Perspectives

Chapter 57

Upon Devon's insistence, Piper remained in Amasis for the next three days to allow time for some recovery. Apparently inter-dimensional transportation was better not to attempt when too injured. And while she had been somewhat reluctant to extend her stay, she would be lying if she said there wasn't part of her that wasn't grateful for the chance to spend a little extra time with her newfound friends. 

It still felt kind of strange, considering giant people to be her friends. She barely had any human friends after all. But considering Devon, Celia, and Kalen had put so much at risk to help her, not to mention saving her life on more than one occasion...well it seemed wrong to think of them as anything less than genuine friends at this point. 

While those three days consisted mostly of sitting around and relaxing for Piper, they were very eventful for the residents of Amasis. With Rothgard having been forcibly removed from his position, the Sovereign Council was without a leader. From Celia and Devon's explanation, Piper had learned that in this event, an acting Head of the Sovereign Council would be quickly voted on by the council members. And for once they finally made a good decision, because Celia won the vote and was appointed as the acting head of the council. 

The very first thing Celia did in her new position was to call for a vote proclaiming Rothgard's actions concerning Piper's abduction unlawful, thereby requiring she be returned to Earth. Kalen explained to Piper that while several council members had little to no desire to let her go, they knew they had to right Rothgard's illegal actions. After everything that Rothgard had been doing hit the media, the public began to put a lot of pressure on the council members to start righting his wrongs. Apparently the Amasisian people didn't like their politicians disregarding the law and doing whatever they wanted. 

As for the council's whole "Operation-Take-Over-the-Earth", Celia's second order of business was convincing the rest of the council to put that on hold indefinitely. Apparently a lot of the council members had been reluctant to go along with that particular suggestion, but given the fact that the driving force behind the plan was now gone, they eventually caved to Celia and Devon's persistent persuasion tactics.  

Things were looking so much less bleak for Piper, she was starting to get suspicious. A part of her was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something to go horribly wrong. Even now, the final evening before she was supposed to go home, she was on edge. 

Celia and Devon were currently overseeing the release of Jed Ambrose from lock-up. Evidently the head of the council had a select number of pardons they were allowed to hand out, even if said person being pardoned was technically a government traitor. 

With Kalen's parents away from home as usual, Kalen had insisted they spend the evening there instead of at the Bradford's place. While it had felt kid of strange going back after everything that had happened, Piper agreed it would be a nice change of scenery.

But neither the change in location nor the movie that was currently playing on the holographic TV screen in Kalen's room was able to distract Piper from the pressing worry that her terrible luck was going to come back with a vengeance any minute. 

"Hey, you're supposed to be paying attention." Piper startled at the voice so close to her. Even though he was clearly making an effort to speak softly, Kalen's voice was still considerably loud when sitting right next to his face as she was. 

It had taken a long stint of insistent convincing from Kalen to get Piper to actually agree to sit on his shoulder while they watched the movie. After what had happened the last time, was it really any wonder she wasn't too eager to hop back on? 

Over the past couple days Piper had gotten a fair bit more comfortable with being in physical contact with giants. Considering too much exertion could slow down the healing process of her ribs, she had kind of been forced to get used to being toted around by giants even more so than usual. Were that not the case she never would have agreed to setting foot on a shoulder ever again.