Avatar: Call of the Swamp
Chapter 1: Return to the Swamp
"See, this whole swamp is actually 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." -Huu
"Hey Aang," Katara approached me as I was looking down at the progress of the Southern Air Temple's reconstruction with satisfaction. Thanks to Zuko, we were able to rebuild my home.
"Yeah?" I couldn't keep the smile off of my face. I was so excited to see this place look like it used to!
"I want to show you something," she said as she took my hand and led me back into the ancient sanctuary. All of the statues of my past lives stared down at us with empty eyes as we passed each of them by. Katara was so eager as she led me towards the back, into the darkest corner of the structure.
When we stopped, Katara motioned to the spot in front of us. "Look," she spoke with confusion, but a bit of wonder, "this spot doesn't have a statue."
"What?" I looked on each side of the empty place. There were avatars on each side, but this one was missing. I knelt down and put my hand on the carved stone platform, feeling its cold, flat surface. A feeling of emptiness nagged at the back of my mind, but my water-bending partner interrupted my thoughts.
"Do you think the statue was broken?" She asked the question, but almost doubted that possibility herself.
"No..." I ran my hand across the smooth stone, "there was never one here." But why?
"They couldn't have forgotten one of the avatars, could they?"
I shook my head, "maybe not forgotten. They might not have been found." It was a strange thought to think that there was a missing avatar that was never recorded in history. Someone out there had to know or have some kind of record. It had to be a mistake. I couldn't help but feel that something was wrong with this though.
"Well, let's see," she looked back to the surrounding statues and tracked each nation in her mind. "They would have been from the Water Tribe," she inferred.
"The Southern Water Tribe is difficult to get to, so maybe they didn't check it...?" I gave a sheepish smile after I came to that weak conclusion. Katara wasn't happy with that idea though.
"You can't tell me that there were never any other Southern Water Tribe avatars," she shot down that idea easily with a bit of fire behind it.
"Well, I don't know who all of my past lives are!" I defended myself, "how am I supposed to know?"
Katara didn't hear me as she thought of her own version. "Maybe they were like you and didn't want to be the Avatar, so they hid from everyone and were never found?" It was a possibility, but it didn't feel quite right.
"I don't think that'd be the case..." I thought for a while, wondering how this could even be possible. They always knew who the Avatar was, so what was the exception here?
"Can't you contact the Spirit World? One of your other past lives should know," Katara was set on figuring this out. I was curious myself about it and couldn't help but wonder if Roku could tell me anything.
"I guess I can try," I stretched before sitting on the pedestal and taking my meditation position. I closed my mind off from all outside interferences, but still became aware of all that was around me. The sanctuary was silent and the wind was blowing outside, occasionally blowing stray leaves inside.
The gap between this world and the Spirit World came together once again for me as I made contact with Roku, my past life. I smiled up at him.
"Hello Aang," Roku greeted me.
"Roku," I thought of how to word my question before speaking. "Was there ever an avatar that was never found?"
"It was a rare occurrence for an avatar to never make themselves known somewhere in the world," the Fire Nation avatar replied, pausing to think. "It's been centuries since one was not officially recorded."
"Why? Who were they?" The questions flew out of my mouth before I knew what they were.
"You will find the answers to your questions within yourself." His answers always confused me so much!
"What do you mean?" I always seemed to ask him.
"All of the avatars are connected, just as the world is. It is up to you to follow the path that has been revealed to you." Well, that didn't help much...
"What path?" I curiously asked.
Roku gave a short smile down at me, "it has once been revealed, but has not yet been followed." With that, my connection with Roku and the Spirit World was ended and I was back to the real world with Katara looking at me hopefully.
"Well?" She bit her lip, excited to know who the Water Tribe avatar was.
"He said something about following a path that has been revealed to me once..." I rubbed the back of my head.
"What does that mean?" Her smile dropped.
"I don't know... Maybe-"
"About time we found you love-birds." We both turned to see Toph and Sokka walking towards us.
"Look at this," Katara pointed at the pedestal, "there's an avatar missing here."
"So?" Sokka skeptically raised an eyebrow with his hands on his hips, "just a simple mistake someone made. We have more important things to worry about, come on." He stalked off as if on important business, expecting us to follow.
"What's wrong?" Katara asked a little worried.
"Don't ask me," Toph shrugged as she walked on, "there's a messenger waiting for Aang."
"Then let's go!" I jumped back to my feet and exited the sanctuary with them. The missing statue mystery would have to wait if it was something important.
We met up with Sokka and the Earth Kingdom messenger. The tall boy acted a little nervous and jumped when he caught sight of me.
"Oh!" He bowed quickly in greeting, "Avatar Aang. I have a message from a man that said he knew you! He said he was from the Foggy Swamp Tribe!"
"Huu?" Sokka guessed out loud, a bit surprised to hear from that part of the world rather than somewhere else.
The anxious messenger nodded eagerly, "that's the one! He said he needed the Avatar to come as soon as he could!"
"Why?" I asked, confused myself.
"Important! He said extremely important!" We watched the boy speak frantically, wishing he would give more specific information.
"Anything else?" Our Water Tribe warrior crossed his arms, a little annoyed with the lack of information.
The messenger thought a quick moment, "did I already say important?" Sokka just slapped his forehead irritated. Toph sighed, bored with the conversation.
"Well," I came to my decision, "I guess if it's that important, then I'll go check it out."
"Yes! Important!" He nodded eagerly. I bowed in appreciation.
"Thank you." He bowed again and fled the area.
"Well that was helpful," Sokka sarcastically remarked, his blue eyes looking to the clear sky.
"What do you think is so important?" Katara asked.
"I don't know," I looked into the distance in thought, "but it might be something big if he wants my help." I tried to figure out what could possibly be wrong out there. The swamp was huge and the tribe was pretty secluded out there. I couldn't see anyone causing problems for them way out there, but I guessed it couldn't be completely out of the question...
"I'll go with you," Katara's ocean blue eyes gazed at me with the idea of another short adventure alongside me.
"You should stay here and keep an eye on the reconstruction," I told her, hoping she wouldn't be too upset about that suggestion. "It probably won't take long, whatever it is."
My reassuring statement didn't make her any happier about my decision, but she couldn't argue with me. "Alright," she nodded, "just be careful." She hugged me close and I returned it.
"Aren't I always?"
"No." That one word escaped more than one mouth in the proximity, making me laugh a little nervously.
"Please Aang?" She stared down at me with worry, the fear of losing me clear in her expression.
"Don't worry," I kissed her lightly. I could hear Sokka's grumble of complaint over where he stood, brooding like the protective brother he was. Katara gave me a small smile, ignoring her older brother.
"I'll help you pack," she said before we started walking.
"If you're not back in three days, I'll come looking for you," Katara continued to talk about the 'if's after she had finished packing more than enough supplies in Appa's saddle.
"We'll come looking for you," Sokka cut in, not about to let his sister go anywhere alone. I was glad about that though. Even though Katara was strong, and I knew she would do all right... I still couldn't help but worry about her.
"Thanks," I smiled gratefully, "but don't worry. It won't take me long. I'll be back before you know it!" Katara hugged me again, her beautiful dark hair spreading out across my neck and shoulder. I didn't expect to be gone very long, but I would still miss her while I was off. "Take care of Momo for me," I said before hopping up onto Appa. Momo looked a little disappointed, but sat on Katara's shoulder with his tail wrapped around her neck lightly.
"Bye! Be careful!" Katara called as Appa took off into the air. She waved with her smile never leaving her face and I waved back until I could no longer see her through the thick, low clouds that hid the temple from view.
As Appa and I journeyed across the dark ocean, I continued to think of how strange it was for there to be an avatar that went missing. I decided that I would look more into it when I knew everything was calm in the world. My first priority was maintaining peace within the four nations, but if someone actually was bothering the Foggy Swamp Tribe, then it needed to be resolved quickly.
It took a few hours of constant flying until I could see the dense swamp coming into view. I had Appa go down lower so that I could see the swamp closer as we made our way towards the tribe. Something felt different. It wasn't the same as the last time I had been here. I told my flying friend to take us down into the tribe settlement and he reluctantly landed in the dark swamp, damaging some trees on the way down.
The entire tribe stopped what it was doing and stared at us. I was used to people being happy to see me, but this time it was as if their spirit was gone. The voids in each of their eyes watched me blankly and I finally noticed the far side of the settlement.
All in a row lay tribe members of different ages, each appearing to be sick or injured. I finally spotted the one that called me there. His green eyes were sad, but he still offered a smile and wave as he approached me. I slid down off of Appa and couldn't help the sympathy I felt for these people. They called for me because there was no one else to call...
"It's been a while, Avatar." Huu hadn't seem to age very much since I had last seen him. He was still the kind elder man I had met a few years ago when the swamp had dragged my friends and I in.
"What happened here?" I asked him, amazed at the number of people down.
His false smile faded and he motioned me to follow him over to the ill and injured. "Our kin here are very ill, and some of them even injured..." He paused to collect his thoughts as I helplessly watched these poor people struggle against their fevers.
"I can bring back Katara," I offered, "she's an amazing healer."
Huu shook his head, "our own healers could do nothing. We believe it is more than a simple illness. It is something beyond that. Something spiritual."
"Wait," I interrupted him, "you think a spirit is causing this?"
"That could be a possibility," he replied as he knelt down by a small child. The boy's face was contorted in visible pain, trembling as he laid. Huu uncovered the child's arm that had been wrapped carefully with large leaves to reveal a long, deep cut. The blood was dried black, and all around it the skin was darkening. What could have done that...? Huu answered my awestruck expression, "this child was attacked by something... We don't know what it was, the child's descriptions were hard to understand." He covered the wound back up and stood upright. "All of these people said things about seeing hallucinations, which is normal here..." There was a short pause, his expression becoming more serious before he spoke again, "but never have we heard of something attacking anyone."
"Do you have any idea why something would hurt your people?" I hoped to get some kind of idea where to start my search.
He nodded, "I will show you where I think it originates from."
I found myself standing at the base of the large banyan-grove tree. Looking down at the massive roots, I saw how black they were starting to become. The once thick fig tree that had its canopy spread far and wide was now thinning out. The once dark green color of its top was now drained of that color, becoming brittle and brown. I put my hand on its trunk, the peeling bark scraping my soft skin.
"What happened...?" I could only murmur, mostly to myself at this scene.
"The banyan-grove tree is dying," Huu said with a bit of agony in his green eyes, "and so is the rest of the swamp."
"What do you mean?" I looked to him, wondering how the entire swamp could die. That seemed hard to believe...
"You remember what I told you here?" He held a small curve on his lips. I nodded.
"Everything is connected," I could never forget the lesson this swamp taught me. He seemed happy that I remembered.
"Yes," his own hand touched the trunk of the tree. He gently rubbed it, feeling bad that he could do nothing for it. "This tree is the heart of the swamp, it being the home and food source of many bugs and animals. The bugs and animals are fewer since it has started to die, making our lives harder. Some of our tribe fears going out to hunt now, since so many have suffered from attacks. If this isn't resolved, the swamp will be no more. Along with its inhabitants."