynn and was making him be her guide to see them, she didn't even know where she was. She was pretty brave to have done that. Not like me." Hookhand finished sadly.

"Not like you?"

"I wanted to be a concert pianist, but you know, no one is going to take a student with only one hand," He waved his stump around vaguely. "I taught myself, I'm not great, but pretty good, I guess." He stole a glance at the princess and she was looking at him like he was better then 'pretty good'.

"When did you first meet the princess?" asked the judge.

"That was the day before the princess' celebration. She comes in with Flynn, who walked in like he owned the place. I hate people who do that. She was pretty cool though. She was scared, but she looked ready to take us on with her frying pan, that shows a lot of guts. Flynn was pretty dumb though, he didn't seem to have noticed how much his reward was upped to. We were going to take him in for the reward, but we got to squabbling amongst ourselves but she got my attention, and I started telling her about my dream."

"Got your attention?" Ota was suddenly curious.

"She, um, whacked me with a tree branch." Hookhand ducked his head.

Everyone looked at Rapunzel who smiled shyly and nodded.

"A tree branch?"

"It's not like it hurt, really." Hookhand shrugged. Rapunzel gaped as her braid slipped from her shocked hands; she had hit him as hard as she could.

"And then what happened."

"After all of us have confessed our dreams to her, including Flynn, the guards showed up and we helped them escape out the secret passage. Then the horse figured out the passage and he and the guards and the Stabbingtons took off. We didn't see them again until the next morning, well only the horse showed up. He said the girl was in trouble but didn't know where she was, but he knew that Flynn knew where she was. But Flynn was in the prison, so we had to bust him out by getting him up to the battlement where Max could jump to the neighboring building. Then we were captured."

The judge nodded. "Thank you for your testimony. You will be returned to your cell now."