Dear Diary,

We introduced the kobolds to marble racing today. Mika brought down her tracks and we set them up. It was super fun! They started betting on the marbles, which I don’t like so much, but since money means nothing here there’s no harm in it.

Mika won, I got silver, Via got bronze.

After the race they set up a jump track. They ran a tube from a fencepost to the ground, then molded a piece of cardboard to make a ramp, and let a couple marbles go. They were supposed to just land so we could see which one went farthest, but, erm, the marbles exploded.

We were all pretty surprised by that.

No one got hurt, since we were far enough away, but we were not expecting the marbles to explode.

So, of course, we had to see if all the marbles exploded. Then someone threw a marble at someone else, and Marble Tag is now a thing.

It’s kind of like paintball, except you turn into an icicle if you’re hit. It’s not painful, just cold. Mika can’t play, since she doesn’t freeze. Instead, since everything she owns turns blue, she’s the moderator. Oh, only the blue marbles freeze, should have mentioned that. Red ones explode in fire, green ones explode into poison gas, and so on.

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I had fun for a while, but it’s not really my thing. My thing is cooking.

Nat and I have been trying to make up a good meal schedule for the wolves. I mean, meatballs boiled in chicken broth have been their staple for a while, and we think it’s time to introduce some variety. Not that wolves need a lot of variety, we’re not going to start serving them four-course meals or anything, but we have plans to add in a little bit of bacon and fish to their diet. Just so they don’t get bored.

Oh, we’ve been sending food down to the ants, too. At first we were sending down horrible amalgamations of everything fatty and sugary we have, but Aya says they aren’t ravenous any more. We’ve given them enough food that taste is starting to matter. So this afternoon we sent down a salad that was basically half ranch dressing, and Aya says they appreciated getting vegetables. For tomorrow Nat wants to make a giant stir-fry and send that down. I haven’t had a stir-fry in forever, so most of tomorrow morning we’ll be making stir-fry for everyone.

Everyone except the wolves. I don’t think stir-fry would be good for them.

One of the things Nat wants to teach me is how to cook with alcohol. She says the alcohol all boils or cooks out, leaving only the flavor, and that makes sense, but I don’t know. Like making spaghetti sauce with wine. I don’t like the flavor of wine, so I’m not all that excited about adding that flavor into food. Lilly would probably like it, but I don’t know about anyone else.

But that’s a problem for another day.

Goodnight, Dungeon!

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