"Water." "Earth." "Fire." "Air." "Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony." "Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked." "Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them." "But when the world needed him most, he vanished." "A hundred years passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar... an airbender named Aang." "And although his airbending skills are great." "He has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone." "But I believe Aang can save the world." "Book Two:" "Earth Chapter Four:" "The Swamp" "Spare coins for weary travelers?" "This is humiliating!" "We're royalty." "These people should be giving us whatever we want." "They will... if you ask nicely." "Spare change for a hungry old man?" "Aww, here you go." "The coin is appreciated, but not as much as your smile." "How about some entertainment in exchange for... a gold piece." "We're not performers." "Not professional, anyway." "It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, but the girls in the city they look soo prett-ay!" "Come on!" "We're talking a gold piece here!" "Let's see some action!" "Dance!" "And they kiss so sweet that you've really got to meet the girls from Ba Sing Se!" "Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner." "Here ya go!" "Such a kind man!" "Hey, you takin' us down for a reason?" "Aang!" "Why are we going down?" "What?" "I didn't even notice." "Are you noticing now?" "Is something wrong?" "I know this is gonna sound weird, but..." "I think the swamp is... calling to me." "It is telling ya where we can get something to eat?" "No, I..." "I think it wants us to land there." "No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on." "I don't know..." "Bumi said to learn earthbending I would have to wait and listen... and now I'm actually hearing the earth." "Do you want me to ignore it?" "Yes!" "I don't know..." "There's something ominous about that place." "See?" "Even Appa and Momo don't like it here." "Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this... bye swamp." "Yip!" "Yip!" "You better throw in an extra "yip"!" "We gotta move!" "Where's Appa and Momo?" "Appa!" "Momo!" "Sokka!" "You've got an elbow leech!" "Where!" "Where!" "Where do you think?" "Why do things keep attaching to me!" "You couldn't find them?" "No... and the tornado..." "it just disappeared." "We better speed things up!" "Maybe... we should be a little nicer to the swamp." "Aang, these are just plants!" "Do you want me to say "please" and "thank you"... as I swing my machete back and forth?" "Maybe you should listen to Aang." "Something about this place feels... alive." "I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive here... and if we don't wanna wind up getting eaten by them... we need to find Appa as fast as we can." "Appa!" "Momo!" "There's no way they can hear us and no way we can see them." "We'll have to make camp for the night." "What was that!" "?" "Nothing." "Just swamp gas." "Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here." "I think we should build a fire..." "Sokka, the longer we're here the more I think you shouldn't be doing that." "No, I asked the swamp." "It said this was fine." "Right, swamp? "No problem, Sokka!"" "Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?" "Please, we're all alone out here." "Except for them." "Right, except for them." "Guys?" "What'd you reckon make a track like that, Tho?" "Don't know, Due." "Something with six legs." "Pretty big'uns too." "Leaves a nice, wide trail to folla'." "You know what's at the end of that trail?" "Dinner." "Aang?" "Sokka?" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Can you help me?" "Mom?" "Mom!" "I can't believe..." "Aang!" "Stupid swamp!" "Dumb, ugly vines!" "Katara!" "You think you're so tough, huh?" "Hello?" "Yue?" "This is just a trick of the light..." "swamp gas..." "I... hit my head running away last night." "I'm going crazy." "You didn't protect me." "Katara!" "Appa!" "Hello?" "Who are you?" "Hey, come back!" "Look at that, Tho." "Is that little hairy fellow riding' that thing?" "Naw, that's what they call a "lemoo,"... saw one at a travelin' show once." "Real smart they say." "Bet he tastes a lot like possum chicken." "You think everything tastes like possum chicken." "C'mon now, fellas." "Just a little closer." "Nice and easy." "Nothing to worry about." "We just fixin' to eat ya." "What'd ya say that fer?" "Well, we are!" "But you don't have to tell 'em that!" "Well how'd I know they'd understand me!" "Come on!" "Who are you?" "What do you guys think you're doing!" "?" "I've been looking all over for you!" "Well, I've been wandering around looking for you!" "I was chasing some girl." "What girl?" "I don't know." "I heard laughing and I saw some girl in a fancy dress." "Well, there must be a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitations!" "I thought I saw Mom." "Look, we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us." "That's why we all saw things out here." "You saw something too?" "I thought I saw Yue." "But, that doesn't prove anything." "Look, I think about her all the time, and you saw Mom, someone you miss a lot." "What about me?" "I didn't know the girl I saw." "And all our visions led us right here." "Okay... so where's here?" "The middle of the swamp?" "Yeh, the center..." "It's the heart of the swamp, it's been calling us here, I knew it." "It's just a tree." "It can't call anyone!" "For the last time... there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here." "Now what would a lemoo need a shirt fer?" "There's someone in there!" "He's bending the vines!" "Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us?" "Wait!" "I didn't call you here." "We were flying over and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land." "He's the Avatar." "Stuff like that happens to us... a lot." "The Avatar!" "Come with me." "So, who are you then?" "I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it." "Like this fellow with his big knife." "See?" "Completely reasonable." "Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home." "Nothing mystical about it." "Oh, the swamp is a mystical place, all right." "It's sacred." "I reached enlightenment right here under the banion grove tree." "I hear it callin' me, just like you did." "Sure ya did." "It seems real chatty." "See this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles... branches, spread and sink and take root and then spread some more... one big living organism, just like the entire world." "I get how the tree is one big thing, but, the whole world?" "Sure." "You think you're any different from me?" "Or your friends?" "Or this tree?" "If you listen hard enough you can hear every living thing breathing together... you can feel everything growing." "We're all livin' together... even if most folks don't act like it." "We all have the same roots... and we are all branches of the same tree." "But what did our visions mean?" "In the swamp we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved... folks we think are gone." "But the swamp tells us they're not." "We're still connected to 'em." "Time is an illusion and so is death." "But what about my vision?" "It was someone I had never met." "You're the Avatar." "You tell me." "Time is an illusion... so, it's..." "someone I will meet?" "Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we still need to Appa and Momo." "I think I know how to find them." "Everything is connected." "Come on!" "We've got to hurry!" "Set my lines by the river bed!" "Caught ten fish and I killed'em dead!" "Cut 'em and gut'em and I tossed the heads... in the water to keep them cat gators dead." "Appa!" "We're under attack!" "Hey, you guys are waterbenders!" "You too?" "That means we're kin!" "Hey Hue!" "How you been?" "You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual." "Hue?" "How you like that possum chicken?" "Tastes just like arctic hen." "So why were you guys so interested in eating Appa?" "You've got plenty of those big things wandering around." "You want me to eat old Slim?" "He's like a member of the family!" "Nice Slim!" "Oh, oh, he don't eat no bugs!" "That's people food." "Where d'you say you're from?" "The South Pole." "Didn't know there was waterbenders anywhere but here." "They got a nice swamp there, do they?" "No, it' all ice and snow." "Hmm." "No wonder you left." "Well, I hope you realize now that nothing strange was going on here." "Just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp." "What about the visions?" "I told you, we were hungry." "I'm eating a giant bug!" "But what about when the tree showed me where Appa and Momo were?" "That's Avatar stuff, that doesn't count." "The only thing I can't figure out is how you made that tornado that sucked us down." "I can't do anything like that." "I just bender the water in the plants." "Well, no accounting for weather." "Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp." "Who's there?"