Home > Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Swamp

[Katara] 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.

100 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.

Ugh!

[Katara] But I believe Aang can save the world.

♪♪

We're enemies of the Earth Kingdom, and fugitives from the Fire Nation.

I'll always be with you.

I lost my mother in a Fire Nation raid.

This necklace is all I have left of her.

I guess I need to find someone else to teach me earthbending.

You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking.

♪♪

Spare coins for weary travelers?

[coins clink]

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?

Aw, here you go.

The coin is appreciated but not as much as your smile.

[giggles]

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 so pretty. ♪

Come on, we're talking a gold piece here.

Let's see some action.

Dance.

♪ They kiss so sweet that you really have to meet ♪

♪ The girls from Ba Sing Se. ♪

[laughing]

Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner.

Here you go.

Such a kind man.

[warbles]

[suspenseful music]

♪♪

Hey, you taking us down for a reason?

Aang, why are we going down?

What?

I didn't even notice.

[Sokka] Are you noticing now?

Is something wrong?

I know this is gonna sound weird, but I think the swamp is...calling to me.

Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?

[Aang] 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?

[warbles]

Yes. I don't know.

There's something ominous about that place.

[warbles]

[roars]

See? Even Appa and Momo don't like it here.

Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this, bye, swamp.

Yip, yip.

[rumbling]

[Sokka] You better throw in an extra yip.

We gotta move.

Ah!

[yelling]

[all] Ah!

Ugh.

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?

[Aang] No.

And the tornado, it just disappeared.

[growling]

[roars]

[roars]

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 want to wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can.

[supersonic whistle]

[roars]

[supersonic whistle]

[gurgles]

[Katara] 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.

Ah, ugh!

What was that?

Nothing, just swamp gas.

Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here.

[all] Eugh.

[human-like screams]

[screams]

I think we should build a fire.

[blade chinking]

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?

[squeakily] No problem, Sokka.

[blade chinks]

Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?

Please, we're all alone out here.

[blade swooshing]

Except for them.

Right, except for them.

[frogs croaking]

[night sounds intensify]

[roars]

[night sounds stop]

[all yelp]

Hagh!

Ah!

Ah!

[grunting]

Ugh!

Ugh.

Ah!

Ugh.

Guys?

What'd you reckon make a track like that, Tho?

Don't know, Doo.

Something with six legs, pretty big'uns, too.

[Doo] Leaves a nice, wide trail to follow.

You know what's at the end of that trail?

Dinner.

[roars]

[growls]

[hisses]

[growls]

[Katara] Aang?

Sokka?

Hello?

Hello.

Can you help me?

Mom?

Mom!

I can't believe...

[gasps]

[sobbing]

Aang!

Stupid swamp.

Dumb, ugly vines.

Katara!

You think you're so tough, huh?

[grunting]

Ah!

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. You didn't protect me.

[sighs]

Ah!

Katara!

Appa!

Hello?

Who are you?

[laughs]

Hey!

Come back.

[laughing]

[laughs]

[laughs]

Lookee there, Tho.

Is that a little hairy fella riding that thing?

No, that's what they call a "lemu."

Saw one at a traveling show once--real smart, they say.

Bet he tastes a lot like possum-chicken.

You think everything tastes like possum-chicken.

Come on, now, fellas, just a little closer.

Nice and easy.

Nothin' to worry about.

We just fixin' to eat ya.

[growls]

What'd ya say that fer?

Well, we are.

But you don't have to tell them that.

Well, how'd I know they'd understand me?

Come on.

[laughing]

Who are you?

[both] Ah!

Ugh.

[all] Ugh.

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?

Yeah...

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.

[all] Ah!

Ah!

[yelling]

Ugh.

[grunting]

Ah!

Ugh!

Ugh.

Ah!

Ugh!

Ah!

Ugh!

Ah!

[grunting]

Ugh.

[grunting]

Now, what would a "lemu" need a shirt fer?

Ah!

Ugh!

[growling]

[grunting]

[both] Ugh!

Ah!

Ugh.

Ah!

Ugh.

There's someone in there.

He's bending the vines.

Uh!

Ah!

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.

[Katara] 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.

[man] 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.

Sure you did.

It seems real chatty.

See, this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles.

Branches spread then 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 are 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.

[Katara] 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 find Appa and Momo.

I think I know how to find them.

Everything is connected.

Come on, we've gotta hurry.

♪ Set my lines by the riverbed. ♪

♪ Caught ten fish, and I killed 'em dead. ♪

♪ Cut 'em and gut 'em, and I toss the heads ♪

♪ In the water to keep them cat-gators fed. ♪

[all] Ah!

Appa!

Oh!

We're under attack.

Hey, you guys are Waterbenders.

You, too?

That means we're kin.

Hey, Huu.

How you been?

You know, scared some folks, swung some vines--the usual.

Huu?

[twangy banjo-like music]

How you like that possum-chicken?

Tastes just like arctic hen.

So why were you guys so interested in eating Appa?

You've get plenty of those big things wandering around.

You want me to eat ol' Slim?

He's like a member of the family.

Nice Slim.

[growls]

Ah!

[laughing] Oh, he don't eat no bugs.

That's people food.

Where'd you say you was from?

The South Pole.

Didn't know there was Waterbenders anywhere but here.

They got a nice swamp there, do they?

No, it's all ice and snow.

Mm, 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.

Mm-ugh.

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 the tornado that sucked us down.

I can't do anything like that.

I just bend the water in the plants.

Well, no accounting for weather.

Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp.

[screaming] thwack!

Who's there?

Whoa!

Ugh.

♪♪