The Shoggoth calling itself Nial set another stone. The fifth gateway was nearly complete, then the Mi-Go would have him board their living ship, one of his brothers. He felt no familial connection, he thought nothing of his brother. His thoughts were consumed with ideas of escape.

Excerpt: The Builder’s Revolt

By HPL

Gideon awoke to his body screaming, everything hurt. He had been training with the captain daily and his body could feel everyone of those days. Most mornings he’d been going to the Captain’s Quarters and either training with the captain himself or using the combat dummy. The combat dummy didn’t impress him at first, but in short order it had beat him black and blue and he learned to respect it. Today the captain had other plans.

His life had changed quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. He no longer struggled getting food to eat, Captain Daniels supplied him with his meals at the the guard barracks. He didn’t eat with the guards, because the captain thought it would be pushing the limits on acceptability. The guards were good folk and would do as the captain told them, performing as he expected and accepting what they were told. They would tolerate the young man, but the captain didn’t push the boundaries of decency by asking anything extra of his guards. Instead he and Gideon would wait until after the guards finished their meal, then he and the captain would eat together. Gideon made his way to meet Captain Daniels for just such a quick meal, then they had a new training regiment the captain had planned.

He walked through the market and viewed things much differently than he’d done in the past. A meal had been what governed his daily life for so long. With that struggle gone, he viewed the city for what it was, a sprawling chaos on the the ocean. The smell of bread hit him and he saw Mrs. Webster ahead so he rerouted in her direction. A minor delay wouldn’t effect much.

“Morning Mrs. Webster. It’s nice to see you today. The bread smells wonderful as usual,” he said.

“Hello Gideon. I still can’t get over the change in you young man. You were always charming, but now you’re confident as well. The young girls better watch out, or you might catch them off guard,” she said.

Gideon laughed, “Why thank you ma’am. With the training I’ve been getting, It teaches you not to doubt yourself. I do miss some of the old days. I know it has only been a couple of weeks, but the old routines are still in my head.”

Mrs. Webster threw him a roll and winked at him. “Well for old times sake then, I’ll pretend to be charmed and you pretend to be charming.”

“Why thank you ma’am. It is the best bread in all of the districts. Have a good day,” he nodded in her direction and continued on in the direction of the barracks. He snacked on the bread as he walked. He hadn’t lied, it was the best bread in these parts.

Upon arriving at the barracks, Gideon and Captain Daniels ate a quick meal before leaving. “Gideon my boy, we are going to go do some specialized training. I’ve made a deal with a farmer and we are going to head to his lands today. We can try some things that we can’t do in the city. I bought some healing potions from an alchemists so it should be perfectly safe.”

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Gideon looked at the captain suspiciously. He didn’t like the sound of that. They’d never questioned the safety of his training before. Whatever the captain had planned couldn’t be good. They followed the access road out of the city and made their way to the farm. They arrived and the old farmer was waiting for them. “Evening Farmer Wallace, thanks for meeting us,” Captain Daniels said.

“Hello Captain, I brought the things you asked and you’re welcome to use the space as promised. None will bother you out here,” the farmer said in a thick accent.

“I see. You leaving one of the horses as well?” the captain asked.

“Yes sir. Old Bella here can stay. Just return her to the barn when you head home and she’ll be fine. She’s a smart one and won’t need much assistance. Well, I got work to do, Good day to you,” Farmer Wallace said.

Gideon didn’t know what to expect, but being hooked into a harness was the last thing he’d anticipated. The captain hooked him up to the horse and looked to him, “Well get to work. If you can get her to move a couple steps backward we’ll call that a win today.”

“You’re joking. I can’t pull a horse that doesn’t want to be pulled,” Gideon said.

“Well with that attitude you can’t. Summon your armor and shield and prepare for the battle. Then shut your maw and move the damn horse,” Captain Daniels said.

Gideon struggled for an hour and that stubborn horse wouldn’t move. Try as he might, he had no luck. He was covered in sweat with nothing to show for it. He pulled and pulled until he collapsed into the tall grass. He was breathing heavy as he laid there trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. The captain sat under a tree in the shade and watched. He’d been quiet for awhile now, Gideon suspected he might have fallen asleep. He rolled over and saw something from the corner of his eye in the deep grass, a shiny red apple.

He picked up the apple and stood. The horse saw the apple and she grunted at him. He ignored her, he was starving after the work he’d put in trying to pull the horse. She grunted again and he saluted her as he took a bite of the apple. The juices of the apples ran down his chin and that was all the horse could tolerate. She started bucking angrily and yanked Gideon off his feet toward her. She kicked back toward him and struck him in the chest. A second attack came his way and he used the shield to block it the best he could. He was off balance and the horse kept yanking him around. Bella kicked him again and again as she dragged him around. She started stomping on him when he fell to the ground. The apple rolled from his hand as the breathe was knocked from his lungs. He had lost his shield ability, but his armor was holding up. Bella was a powerful draft horse and he felt every blow after he’d lost the shield to block with. She suddenly stopped and neighed softly in his ear as she picked up the remaining part of the apple and crunched it in her mouth. She nickered her thanks to him for the apple.

Captain Daniels came into view as he lay on the ground looking into the sky. “Good job son, you passed and got old Bella to take a couple steps backward. Do you need a potion or are you ready for the next part of your training? Don’t try to summon your Void Shield or you might get some backlash from it failing.

One breath at a time, that was all he could think about after being stomped by Bella. “I passed?” he questioned. His brain didn’t want to work.

“Of course, I told you to move her for the fun of it, but that wasn’t the objective of the mission. The objective was to think and use your brain. Do whatever you could and get her to take some steps toward you. I let you believe what you wanted. Sure, I mislead you with the harness, but it was your idea to pull the horse. You did say you couldn’t get her to move if she didn’t want to. So you knew the limitation in the very beginning. Then you put your head in the dirt and tried to pull the horse anyway. Hopefully you learned something today.” Captain Daniels said.

“Yes sir. I learned I don’t like you nearly as much as I thought I did,” Gideon told him. He closed his eyes and relaxed for a short time, mentally preparing for his next lesson. The two continued on through the day with the captains unorthodox training.