Chapter 74 Impromptu Council Meeting

• The sun had almost completely set and some palace torches had already been lighted up. Just a stone's throw away from the palace gates, Kerian finally conceded to his exhaustion by collapsing on the way. He had held out for long enough. Ever since the berserkers began their chase that morning, Kerian had not stopped his run; he had not even dared look back. Back in his human form, he stretched a handout and pulled his heavy, numb body forward. The rough terrain added more wounds to the many he had, but he had not given up just yet. His mission was only going to be complete after he had informed the palace of the event that transpired that morning. As he crawled forward, slowly covering inches towards the palace gates, he left a trail of blood, sweat, and tears.
• Mother... father... Krista. He muttered incoherently with quivering lips. His throat had dried out; he wasn't even making out a sound.
• He had gotten several tears and deep cuts in several parts of his body due to his careless running. He had not dodged any forest thorns, and each time he stumbled, he crashed onto hard surfaces. Still, the pain these fresh wounds gave him was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his heart. His heart bled from the dagger of loss and guilt that had pierced through it and twisted it. He thought of himself as a coward. He had always been called a coward by his family members and had ignored the ultimate chance he had to go back, save them and prove them wrong. Even if he would have stood no chance against the berserkers, dying while trying to save his family would've been more honorable. He had shamelessly fled, and with the condition he was in, it seemed he was still going to die anyway. The dying howls of his sister and mother still rang in his ears. They tortured and haunted him. It was all he heard while he ran down here. It didn't let him hear the villagers who called out to him, asking what had gone wrong. Even now, those howls didn't let him hear the warriors ordering him to identify himself.