It may have been coming up to winter in the eastern parts of the world, but it was hard to tell the weather when you were thousands of feet above the ground. The wind was stronger so high up, enough to buffet any man or machine, and flying through a cloud was like throwing yourself into a lake.

Chiyo had learned that the hard way once, and she wasn't silly enough to make the same mistake again.

"So you've never seen a Dragon Ball before?" Goku said, and looked at Chiyo over his shoulder. She was riding on his back, hands on his shoulders and legs clinging to his sides for all she was worth. She was perfectly capable of flying by herself, but she was a lot slower than Papa - a fact he told her in his cheerful manner, and seemed amused at her indignant scowl. Chiyo didn't like admitting her weaknesses to anyone, not even him.

The ground rushed by in a dizzying fashion below them. The landscape was changing rapidly; half an hour before they'd been dodging the skyscrapers of West City. Now it was farms and rolling hills, and soon it would be desert, if she remembered her geography lessons correctly.

"We-ell," Chiyo said hesitantly. "I might have, when I was really little. But I don't remember what they look like."

Goku tugged on the string around his neck and pulled a round metal device from his shirt. It looked sort of like a compass, with a green glowing screen.

"That's the Dragon Radar, right Papa?"

"Sure is," Goku said cheerfully. He pulled the string over his head and passed the device to her. "Careful, don't drop it or Bulma will kill me. You can be our navigator, okay?"

Now that she had the radar, Chiyo could see a yellow dot towards the centre of the screen. The device beeped softly and rhythmically. "How does it work?"

"Uhhh…I'm not sure," Goku admitted with a laugh. "Bulma made it, so she knows."

"Bulma made this? Wow!"

"It's pretty cool. Do you see that yellow dot? That's our next Dragon Ball. Can you tell me which direction it's in?"

"Uhm...east. That way." She pointed, and Goku adjusted his flight.

Chiyo let go of him and dropped into the open air, adjusting her speed so she was level with him. He grinned at her. "Tired of playing piggyback already?"

"I can keep up!" Chiyo retorted, then cast another glance at the radar. "Hey, Papa. Didn't you fly around the world like this a long time ago?"

Goku scratched his head. "Well, sort of...I did most of my flying on Kinto'un in those days. I couldn't fly like you and Gohan."

"Oh…okay. Hey, Papa?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me the story about the Dragon Balls again?"

It took another hour to reach the barren centre of the continent. By then Chiyo was a little tired of seeing miles and miles of desert, and tasting sand on her tongue every time she opened her mouth. But the yellow dot was right in the centre of the radar, and according to Papa, they were right on top of it.

"I don't see it, Papa." Chiyo gave the radar a slight shake and peered at it closer, as if the Dragon Ball would suddenly reveal itself.

"Hmm." Goku shielded his eyes from the sun and peered at the endless expanse of sand. "The radar says it's right here." He sat down and Chiyo followed suit. The sun beat down on her face and the wind threw stinging sand into her eyes, but she knew better than to complain.

The horizon shimmered in the heat. A truck appeared, its outline blurring and wavering so Chiyo had to blink furiously to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Hey Papa, look! Someone's coming!"

The truck slowed down as it approached. An old man stuck his head out the window, his gaze taking in the man and the little girl sitting on the sand.

"You thar!" he yelled. "There's a sandstorm comin'!"

Without a further word the truck accelerated and quickly disappeared.

"Are sandstorms bad?" Chiyo asked, but Goku wasn't listening.

"The Dragon Ball must've been buried by sandstorms," he said, and stood up. "Hey Chiyo, show me some of those skills you learned in the Room. But don't use too much power, or you'll blow me away along with the Dragon Ball!"

Chiyo giggled at the image that popped into her mind, but she closed her eyes and exhaled.

Slowly, carefully, she reminded herself, but she may as well have not bothered. Months in the Room with Piccolo had taught her an even greater control over her chi. She felt the wind pick up around her, turning the hot air into a breeze.

"There it is!" Goku said, and Chiyo opened her eyes. He dived into the small crater her chi had created, and emerged with something round and glowing in his hand.

"This is a Dragon Ball."

It was the most beautiful thing Chiyo had ever seen. She stared wide-eyed, taking in its shining surface, orange core and the three red stars in its centre. It was heavier than she expected, and she rolled it back and forth, squinting as the sunlight reflected off it.

"It's pretty," she breathed. "How many are there again?"

"Seven Dragon Balls in all. We need to find them and take them to Dende."

"And then Shen- Shen-"

Goku took the Dragon Ball and put it in his pocket. "The dragon god, Shen Long, comes out and grants us two wishes."

Chiyo looked up at her father for a second, then smiled.

"You're tryin' to trick me!" she said.

"I'm not!" Goku laughed. "You'll see for yourself when we find them all. Shen Long will come out and we can use those wishes to bring back all the people Cell killed."

Chiyo's smile faded. She frowned at the radar clenched in her hand, then looked up at Goku.

"Then what are we waiting for?" she said. "Let's go."

The day wore on. Chiyo and Goku recovered two more Dragon Balls - one in a field of elephants whose antics made Chiyo squeal with delight (Goku had trouble dragging her away from them), and the other in a deep canyon.

Chiyo insisted on flying alongside Goku, but flying took up time and energy. It was sunset by the time they'd found the fourth ball, and Chiyo was lagging behind with exhaustion. Goku carried her in the crook of one arm as he walked along a winding road.

"Papa, where are we?" Chiyo murmured sleepily, her face half-buried in his jacket.

"I'm not sure. Somewhere in the north-west, I think."

She yawned widely and shifted in his arms. "Are we near the next Dragon Ball?"

"Not yet," Goku said, his tone amused. "You're way too sleepy to look for Dragon Balls right now."

"But I'm not tired - " Chiyo cut herself off with a yawn. "I'm not, really. I can be the navigator for a little while …" she yawned again, and Goku chuckled.

"I'm sure you can," he said. "But Papa needs his sleep as well."

"Well, okay," Chiyo mumbled. "If you wanna stop I guess ...I guess we could…"

When Chiyo opened her eyes next it was dark. She lay sideways on grass with a blanket covering her - no, Papa's jacket, she realised. The texture of the fabric was familiar, especially as she'd fallen asleep pressing her face into it.

There was a small fire crackling nearby, and Goku was nowhere to be seen. She was barefoot, her shoes in a bundle beside her.

The grass was cold and the blades tickled her toes when she got up, glancing around. The grass gave way to mud a few feet away, and beyond that was a lake. The water glittered black in the moonlight. Chiyo drew a little closer to it. "Papa?"

On the embankment she found a pair of jeans, shoes and a white shirt she recognized as belonging to her father, but there were no signs of him otherwise. There was no signs of anybody in fact; no sounds but the trees rustling and the occasional call of an owl.

Chiyo hadn't been afraid of the dark since she was three years old, but it was hard to be brave in the middle of nowhere. Especially when Papa wasn't around.

She jumped violently as a wolf's howl floated from the surrounding forest, and skittered nervously back to the fire. Wolves she could handle, but there were other things around - much worse things. Like Cell, who could sneak up behind her without her even knowing -

A sudden ripple disturbed the lake and Goku's head emerged. He rose from the water, dragging a huge fish by its tail.

"Papa!"

Chiyo had a difficult time concealing her relief. Goku landed on the banks with the fish, shook his head until droplets splattered everywhere, and smiled down at her. "Not a bad catch, eh?" he looked closely at his daughter, noticing her white face and big eyes. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Chiyo nodded mutely. "Yeah, I'm okay." The darkness didn't seem as scary now.

"There's my girl," he said. "You didn't think I was going to leave you?"

Twenty minutes later and the fish disappeared at an alarming rate as Goku and Chiyo devoured it as quickly as they could. Mom may have been better at making rice, but Papa had lived on fish when he was younger - and bear, and wolf, and all sorts of weird meat Chiyo had never tried.

"Hey," Goku said presently, while chewing on a piece of the fish. "Tell me how you did in the Room of Spirit and Time. Was Piccolo a tough teacher?"

"What d'you think?" Chiyo said, and he laughed. "Piccolo said he needed to toughen me up. He made me fight clones of him and meditate a lot."

"That sounds like Piccolo. That tough, huh?"

"Uh-huh!" Chiyo said emphatically, then faltered. "I mean, he wasn't so bad. I don't wanna say bad things about him."

Goku handed her another chunk of fish, speared on the end of a stick. "It's okay. The Room of Spirit and Time is a really hard place to train in. Even I couldn't handle it when I was a kid, so for you to last a whole year is amazing."

"Really?"

"Really." Goku smiled at her. "It's a weird place, ain't it? It can be really dangerous, but I'm glad Piccolo was there to guide you. Even if he was hard on you."

"It wasn't that," she mumbled. "I missed you and Mom and Gohan, and Piccolo didn't talk much. It was really hard…"

Goku must have heard the crack in her voice, for he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. "I'm here now. And you're a lot stronger, I can tell. Places like the Room bring out the best in us. I'm proud of you for sticking to it, even when it got tough."

Chiyo grinned up at him and opened her mouth to reply, only to yawn widely.

"And now it's bedtime," Goku added cheerfully, and Chiyo's yawn turned into a squawk of protest. "No buts. We have a big day tomorrow. Three Dragon Balls to find, and I'll need your help, okay?"

Grumbling, Chiyo curled up beside him and closed her eyes. She didn't have to pretend to fall asleep - within minutes the sounds of the fire faded away, and she drifted off.