Sasayaki hasn't been too keen on more snakes being around, especially since they weren't the normal -summon and disperse quickly- kind, but Seiichi loved his little green snake despite being upset that it didn't look like Sasayaki and so he couldn't be exactly like me. All in all the two made a perfect match, both shy yet energetic. Yoshi was hard to read, he and his red snake seemed to accept each other, but that's as far as that relationship seemed to go. As for Kiyoko, she was asleep before we entered the forest so as of now I was carrying her on my back, her two headed pink snake with yellow rings curled around my wrist while Sasayaki grumbled in discontent. Being on the ground was unnerving, we couldn't head for the trees because I couldn't carry all three of my siblings and they couldn't jump very high. So we strolled on at a slow pace careful of traps and other teams. I had to admit I was a bit tired, all the lack of a good sleep catching up to me and Kiyoko's quiet snores almost made my body plead to join in on the nap, but that wasn't possible. Feeling a small tug on my shirt I turned and looked at Seiichi, who seemed exhausted himself as his snake moved continuously in circles on his wrist.

"Yes, Seiichi?"

"Could we stop for a moment? Please Big brother! It doesn't have to be for long." Looking the boy over I noticed how he changed, he didn't look as sick as he had when I first found him and he seemed well fed, but even though he had been with us for a little while I hadn't thought of how exactly his body was getting used to moving around so much and we had walked far into the woods.

"That is fine." We moves towards a giant tree that was hallowed out at the bottom that provided perfect cover and I placed Kiyoko down gently, leaning her against the tree's natural wall. A small rumble caught my attention and I looked at Seiichi who was trying to desperately cover his stomach as though it'd keep it from growling, his face an almost unnatural bright shade of red. My face went blank as he hid his.

"I-I'm not hungry! My stomach doesn't know w-what it's g-growling about!" I blinked.

"They didn't feed you before they gave you to me, did they?"

"I-I.. t-they-!"

"No," Yoshi cut off Seiichi's stuttering excuses as he eyes the opening in the tree. "I believe it was purposely to slow you down on your way to the tower. That way you'd run into more teams, more problems and overall keep on challenging you." I blinked again before fishing around in my pants pocket before pulling out a familiar piece of candy and held it out to Seiichi.

"This is all I can spare for now, we will find something more filling later. I suppose there's no rush to get to the tower. I'll have to provide you three with a constant food supply while also fighting off other teams all while trying to get the other scroll," I paused frowning a bit. "Shouldn't be too hard." Looking around I found some rocks and put them in a pile in the middle of our makeshift hideout and kneeled down closely and let out a steady stream of fire until I was sure they would retain the heat for a good amount of time.

"Big brother? Why didn't you just get some sticks?"

"The smoke would attract other teams, this way you can stay warm and keep out of sight. I must go for now, please stay here." I handed the rest of the candies from my pocket to Yoshi, deeming him the most responsible and stepped outside of the tree before turning. They were well hidden, but was it wise to leave them so unguarded? Even with the snakes? Sighing I summoned five brown snakes, who crawled from my arms quickly and made their way to the opening of the tree, growing enormously in size and began to cover up the opening, blending in nicely with the tree. Stifling a yawn I turned and left without a word.

"Do you think your teammatessssss are ok?"

"That's what I'm going to find out."