Perspectives

Chapter 19

For the second night in a row, Kalen lay in bed listening to the barely audible insults being hurled at him from within the shirt drawer of his dresser. Apparently the slight upgrade in accommodations was going unappreciated by the human, not that he had expected any different. While Kalen wasn't incapable of feeling sympathy for the human's situation, he knew that allowing Piper to be loose while he was unconscious and unaware was entirely out of the question. Kalen could think of at least five scenarios that would result in either her injury, her being discovered, or both. It was an unnecessary risk, and Kalen wasn't going to take it.

"You enjoy your huge comfy bed!" Piper shouted, her tone indicating that she in fact hoped for the opposite. "I'll sleep in the dark enclosed drawer with only your giant ass clothes for company!" She petulantly added. 

Kalen rolled his eyes, but was pleased when Piper finally fell silent, seemingly resigning herself to her fate. "It's for your own damn good." He muttered, pulling his covers up over his chest.

It was going to be a while before he actually fell asleep, Kalen was sure. His mind would be too preoccupied with worrying over what would happen tomorrow at the council meeting. This was different from the times he'd attended meetings in the past, now he was going to be presenting important information to the council, and not just any information, information on the human he'd found--Piper.

Kalen released a long sigh and closed his eyes. 

~

Back home, Piper had been notorious for sleeping through her wake up alarms in the morning. With the ear-splitting nature of Kalen's alarm however, Piper didn't have this problem. Trying to sleep through that god awful ringing would be like trying to sleep through a fire alarm. 

Piper jerked bolt upright and slammed her hands over her ears at the rude awakening, cringing at the incessant noise.

"Alarm off." Piper heard Kalen command. She let out a sigh of relief when the alarm finally silenced. She flopped backwards onto the smooth silk-like fabric of what was probably one of Kalen's shirts. In the dark, she could pretend it was an extravagant silk sheet rather than a titan's clothes. 

The sounds of Kalen moving around his room were easily heard even from within the confines of the dresser. Piper could tell he was hurrying by the frequent pounding of his feet on the floor. It took her a moment of working through the remaining fogginess of sleep before she remembered the reason for Kalen's hurried behavior. "The meeting." Piper breathed. A fresh dose of anxiety began to take affect. Today would be the day she would have her fate decided for her, the day a group of strange giants would choose whether or not to send her home. Piper realized that on top of that, she would for the first time be meeting other giants, giants that weren't Kalen. An icy chill ran through her. She would be in a room full of giants. "Oh god." She moaned, turning over onto her side and pulling her legs to her chest mournfully.

Piper's misery was only increased by the unremitting pain pounding against the back of her skull. Unfortunately for her, sleeping had done little to lessen the aching caused by her collision with Kalen's hand the previous night. "The cherry on top." She grumbled to herself. 

Despite her efforts to ignore the commotion going on outside, she immediately recognized when the bedroom door opened and the cool voice of Kalen's assistant announced she had brought his breakfast. A few moments after she heard the door close, the distinct sound of Kalen's loudly approaching footsteps gave Piper a moment to steel herself before her world was jerked into motion as Kalen pulled open the drawer.

"We don't have a lot of time." He told her brusquely as his hand descended from above and grabbed her up.  Piper would have issued her usual protests had it not been for the fact that every nerve in her body felt as though it had tied itself into a knot.