BOOK TWO: EARTH
CHAPTER FOUR: THE SWAMP
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In the rolling hills of rice paddies lying rest a Earth Kingdom village. People carrying backpacks and other loads walk back and forth over the bridge of a nearby stream, either entering or departing the small village.
Iroh and Zuko sitting on straw mats, their stolen ostrich horse lying behind them. A cart with masks for sale passes by in front of them; Zuko notices from under his straw shade hat that one of the masks is the Blue Spirit mask, a mask his is very familiar with. As the cart passes, another pedestrian walks in front of Iroh. Iroh holds his hat out to the pedestrian and begins to talk to him. Or rather begs of him.
"Spare coins for weary travelers?" Iroh asks somewhat enthusiastically.
The pedestrian tosses a couple of copper pieces into Iroh's hat as Zuko turns to Iroh in anger. "This is humiliating! We're royalty! These people should be giving us whatever we want."
In his mind Zuko still sees himself as a prince. He lived a life of luxury and the life of a beggar on the run had not sunk in yet. But it was process was gradual. Iroh knew that if they announced themselves as royal the people may ask of nation are they from. Iroh chosen a different solution though.
"They will if you ask nicely." He said before a pretty peasant woman strolls past "Spare change for a hungry old man?" he asks somewhat dramatically with sad puppy dog eyes.
"Aw, here you go." She said cheerful withdrawing a coin from her sleeve.
"The coin is appreciated, but not as much as your smile!" Iroh adds.
Zuko slaps his forehead in frustration as the young girl giggles lightly and walks away. As soon as she walks away, a man with dual broadswords on his back wanders up to Iroh and Zuko.
"How about some entertainment in exchange for ... a gold piece?" says Broadsword man
"We're not performers." Zuko replied in an annoyed tone.
"Not professional anyway." Iroh added and stood up beginning to sing. "It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, but the girls in the city, they look so pretty!"
Annoyed with the quality of the entertainment the Broadsword man decides to 'encourage' Iroh. "Come on, we're talking a gold piece here! Let's see some action! Dance!" Zuko glances up sharply as the man withdraws his swords.
The man begins to slice the ground near Iroh's feet; Iroh hops up and down to "dodge" the attacks while Zuko struggles to control his anger at the man. It wasn't long until the citizens have stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle.
Iroh finally reach the end and hit on a high note. "They kiss so sweet that you really got to meet the girls from BA SING SE!"
The Broadsword man stops slicing and laughs with great satisfaction. "Ha, ha! Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner! Here ya go!" He tosses the gold coin onto the ground and walks away.
"Such a kind man." Iroh said close to tears. He was happy to perform for people.
Zuko glares after the man in anger and humiliation. He bet that that man was kind; the type of kindness that makes people groan in misery if he didn't get his way. Zuko hatched a plan that would take care of that scumbag and their predicament in the process.
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Over basin miles in another direction Appa, flying through a gray sky over a large forested area; covered somewhat by fog, and looks rather menacing. Sokka is rubbing a whetstone against his machete; while Katara is studying a scroll and Dante is play a gentle tune on his Pipa. Aang stares at the swamp, and seems to be in a trance. Sokka notices they were slowly flying down, and notices Aang's deep trance-like state.
"Hey, you taking us down for a reason?" Sokka asked Aang continues to stare at the swamp. "Why are we going down?"
Aang shook his head confused on the matter. "What? I didn't even notice." He said.
"Are you noticing now?" Sokka informs him again.
Katara moved to the front of the saddle. "Is something wrong? She asks.
Dante put down his lute and join them. "If it's something we can see coming." He replied.
"I know this is going to sound weird, but I think the swamp is calling to me." Aang explain as his is still dazed by the swamp.
Sokka heard his stomach growl. "Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?"
"No, I ... I think it wants us to land there." Aang corrected him.
Sokka shrugged, "No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on."
Aang still felt that need to land. It was he dares say persistent. "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?"
Sokka, Katara, Dante and Momo look over Appa's saddle down at the swamp
"Yes." said Sokka.
Dante looked down at the swamp, though the canopy and into the shadows below. At first it just seemed like just another lush jungle that he has seen in many, many places. But this seemed different, he didn't know how, but it felt like it was … observant. Like whatever was done there was watching them, not to mention it's telling Aang to land down there. Such a thing can make his skin crawl from time to time. "Unless the swamp is telling you to land because there is a damsel in distress down there, let's just move along."
"I don't know. There's something ominous about that place." Katara added.
Sokka took notice that Momo hid inside Appa's saddle while he groans. "See, even Appa and Momo don't like it here."
"Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this," Aang takes one last look at swamp. "Bye swamp." He said and Shakes Appa's rope. "Yip, Yip!"
Appa groans and flies upward, away from the swamp. A tornado suddenly emerges from out of nowhere, heading right for Appa. Sokka, hearing something, turns around and finally sees it.
"You better throw in an extra "yip"! We gotta move!" he says in panic mode. Dante notices what's coming and his eyes widened as he begins to play the tune for the Wicked Witch of the West.
Appa starts to fly faster, attempting to avoid the tornado; however he is not fast enough to get away. As the tornado begins to move closer to Appa, the wind pulls Sokka right off from the saddle. Katara manages to grab his hand, holding him back from flying into the tornado. Aang jumps up onto Appa's saddle and creates an air shield around Appa, stabilizing the air and allowing Sokka to fall back into the saddle, uninjured. The wind sucks Appa, who is still protected by the air shield, into the tornado. Aang struggles to maintain the air shield, however as it shrinks, one of Appa's legs slips from the protective air, thereby breaking it. Aang, Dante, Katara, and Sokka fall off Appa, with Aang landing lightly in muddied water as the latter three lands quite roughly creating a trail of dust from their crash. Appa and Momo are thrown elsewhere in the swamp.
Aang around the swamp and at his friends. Sokka sits up from the water while Dante spits the swamp water out like a fountain." Where's Appa and Momo?" Aang asked and jumps up to the top of the trees, looking for his animal friends as he uses the height of a very tall and slender tree to search for them. "Appa! Momo!"
Nothing.
Down below Katara glances at her elbow before looking up at her brother. "Sokka, you've got an elbow leech." She points out.
He spins around, panicking, trying to find it. "Where? Where?"
Crosses her arms; she replies sarcastically: "Where do you think?"
As the name suggests a long dark worm like creature is shown sticking on to Sokka's elbow. He rips off the elbow leech and throws it behind to Katara. "Why do things keep attaching to me?!" He cries out angrily.
Aang swings over the muddied water on a vine, waiting for it to stop moving so he can land.
"You couldn't find them?" Katara asked.
Aang jumps down into the muddy water shaking his head. "No, and the tornado ... it just disappeared."
Dante, Katara and Sokka turn to face the darkness in the swamp. Meanwhile Appa, who is hanging suspended over the swamp, caught in a mass of vines. Momo jumps up from the saddle and begins chewing through the vines. Appa falls, with Momo, into the muddy water. He shakes the water from his fur and takes off flying, before again becoming trapped. Appa groans as Momo berates him, before the lemur begins to cut the vines, again. The clumsiness of stubbornness of an Airbison is something one must tolerate.
Back to the gang they understood they need to make progress by find Appa and Momo. So until they CAN make progress Sokka begins cutting the vines with his machete. "We better speed things up."
"Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp." Aang warned to Sokka.
Sokka briefly looked back at Aang as he continuing to cut the vines. "Aang, these are just plants. Do you want me to say "please" and "thank you" as I swing my machete back and forth?"
"They aren't the magic words for nothing." Dante said as he looked up through the trees and saw a giant bat-like creature hanging upside down from one of the branches.
Katara looked around at the trees. "Maybe you should listen to Aang. Something about this place feels ... alive."
Sokka stop cutting and turned around to his sister. "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."
He was right; the current situation can only get better in finding their furry friends. They follow Sokka as he cut a path through the hanging vines.
Elsewhere, Appa is walking on the wet, muddy ground, trailing his footprints behind, carrying Momo on his back. A tree trunk happens to be in Appa's way, and the bison collapses to the ground, unwilling to attempt flying over it or crawling beneath it. Momo takes Aang's bison whistle and blows it to make Appa move. The bison ignores it the first time, growling angrily, but when Momo blows it a second time, he uses his tail to squash the lemur. Dazed from the blow, Momo sways and collapses. When trying to figure out how to go through an obstacle, Appa prefers not to be rushed.
The gang was now walking through a foggier part of the swamp. "Appa! Momo!" Katara yelled.
Sokka knew the odd were against now that it was getting darker. "There's no way they can hear us and no way we can see them. We'll have to make camp for the night."
Several flies surround Sokka. Sokka swings his machete at them, trying to shoo them away. At that moment, a huge bubble of swamp gas rises from the muddy water below them.
"What was that?" Katara asked to the unknown sound.
"Nothing, just swamp gas. Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here."
The gas grows closer to them. The four groan as the smell reaches them, with Sokka waving his hand in front of his nose as Katara clamps hers shut. Suddenly, the quiet is shattered by a terrifying scream, causing them all to scream and huddle together, looking around wide-eyed for the source. They look backwards and saw a small, grumpy-looking white bird. It opens its beak extremely wide, emitting the terrifying scream, and flutters off.
"I think we should build a fire." Sokka said with his voice cracking, and sweating like a muledog.
Sokka runs off to a nearby tree and cuts pieces of wood from its roots. "Sokka, the longer we're here, the more I think you shouldn't be doing do that." Aang warned.
"No, I asked the swamp. It said this was fine. Right, swamp?" Grabs a nearby root and performs a sappy ventriloquist act by shaking the root and faking a reply. "No problem, Sokka!"
Sokka continues to chop up the roots, while Aang looks somewhat annoyed. Once there was enough of wood Sokka began to ignite it with his whetstone, or at least try to. Sokka seemed to forget that in a place like a swamp it may be a bit difficult to start a fire due to the moisture in the soil and in the wood. Fortunately there was a solution.
While Sokka was struggling to start a fire Dante, who was sitting beside him, smirked and chuckled to silently as he watched the Watertribe guy struggle to make fire. Finally, after it was getting more darker Dante gathered enough his spit in his mouth and spat out fire loogie at the pile of wood in front of Sokka causing it to exploded a plume of fire. Sokka was on his back with his face covered in soot. Dante lean over Sokka to see if he's alright.
"Thank you." he said.
"You're welcome." Dante replied.
The fire was burning nicely as the four we seated around it. At this respite Dante would play a tune on his pipa but because of the tornado from earlier he lost it. Everyone else basic had nothing else to do expect stare at the fire. Katara on the other hand glancing around at the swamp. "Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?" she asked.
"Please, we're all alone out here." Sokka reassured Katara. A fly suddenly buzzed near him and uses his machete to try and scare it off. The fly turns into a big, shining ball of light. It flies away from the gang, illuminating over a dozen pairs of eyes staring at them from the trees themselves.
"Except for them." Aang said.
They turn back around and huddle together. Sokka's calm demeanor vanished as quickly as it came. "Right, except for them."
None of them noticed but the three of them were huddled together with Dante trapped in middle. They were so close that he couldn't move his fingers when adjusting his sandals. The suddenly huddle has trapped him like he was prisoner with his wrist tried together. He just sighed in not fighting it. Whatever is out there it is best they stay close for if something does come near it can't dragged they away without the others pulling them back.
Meanwhile Appa and Momo, who are lying down on a giant tree branch, the constant nocturnal noises echoing around them has Momo scuttling frantically from one end of the saddle to the other whilst chittering in fear. Appa, unable to sleep by the noise, growls loudly, causing the noises to stop, and Momo settles down on Appa's saddle. As Momo begins to close his eyes, another small sound is heard, causing his ears to perk up and his eyes to widen.
In the interim the gang's camp fire is beginning to die out, and the four friends are huddled together, sleeping. But, quietly as the mist around them was, a vine snake its way to Sokka's leg, which was sticking out, and begins to wind around both it and Sokka's whole body.
One by one the four were slowly tied up by several vines that snake out of the shadows. For a moment, they are still asleep - Sokka holding his machete and drooling - but they awake screaming as the vines simultaneously yank them all out off in four directions away from each other.
Thinking quickly Sokka plants the blade of his machete in the ground as he is dragged away. Both Katara, Dante, and Aang are also dragged off into the mist. Sokka gets up and looks around for the others. The respite does not last long as vines are suddenly thrown at him. They wrap around him and attempt to drag him away again. Before he can travel too far, Sokka starts hacking the vines with his machete. He frees himself and runs back down the tree root, pursued by more vines.
Katara struggles to free herself from the vines. Using a water whip she cuts through her bonds and runs off into the mist.
Dante is dragged on ground and through the water as freed himself by firebending at the vines around his legs. He succeeds and rolls backwards and lands on his feet drawing Temüjin from the scabbard on his waist slash. He cuts through the incoming vines effortlessly as he sprints off into the shadows.
Aang frees himself by creating an air bubble around him and expanding it. His bonds attach to the bubble, and Aang jumps away before they ensnare him again. He jumps through the trees, closely pursued by more vines. He escapes a vine that pulls him to the ground using his airbending to propel himself far away and soon finds himself alone in the swamp. Aang looks around for his friends and find no one is around. Whatever this is, it has divided them and only thing left to do is to conquer.
Elsewhere there was another hunting and now is hot the trail left by Appa's footprint, which is now filled with swamp water. Two figures are looking down at the footprint. Their names were Due and Tho. Due is tall and skinny, while his friend Tho is short and fat. Both wear small, animal skin loincloths and have a single, large leaf on their heads to serve as a hat. Tho is carrying a stick, and uses it to indicate the animal track.
"What'd you reckon make a track like that, Tho?" Due asked.
"Don't know, Due." Says Tho as he points his stick at the footprint. "Some'in with six legs. Pretty big'uns too."
"Leaves a nice, wide trail to folla'." Due says.
"You know what's at the end of that trail?" Tho asked.
Due shakes his head and Tho smiles. "Dinner."
At that moment Appa was swimming in the marshy water while Momo goes after a fly that has been buzzing around him. He lands on a nearby tree root, still attempting to catch the fly. He hops from tree root to tree root, following the fly, although unknowingly lands on the back of a catgator. He catches the fly on the last root, but lets go of it as he jumps to fly away from the creature. It pursues Momo as he flies back to Appa. When Momo and the crocodile reach Appa, the sky bison's mouth is open and the catgator swims right into it. Appa holds the creature there for a moment, before spitting it back out. Momo and the catfish crocodile hiss at each other for a moment, and the crocodile swims off. Appa shakes his head and loudly groans. What is going to with this rascal of a lemur on his back?
Meanwhile Katara entered through an area where the tree roots are covered in white flowers. She called out called out for her friend and heard nothing.
Up ahead Katara could see a figure standing in the water face away from her. Katara begins walking toward the figure hoping this person can help her.
"Hello? Hello? Can you help me?" she calls out.
As she approached closer she could see it was another Water Tribe woman who is wears the same robe as Katara and has the same hair style.
"Mom? Mom!" she called loudly and running toward the figure, her eyes streaming tears of joy. She reaches the figure and places a hand on her shoulder. "I can't believe ..."
The smile leaves her face as the scene begins to lighten. Katara stands in front of a tree stump as she realizes the figure was only an illusion. Katara gasps, falling to her knees as she begins to cry. Devastated and yet she wanted to believe it was really her mother.
Sokka slashing at the vines in frustration "Stupid swamp! Dumb, ugly vines! Katara!" He becomes caught, and grunts with exertion before slicing himself free. "You think you're so tough, huh?"
Sokka trips over as he cuts through the vine in which he was tangled, falling forward his face in the mud. Upon lifting up his head, he sees an image of Yue in a beam of light not far in front of him. Sokka stands up, puts away his machete and starts walking toward Yue.
"Hello? Yue?" He said before taking hold of his head, before removing his hands and shrugging, turning away from the apparition. "This is just a trick of the light ... swamp gas ... I ... hit my head running away last night. I'm going crazy." While that last part maybe true all year around he can't help but this that this could be the real thing. He turns around and walks closer to see what Princess Yue wants.
"You didn't protect me." She states accusingly.
Sokka rubs his eyes in disbelief, opening them to find that Yue has disappeared. Sokka sighs in relief, but as he turns around he falls over backward, startled at seeing Yue right before his eyes again. The image of Yue disappears immediately after that and Sokka stands up and pulls his machete back out, almost threateningly. The last time he saw her she didn't accused him of failing in protecting her. This was obviously a trick of sorts. But he has a feeling it was more than that. Sokka instead pushes it out of his mind for now and continues on to search for his friends.
Dante stepped through the hanging vines into a one of the several places in the swamp that sunlight shone through the thick canopy. He could hear the animals around him chitterling and chattering. Suddenly a scream grumpy-looking white bird startled him again and he firebended at the bird which scared it off. The fire lingered on the roots of a tree and Dante rolled his eyes and water bending the fire out. Then they all got eerily quiet and Dante walked through the water carefully as it was a clear sign a predator was on the prowl. Then he looked he saw someone sitting on the stump.
"Excuse me can, you help?" he asked, "I'm looking for a kid with a bald head and two others who are dressed in blue. Seen them?"
As he got closer the person appeared to be taller than him with long arms and legs. The person was naked as their blue striped skin was scene along with their long black hair and cat-like features. When the he got closer person turned and looked at him cause him to freeze in his tracks as the impossible was before him.
"Peyral?" he said.
The Na'vi smiled and stood and opened her arms in greeting. Dante rushed over and embraced the giant blue huntress he once called his mate on a world far from this one.
But as he did he passed through as if she was air and fell into the water. He wiped his face clean from the muck and turned around to find she was gone. Dante then recalled that she was indeed dead … Because he buried her. He took rebellion and planted it in the ground and leaded his head against it and for his sorrow was bitterly.
Upon wading through the swamp, Aang notices an unfamiliar girl in a dress standing on a hill, accompanied by a winged pig. "Hello? Who are you?" he asks the stranger. The pig flies off and the girl giggles in response, before turning around and running away. "Hey, come back!" he shouts.
Aang jumps to the top of the hill, only to find she has completely disappeared from his sight. Hearing her laugh again, Aang turns around only to see her running across the limbs of another tree. He uses the vines, however before he can even reach his destination, the girl has moved and is now running across the ground tries to chase the girl. Aang continues his wild chase through the treetops hoping to catch this white rabbit.
Appa with Momo on his back swimming through the river that flows through the swamp. A little further on the stream, covered by fog, is a group of six swamp tribe members divided over three canoes; Due and Tho sitting in the middle canoe. They look at each other in silence for a few moments, Tho wetting his lips using his tongue. Appa halts as Momo chitters at the strange people.
"Look at that Tho. Is that a little hairy fella ridin' that thing?" Due asked.
"No, that's what they call a "lemoo". Saw one at a traveling show once. Real smart they say." Tho replied.
"Bet he tastes a lot like possum chicken." Due said while his stomach growled.
Tho rolled his eyes. "You think everything tastes like possum chicken."
"C'mon now, fellas." He moves to the front of the boat." Just a little closer. Nice and easy. Nothing to worry about. We just fixin' to eat ya."
Appa turns around and takes off in the opposite direction. Tho glares a Due. "What'd you say that fer?"
Due shrugged as he tries to appease his friend. "Well, we are!"
"But you don't have to tell 'em that!" Tho stated.
Due shrugs. "Well how'd I know they'd understand me?"
Tho gestures to the rest to begin the chase. "Come on!"
Due stands up in front of the canoe and starts spinning his arms, bending the water behind his canoe in order to chase Appa. The other two canoes follow suit, trailing behind Appa in a 'V' formation. Appa bounds through the river, desperate to escape the strange people hunting him.
Meanwhile back to Aang, who is still chasing the girl. Peering through a wall of vegetation, Aang sees the girl on a small hill.
"Who are you?" he asks
Running after her, it is too late to stop as he notices that it is not the girl, but Katara. Aang runs into the waterbender and they both fall over. As the rolled Dante stepped out the vines and turned to see them but couldn't jump out of way was caught up with them. Sokka hears the commotion and turns around to investigate with his machete cocked - in the wrong direction, as only a few seconds later, Aang, Dante and Katara come barreling down the root he is standing on and hit him in the back, knocking him over too.
He stands up and puts his machete away. "What do you guys think you're doing!? I've been looking all over for you!"
Katara has not moved, although her hand is on her head as she sits on the root they have fallen onto. "Well, I've been wandering around looking for you!"
He looks away before airbending himself to his feet, he feels embarrassed that he was not actively searching for his friends like they were him."I was chasing some girl." he admits.
"What girl?" Katara asks.
"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!" Sooka explained sarcastically.
"I thought I saw Mom." Katara said sadly.
Sokka was silent for a moment before answering. "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."
"Exactly." Dante agreed.
Katara looked surprised. "You two saw something as well?"
"I thought a saw my late wife." Dante said as he looked out at the swamp.
Everyone was surprised to hear Dante was married at one point. None of them thought he was the marring type.
Sokka looks away for a moment, before turning back and taking a step closer to his sister. "I thought I saw Yue. But, that doesn't prove anything. Look, I think about her all the time, and you saw Mom, and you saw your wife, someone you guys miss a lot."
Aang was still lost on the subject. "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?" Katara asked.
Aang begins walking around, as if looking for something. He looks around, his gaze finally resting on a massive tree growing right next to him. He tilts his head up high seeing how enormous the tree is.
"Yeah, the center ... it's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here. I knew it."
For Sokka this was getting ridiculous. "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."
As Sokka finishes his tirade, a seaweed monster jumps out from the water. The gang huddles together and screams, separating as the monster begins to attack them. The seaweed monster goes after Sokka first as the four split up, each running in different directions. Sokka is picked up and swung around, only being released as Aang uses airbending to slice part of the monster's arm off. The monster goes after Aang, flicking him away and into the surrounding trees. Dante summons rebellion and attack the monsters arms before leaping away as it turns to swat him. Sokka is shown fighting with the vines that had him captured only seconds ago, and so intent was he at destroying them, he failed to notice a column rising behind himself. The column attaches to the seaweed monster and Sokka is swiped from the ground. Katara comes to his rescue this time as she slices at the monster's arm. It did not have the desired effect, as more vines grew to patch up the hole her waterbending created. She manages to push the monster back a little; however it is not long before she is flung away. Aang stops to watch her, giving the monster time to attack him. Sokka is absorbed into the chest of the monster. Things were not looking good.
Elsewhere while running at high speed Appa continues his escape from the Foggy Swamp tribesmen. Momo throws objects at them from the back of his friend, attempting to slow them down. One of these such items was a shirt that belongs to Sokka at a Foggy Swamp member, resulting in the boat that member was on to spin out of control.
"Now, what would a lemoo need a shirt fer?" Tho asks himself.
Tho manages to capture Momo after the latter hits a low tree branch and is thrown backward. The loss of his friend encourages Appa to run faster.
The gang was still engaged with the seaweed monster. Dante waterbends giant orb of ice and hits the monster with it to disorient it allowing Aang to ride in with on an air ball and use a tornado-like airbending move to wrap it up. Katara freezes Sokka in place before shooting him with water, expelling him from the monster's body. Aang leaps and face slams the monster into the water. Dante landed beside Aang only to have the monster quickly smack them both away.
The fight ends as Katara begins to waterbending loop like blades repeatedly at the monster, slicing through the vines and not allowing the monster to regenerate. Sokka noticed a person inside the monster, bending the vines. "There's someone in there! He's bending the vines!"He informed.
With a whirl she delivers the final slice, Katara cuts through the mask on the seaweed monster, the whole top half falling off. However, this does not stop the monster, and vines spring out of the marsh, capturing Katara high on a pillar. Aang air bends over to the monster and, bending a great blast of wind, rips apart the vines leaving the person inside defenseless.
"Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us!?" Aang demanded.
The vines drop to reveal a slightly larger man wearing nothing but a leaf loincloth. "Wait! I didn't call you here." he rasied his hands up to show he didn't mean any harm.
Aang shares a look of confusion with the other three, who are also in an offensive stance, "We were flying over and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land." He explained.
"He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us a lot."
"The Avatar? Come with me." The swamp man said.
The four drop their stances and look at each other and followed Huu as he leads the gang to the top of the giant tree Aang noticed earlier.
"So, who are you then?" Katara asked.
Huu bends a vine out of the way to allow easy passage. "I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it, like these fellas with his big knife and the other with his firebending."
Sokka finally puts his machete away. "See, completely reasonable. Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home. Nothing mystical about it."
Huu begged to differ. "Oh the swamp is a mystical place all right. It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan-grove tree. I heard it calling me, just like you did." He explains as as he sits on the tree.
"Sure you did. It seems real chatty." Said Sokka, humoring him.
"See this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink, take root, and spread some more. One big, living organism. Just like the entire world." He explains and the group looks out at the swamp. The large banyan-grove tree is so vast compared to the others below.
Aang is still skeptical. "I get how the tree is one big thing, but the whole world?" he asks. He like Sokka found it hard to believe that everyone, including those who are of the Four Nations and the animals.
Huu nodded in acknowledgment. "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 living 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."
"All life seems to come from a tree of life." Dante added.
The Gang were now sitting as it intrigued them more.
"But what did our visions mean?" Katara asked the big question.
"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 them. Time is an illusion and so is death."
"But what about my vision? It was someone I had never met." Aang stated as he was still lost.
"You're the Avatar. You tell me." Huu said.
Aang thought for a moment. "Time is an illusion. So, it's someone … I will meet." He said finally understanding. Huu nodded as it has come full circle.
"Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we still need to find Appa and Momo." Sokka said trying to get back to the issue at hand. Surprisingly the rest almost completely forget.
"I think I know how to find them. Everything is connected." Aang kneels down and places his hand on the tree. Energy travels from Aang's hand to Appa's location. Aang sees Appa being captured by the Foggy Swamp members. "Come on! We've got to hurry!"
Appa is trapped inside a net being dragged through the water while Tho sings. "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 catgators fed."
The boats stop when a jet of water appears and destroys the boat next to Tho and Due's. The two people from the destroyed boat fly into the water as Aang appears on a tree branch. He airbends a stream of air, throwing Tho into the water and freeing Momo who was being held by Tho.
Due scoops up a puddle of water and sends it toward Aang Dante and Katara but they push it back. The four become engaged in a waterbending fight, with neither side gaining an advantage.
"Hey, you guys are waterbenders!" Katara realized.
"You too! That means we're kin!" due said happily.
Katara suddenly got a slightly disgusted look on her face. Sokka and Huu run up to the branch where the others were standing are standing on.
Due smiled upon seeing an old friend."Hey Huu! How you been?"
Huu shrugged nonchalantly. "You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual."
"Huu?" Sokka repeated the unusual name for the unusual swamp man.
The gang sat around a fire in the Foggy Swamp Tribe. There is a member waterbending some liquid in a pot to stirs it, and Due grabs a fish from the pot before moving over to the fire. Dante found his Pipa still with the Tribesman and decided to play a way down swampy tune.
"How you like that possum chicken?" Due asked.
"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!"
Due pulls the fish off the branch and gives it to Slim. "Nice Slim!" he said and throws a bug at the catgator; it bounces off his nose and he growls at Sokka, who cowers slightly.
Due laughs. "Oh, he don't eat no bugs! That's people food."
"Where'd you say you was from?" Tho asked
"The South Pole." Katara answered with a smile.
Tho asked his chin. "Didn't know there was waterbenders anywhere but here. They got a nice swamp there, do they?
"No, it's all ice and snow." Said Katara.
Tho blink in disappointment."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." Sokka remind his sister.
"What about the visions?" Katara asked.
"I told you, we were hungry. I'm eating a giant bug!" Sokka then up said giant bug, taking a bit of its abdomen. He swallows it with some difficulty before exhaling sharply, sticking his tongue out. To him food was food and it doesn't matter what it was.
"But what about when the tree showed me where Appa and Momo were?" Aang asked while feeding Momo.
"That's Avatar stuff, that doesn't count." Sokka says before turning to Huu, The only thing I can't figure out is how you made that tornado that sucked us down."
Aang thought that too and wondered if Huu was like Dante. it turns out he wasn't.
"I can't do anything like that. I just bend the water in the plants." Huu answered.
"Well, no accounting for weather. Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp." Sokka finally concluded.
Across the river from the camp. The white screaming bird from earlier lands on a visible tree branch and lets out its horrible cry. A nearby vine rises up and smacks the bird away from it.
If Sokka says tat there is nothing wrong with the swamp then it MUST be true.
The full moon hover high and bright over the Earth Kingdom village where Zuko and Iroh were currently at. The broadsword man is walking down a street alone. He hears something behind him, turns and draws his blades. There was nothing behind him.
"Who's there?" Broadsword man asks in a demanding tone.
He turns the other way when he hears a movement. His wrists which are both grabbed by another person who disarmed him thrown him against some nearby boxes, his swords falling uselessly to the ground. His assailant approaches the swords. He picks them up; the Broadsword man sees before he falls unconscious that his assailant is the Blue Spirit himself.
What was a man's pride can become another man's weapon.