Four small lines of smoke merged into one and crawled up from the small white cake and the four candles that had just been blown out. Onyx eyes turned each way to see happy faces all around. Then the pair of eyes turned to the shaded tree to see the large, shadowed form with a long white cape falling around him, and a sparkle passed over them. Small emerald fingers extended, a thumb pointed outwards, and the hand was raised so the thumb touched the forehead.

Father. Tategoto signed.

"What's he saying?" Krillin asked, avoiding the blast of a party horn from Gohan.

"He's signing for his dad." Yasmine answered, bending down behind Tategoto and putting a delicate chocolate-brown hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there. Tategoto grinned and made a happy grunt with his throat without even realizing he was making noise.

"Cool." Krillin replied scratching his bald head, "Would you mind telling him that he's getting to be pretty big?" He added, noticing that Tategoto seemed to look more like he was six or seven years old instead of just four. It was hard to get used to the fact that Nameks matured faster then humans.

"Not at all." Yasmine grinned in response as Gohan picked up the torn paper from the presents that had been opened earlier. Krillin says you're getting pretty big. Yasmine signed to Tategoto.

Tategoto grinned brightly and signed back, I'll be big like father someday.

"He says he'll be big like his dad someday." Yasmine laughed, patting Tategoto on the head and standing up. "I believe that. He sure looks like him." She glanced into the shadows at Piccolo, who had his head down and his eyes shut as the sun illuminated half of his sharp-featured face. Piccolo just stayed where he was at the moment, a statue that had been draped in a majestic white cloth. Years of fighting had taught him that unnecessary movements could mean death, and the habit just happened to carry over to his everyday behavior.

Chichi straightened out the pile of books she had gotten for Tategoto, but she wasn't sure if he'd ever use them. For all she knew, Piccolo would throw them out or burn them as soon as they got back to the valley. Most of the gifts consisted of clothes, but one was a small weights set. Piccolo found that might be useful for the first bit of training. After all, he couldn't leave Tategoto alone like had Gohan, so he was going to have to try a different method and hope it worked.

A loud explosion of laughter woke Piccolo from his reverie. The kids were all swinging at a dragon-shaped pinnate, and at the moment, Gohan was the one trying his luck. He missed once, then hit it on the second try, but it didn't break. Krillin tried, managing to hit it once, but not hard enough to break it. Tategoto was next, looking pretty comical while standing there with a stick twice as long as he was tall in his small green hands.

C'mon kid. I know you can do it. Piccolo found himself rooting for him silently. Show 'em you're not a weakling…show me too…

The pinnate came down, then went up. Tategoto didn't move. Down it came again, and still, the little Namekian didn't move. The third time it came down, his head suddenly turned, he brought the stick up over his head and brought it down with such force that the pinnate broke in half. Toys and candy spilled out, and all the while, Tategoto kept bopping the broken pinnate and laughing. Gohan finally took the stick away from him and helped him get the blindfold off so he could see what he did.

Perfect. A sparkle moved from one onyx eye to the other, then faded.

"Humph. Looks like that deaf kid of yours is worth more then you thought." Vegeta huffed from the other side of the tree.

"Shut up." Piccolo retorted. "He's stronger then you think."

Vegeta just laughed and walked off, rudely leaving the party to go train. Piccolo growled at his retreating back, then turned his attention back to the group by the pinnate just in time to see Tategoto approaching with a huge smile on his face.

Did you see what I did? I broke it! He signed happily.

Piccolo smirked and signed back with ease, Yes. I saw what you did. Good work. He fought the urge to reach down and pat the kid on the head. After all, he was supposed to be the un-approachable, cold-hearted one around here. At one time he did have the name Demon King, but whether or not the name still stuck, Piccolo would never know.

Tategoto spied Yasmine approaching, a tall and dark shadowy figure. He ran over to her and signed excitedly to her, repeating the question he'd asked Piccolo. Yasmine laughed and signed back that yes, she did see and that she was proud. After that, she turned him towards the rest of the party, gave him a nudge and watched him run off to join the others. Then she stood up and kept walking over to Piccolo.

"He seems to get more cute every day." She said with an amused laugh.

"Cute?" Piccolo's pointed nose wrinkled, his frown deepened and his curving upper lip curled into a sneer. He turned his head slightly and his face disappeared into the shadows. His eyes, however, seemed to remain visible. Two black orbs peering out of the darkness.

Yasmine copied Piccolo's expression and did a fake growl, then chuckled quietly and leaned on the same tree Piccolo was leaning on. "I bet you would be too if you didn't frown and sneer so much. It'll give you wrinkles."

"I am NOT cute!" Piccolo snarled.

Yasmine just laughed and brushed her hair back. She had it done up into several braids that hung down her back like a bunch of long, thin dredlocks. "OK fine. You're not cute. You're sexy." She countered boldly with a laugh, just teasing. Little did she know that teasing Piccolo was like juggling armed explosives.

"Shut up!" Piccolo, more shocked by the comment then angry, pushed off from the tree he was leaning on as if to take off and leave. If he got any angrier, he might do something that would hurt a lot of people.

"All kidding aside, Piccolo, you're not as scary as you think you are. It's clear you care about your kid, so why are you always trying to hide it? And if I may ask…where is his mother?" Yasmine pushed off the tree, but stayed where she was. She still had yet to know that Nameks don't have mothers. Piccolo hadn't told her that secret yet, but he was about to.

"He doesn't have a mother." Piccolo replied, keeping his back to her. He found it easier to talk to her if he didn't have to look at her. "And you don't know what I could do. If you did, you'd re-think your opinion of me." He added acidly.

"Oh? What happened to her?" She ignored his last comment.

"He just doesn’t have one." He answered in a tone of voice that could freeze molten lava. "Nameks don't have mothers."

Yasmine blushed a little. "Oh…well hm…" Her lack of something to say caused Piccolo to smirk to himself as he started to lope towards Tategoto, who was kicking at the head to the pinnate he broke. He threw his cape over his shoulder and tapped Tategoto's shoulder to get his attention.

It's time to go. Piccolo signed.

What about the presents? Tategoto signed back, his brow ridges drawing together and his antennae drooping slightly.

I will bring them too. He replied with a sigh, then let his arms fall to his sides. Tategoto nodded and approached his father, placing his small hand into the larger one. Piccolo's fingers gently curled around the tiny hand, and then he lifted off. Hovering there for a few moments, the Namekian man pointed to the pile of gifts and they lifted into the air. Piccolo did a 'come here' gesture with his finger, and the gifts moved to surround him and Tategoto, who was hanging onto his large hand with both of his tiny ones. He gave his son a small nod, glanced at Yasmine out of the corner of his eye, then rose into the sky and disappeared into the distance.

Yasmine just shook her head silently like 'whatever'.

As he flew, Piccolo didn't notice the warning sign that had recently been placed next to the river upstream from the little tributary that he and Tategoto drank from. The sign said: WARNING! TOXIC SPILL. The reason Piccolo didn't see the sign was because he had to dodge the annoying helicopters flying around. The noise was battering his sensitive ears, so he just growled and got away from them as fast as possible, landing where he'd camped out the night before.

Night had fallen and a campfire lit a small circle of light on the ground. Tategoto was sitting by the stream, staring at the water. He knew what water was supposed to smell like, and knew that the smell wasn't supposed to be sour.

Piccolo had just filled his canteen, but had been mostly in the smoke of the fire. Because of the smoke, he didn't smell what Tategoto had. He was taking a drink when Tategoto suddenly ran over and slapped the canteen out of his hand, sending it sliding along the ground while it's contents spilled out. "Hey!" The large Namekian shouted. "What the hell!?" What are you doing? He signed quickly with a scowl.

Tategoto's young age prevented him from knowing how to answer the question in a way that his father would understand, and only signed, Don't drink the water.

"Crazy kid. What is he trying to do?" Piccolo muttered, reaching over and picking up the canteen. He shook it to see how full it was. It was still half-full, so he gulped down what was left and then sat down again, frowning at Tategoto when he started throwing a small tantrum. He took off his cape and turban so Tategoto could lay down and sleep, but the young Namek continued to carry on.

The sour, metallic aftertaste in the water started to make itself known. Piccolo frowned, wondering why, but pushed it aside and settled against a rock with his arms crossed so he could get a good night's sleep. Tategoto's soft whimpering continued as he started to pace uneasily like a frightened animal in a cage, signing 'don't drink the water' to the empty air.

About a half hour later, storm clouds rolled in and it started to rain. The raindrops exploded in small sunbursts against Piccolo's skin, instantly waking him from his light slumber. Tategoto was still pacing, humming and moaning in agitation. Piccolo just watched him for a moment, then moved to stand.

"What is his AAH!" The large Namekian man was forced back down to the ground by a horrible cramp that had formed in his stomach. A cramp so bad that the pain almost matched what he had felt when he was regurgitating Tategoto's egg.

Tategoto saw his father move and collapse. He ran to his side and tugged on his gi, trying to help him up again with little success. I told you not to drink the water! He signed urgently, the gestures so fast that Piccolo almost couldn't follow them.

Piccolo managed to drag himself towards the stream and reached his hand out to get a handful of water when the smell of the water reached his nose. A human would never have been able to pick it up, but a Namek easily could. His onyx eyes widened and he muttered some obscenities. Arsenic…the water's full of arsenic… All hell seemed to start breaking loose in Piccolo's body after he realized that he should have listened to Tategoto.

Tategoto didn't know what to do, and could only watch as his father briefly drew his knees close to his body before sitting up, pelted by the rain that was pouring down. Standing was out of the question, and it was getting more and more difficult to breathe.

There was a flash of lightning that illuminated the landscape brilliantly for one ten-thousandth of a second. That short instant in time was all Piccolo needed to realize that Tategoto was nowhere to be found.

Forgetting that the child wouldn't hear him, Piccolo shouted, "Tate - " the rest of the word was lost in a thunderclap. Piccolo put his hands flat on the ground, strained and managed to push himself to his feet. He fell again almost instantly when his body involuntarily doubled over on itself. The pain was becoming worse then it had been to regurgitate Tategoto's egg, but the rain washed away any tears that may have escaped.

In a last ditch attempt to get up, Piccolo grabbed onto a nearby tree and tried to pull himself up. A jolt of pain shot through his stomach, doubling him over again. This time, when he hit the ground with a dull thud, his eyes started to roll back into his head as his consciousness started to go dark.

Piccolo's eyes drifted shut when the unconsciousness became complete, and the rain poured down relentlessly, battering his crumpled emerald green form. And the poisonous arsenic from the spill continued to slowly assault his body.