Diary of Darkness. Norman Willey

      Thou shall not kill any being without probable cause in defending thine own life or by upon order from the NokDaki.

      The NokDaki Scroll of Laws

      Go to sleep lil’ baby, sleep all night long Go to sleep lil’ baby wake up nice and strong. Listen to mom and daddy they will lead you along, grow up lil’ baby to be nice and strong, take heed to mom and daddy so you will defend all lifelong.

      Ananoki baby lullaby

      Where Does it All Begin?

      The dirt hole with a ladder descending I approach with helmet strapped upon my head a light attached, backpack strapped on tightly.

      I bend down and grasp the top rung of the ancient ladder and begin my descent into the solemn and musty darkness.

      Tapping my helmet activates the light casting shadows all around me. I continue down into the abyss one rung at a time.

      I don’t know why I climb down into the dark unknown. The butterflies in my stomach ask my brain the same.

      I look down with light on my head. I can only see darkness beyond the limits of the casted rays.

      I do love the adventure and quiet solitude of this forever and seemingly unending tattered ladder.

      The tattered ladder begins slow swing to-and-fro as I continue down hand under fist.

      I studied the ancient legends pouring myself over the books and maps searching for years trying to understand every word ever published about this place. I lost weeks and even months of sleep while grasping every bit of knowledge for what awaits me below.

      I continue to climb down for hours. My body aches as the swinging ladder continues. I become mesmerized in this vortex of nothingness descending deeper into what seems to be an eternity of somber and the utmost quiet tomb. I don’t seem to be in the bowels of the earth at all, but some other world all-together different.

      Suddenly my feet stop touching anything as I hang on in mid-air holding to the last rung.

      My heart leaps and frighteningly I curse myself for not paying attention.

      I slowly climb back up the tattered remains of a ladder until my feet are back and supporting me on the last rung.

      A slow sigh of relief as I exhale and realize the ladder and I have reached the end of our long but yet brief relationship. I grab the rope out of my backpack with one hand and carefully attach it to the rung of the ladder with one of those fancy slip knots learned while a boy scout, and I tug as hard as I can. I remove my leather gloves from the pouch on back and carefully put one on at a time.

      I don’t know how much further I can descend but only know that I have one hundred feet of rope.

      Now a much harder task, I let gravity help while grasping tightly climbing down.

      Hand under fist I agonizingly continue my adventure into the unknown reflecting on the past few days of seeking the knowledge and how I found the hole underneath a rock. Was it by fate that the old legends’ were true, or someone, something beckoning me to the spot with the rock?

      I was always studying these legends in my youth and through my studies at Yale and the academy. After graduating from military academy my father who sold diamonds took me out to celebrate with friends and family before I went to OCS. My father amassed his fortune selling diamonds from Israel, the finest in the world.

      Back after the academy at the Marine military I took advanced placement authorized courses and studied till my brain felt as if it were going to explode. I graduated as a cadet sergeant major and went on to college at Cornell University in New York. There I got a Masters degree and then to officers candidate school (ROCS) in Quantico Virginia. I entered in the platoon leader’s class for ten weeks

      My hand grasps the knot I had tied at the end of the rope and my throat seizes with terror. I am at the end of my rope with no place to go as I try to pull up with all my strength to no avail. My biceps’ cramp with ache and weakness as I look around with fear in my heart my light shining from my head, nothing but darkness about me. I try harder to get my muscles to work and the stark fear washes over my body as I realize that I must let go now and hope the legends are true.

      I let go and fall as my mind goes into a dizzy array of thoughts and wanting to be back home now with my family.

      My heart being heard in my ears as I start to scream with a vortex of red, yellow, blue, black start swirling in my brain as I clench my eyes shut thinking about home and my mom and dad, wife, and children.

      My mouth clenched shut my jaw muscles aching with my teeth as I start to become dizzy and sick deep down in my stomach as it churns and I feel as if I’m gonna throw up.

      My life flashes in my mind of growing up as a single child and how my parents took care of me guiding me to college and then the military academy. I continue swirling about in my mind with sick smells of vomit somehow I unstrap my backpack and push it away from me in the total darkness other than the colors in my mind. The air is getting colder and my head and hair rushing as my body has picked up speed falling faster and faster, further and further straightening my body just as I crash through what sounds like glass.

      I feel sharp pain enter my body as if from an illusion. Cold searing pain in my face stomach and legs all instantaneously water engulfs me in mouth and mind while I am submersed in a cold fluid all about me. I do what is natural and kick with my feet while reversing the angle of my body toward what I hope is fresh air, mine has escaped me and I feel as if passing out. I finally splash above the top of the water like a seal grasping for a fish treat.

      Nearby I hear a loud crash and can only surmise that is my backpack with my equipment. My body in so much pain I don’t know how I am going to stay afloat or move but I put it into third gear and paddle toward the sound I heard. I reach my backpack and grab hold, thankful it’s floating and luckily I have packed some things inside which can hold me up as I rest for a few minutes. I tremble with soaked and freezing body.

      It’s hard to kick and move a floating backpack through thin sheets of ice with no light and no direction. My only hope is to reach some type of land mass before hypothermia overtakes me to the grave.

      The NokDaki Clan of Krondor speaks a language I’m unable to understand, but I learn fast and they seem friendly.

      I only know they belong to the tribe because they grunt it while