Dear Diary,

We squeezed in a marble championship this cycle. We knew we wouldn’t have time for all the races, so instead we decided to just do six.

If we have more than one race a day it isn’t as exciting somehow. We could probably have squeezed them in, but it would have become boring. The last thing any of us wants is for marble racing to become boring.

My team got fifth place overall. Via got gold, which she was super happy about. It’s the first time she’s gotten gold, that was exciting. Staab joined us, so we had seven racers. I think next cycle Kimi is going to insist on Y joining us up here, so we’ll have eight racers. The more racers the better, even if it lowers the odds of me winning.

Mika and Via won’t ask the band to come up here. The band is a group, like we’re a group. We can mix things up, but we belong here and they belong there. And I don’t think I’ll ever ask Nat to come up here. She’s as much of a leader to the kobolds as Lewis is, but in a different way. She’s a listener. She’s, well, a really nice grandma. They need her.

Plus I don’t think Lewis approves of his kobolds leaving the floor. When the big group went to see the yetis he only let us on the condition no one would stay away long. And when Nat and I took food to the ants he looked… disapproving. Not to the point that he’d stop us, but I think he’s worried about his kobolds being scattered and replaced. Which, that’s a totally valid fear. I’m kinda afraid of that, too.

Anyways, we had our races, they were fun, Via and Lilly are “enemies” now. Lilly and Via weren’t really all that close anyways, so that’s fine. Actually, they might end up being closer after this, since they spent most of today “not talking to each other” through Staab as they played cards. They were having fun.

It was just the three of them because Mika was giving me drawing lessons, and Aya and Kimi were practicing fighting. Mika is determined to get me to the point where I can draw a straight line. I’m not quite there yet, but practice makes perfect. And it’s a nice break from cooking.

I don’t think I’ll ever be anywhere close to Mika in terms of drawing ability. She has so much talent and practice. But more than that, she truly loves drawing. I like it, it’s fun, but I can’t spend hour after hour on a single thing. I mean, with cooking there are different things involved. Even before you turn on the stove there are so many things to decide and do, and every minor decision will turn the end dish into something different. So many senses are involved aside from sight, and it’s always so satisfying at the end. But with art it’s just, pencil on paper. Sometimes pen on paper. Sometimes a different pen on paper. And one wrong move can ruin hours of work.

So, learning to draw is fun. Overall I think I’ll be better for it. But it’s never going to be my obsession.

Anyways, I’m going to try drawing an octopus now.

Goodnight, Dungeon!