Me: are you guys ready for this episode.

All: yes!

Me: ok let's start.

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BOOK 2: EARTH

CHAPTER 12: SERPANTS PASS.

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Zuko: what's that?

everyone else: OH.

Sokka: you'll find out zuko.

Toph: oh gosh.

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(The Scene opens in a box canyon on a peaceful sunny afternoon. A waterfall cascades into a deep pool, and we see Aang and company enjoying some off-time. Sokka is sitting on a rock studying a scroll while Momo observes from his shoulder. Toph splashes her feet from the pool's edgel, while Aang swims on his back. Aang encases his body in a block of ice, floating along peacefully. The cameral pans up to the highest point in the canyon, as Katara prepares to dive off).

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Zuko: isn't that really cold?

Aang: It is.

Zuko: If it is why?

Aang: cause it was fun.

Zuko: I don't get you.

Aang: you don't have to. Its was just fun.

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Waterbending bomb! Yeah!

(Katara performs a tumbling cannonball into the pool.

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he sends up a massive column of water that washes Aang ashore, shattering his ice block. As water drenches them all, Toph and Aang laugh with delight.)

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suki: How fun!

Katara: It was.

Suki: next time when we're at a beach or a place like that. Do that waterbending bomb.

Katara: sure.

Sokka: how would you Jump if we are in a beach?

Suki: maybe.....

Aang: ooh I know maybe I can airbend katara up, Then she can do it from there.

Katara: That could work.

Suki: does that answer you question Sokka.

Sokka: yup

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(holding out dripping map) Sure, 5000 year old maps from the spirit library, just splash some water on 'em.

Sorry.

(Katara emerges from the pool as she says this, wringing water out of her hair. She then uses a waterbending technique to draw the water out of the map Sokka is holding up. Everyone gathers around as Sokka spreads the map out on the ground.

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Suki: oohhhh Katara. You are looking real pretty.

Katara: thank you.

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So, did you figure out what route we're gonna take?

(pointing out map features) Okay. We just got out of the desert, so we must be around here, and we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here. It looks like the only passage connecting the South to the North is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass.

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zuko: oh I see.

sokka: yup

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You're sure that's the best way to go?

It's the only way, I mean it's not like we have Appa to fly us there.

(in a hushed voice) Shush up about Appa. Can't you at least try to be sensitive? (Sokka and Katara glance up at Aang)

(calmly) Katara, it's ok. I know I was upset about losing Appa before, but I just want to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se, and telling the Earth King about the solar eclipse.

(surprised) Oh, well, ok. I'm glad you're doing better.

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Katara: well not exactly

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(rolling map) Then to Ba Sing Se we go, no more distractions.

(Just as Sokka finishes saying this, a trio of Earth kingdom civilians appear in the background.)

(calling out) Hello there fellow refugees!

(In a closer shot, we see a waving young man in his twenties, a very pregnant young woman and a teen-aged girl. Sokka expression changes to consternation. Scene switches to both groups gathered in conversation.)

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Zuko: hey I have seen them before.

Sokka: really?

Zuko: yeah.

Aang: where?

Zuko: on the train and also the time I was alone. What was the episode name?

Toph: Zuko Alone.

Zuko: yup.

Sokka: oh yeah!

katara: When you were gonna steal from them but You saw that ying was pregnant so you didn't.

Zuko: yup. Who's ying?

Suki: who else.

Aang: the pregnant lady.

Zuko: oh right right.

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So, are you guys headed to Ba Sing Se too?

Sure are, we're trying to get there before my wife Ying has her baby. (rubs her large belly)

Great, we can travel through the Serpent's Pass together. (the three travelers react with horror.)

(fearfully) The Serpent's Pass?! Only the truly desperate take that deadly route.

Deadly route. (whacks Sokka's arm painfully) Great pick, Sokka.

Well, we are desperate.

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Sokka: its true though we were desperate.

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You should come with us to Full Moon Bay. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It's the fastest way to Ba Sing Se.

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Zuko: you guys went to full moon bay?

Katara: you were there?

zuko: yup.

Aang: how come we didn't see you?

zuko: I don't know

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And it's hidden, so the Fire Nation can't find it.

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Sokka: technically Zuko is fire nation so they so they did find it.

Zuko: its not techincally. I am fire nation. Hello Fire lord.

Sokka: well you were not really fire nation there. If you were firelord then aang would've beaten you many times.

Zuko: okay whatever.

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(sarcastically) Hmmm, peaceful ferry ride...or deadly pass?

(Cut to a gloomy cavernous inlet; Full Moon Ferry Landing, where three large wooden ships are anchored past a fortified wall. Behind the harbor wall hundreds of people have gathered on a stone landing. Cut to two earth nation guards standing at attention. One of them bends down a wall section behind them, revealing a hidden tunnel. Our heroes and their new traveling companions emerge from the tunnel. A view over Katara's shoulder shows the crowd of refugees.)

I can't believe how many people's lives have been uprooted by the Fire Nation. (cuts to a scene of refugee camp, showing a woman feeding a crying child)

(voice over) We're all looking for a better life. Safe, behind the walls of Ba Sing Se.

(Ends: 1:00)

lake. Cuts to show a close-up of Iroh, standing on the ship's deck and looking out at the water.)

(solemnly) Who would have thought, after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace...as a tourist (as he says this last bit, he turns to Zuko, putting on a flowered straw hat and a wide grin)

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They all chuckle.

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(grimly) Look around, we're not tourists, we're refugees. (sips from wooden bowl) Ugh! (spits over railing) I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt... I'm tired of living like this.

(Zuko leans on the rail despondently.)

Aren't we all? (camera pans to show a stalk of prairie grass, leading to the silhouette of Jet's face as he adopts a sly grin)

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katara: I know that voice.

Sokla: and there is grass.

Aang: jet.

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My name's Jet, and these are my freedom fighters, Smellerbee, and Longshot.

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Katara: you met jet?

Zuko: defitnatly.

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(Jet steps out toward the rail, his companions behind him.)

Hey. (Longshot nods a greeting)

(looking out over lake) Hello.

(stepping closer) Here's the deal. I hear the Captain's eating like a king, while us refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair, does it?

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katara: well well he didn't exactly change.

toph: but he did die.

Katara: yeah.........

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What sort of "king" is he eating like?

The fat, happy kind. (Iroh's mouth gapes open, drooling) You want to help us "liberate" some food?

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they chuckle at iroh's facial expression.

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(Zuko stares down into at the bowl of gruel, considering a moment before hurling it out over the rail.)

(turns) I'm in.

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Katara: why would you join?

Zuko: I already said. I am tired of eating rotten food and all.

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(Cuts back to the Ferry Landing, where an cruel-looking Earth kingdom woman stands at a podium, stamping papers.)

(angrily) I've told you already, no vegetables on the ferry! (A familiar old man looks up in desperate denial) One cabbage slug could destroy the entire ecosystem of Ba Sing Se. Security! (points offscreen)

(horrified) Dah! My Cabbages!!

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suki: ooh his cabbages again.

Aang: how many times does his cabbages get destroyed?

Me: about 5 times for now.

Aang: so there is more than this.

Me: yup.

aang: oh

Sokka: 5 is not bad.

Katara: sokka its not just 5 cabbages its his whole stand. So about a dozen or so.

Sokka: okay that's a lot.

Katara: exactly.

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(As he says this an enormous platypus-bear, dressed in a uniform, rears up and destroys his goods, cart and all. The merchant falls to his knees, paralyzed in despair. Two guards pick him up by the arms and carry him away past Aang and friends.)

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Zuko: you were there when his Cabbages were destroyed.

Aang: oh we were.

Zuko: how do you not remember this guy?

aang: I don't know

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(My cabbages! count-5)

(stampingpaper) Next!

(hesitantly) Um, four tickets for the ferry to Ba Sing Se, please.

Passport.

Uh, no one told us we had to have passports.

(stepping forward) Don't you know who this is? He's the Avatar!

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suki: ah the avatar card.

Sokka: hey its helpful here and there.

Aang: true.

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(unimpressed) Ah, I see fifty Avatars a day, and by the way, not a very impressive costume.

(She points over the the left, showing a motley group of boys in avatar costumes lounging together. Aang smiles and nods in their direction, as Momo jumps up on his shoulder.)

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Zuko: oh come on. They don't look like aang.

Aang: Good try though.

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Besides, no animals allowed. (threateningly) Do I need to call security?

(Cut to platypus bear chomping a cabbage, back to Momo cowering on Aang's shoulder.)

(holds up hands) That won't be necessary.

Next!

(strides forward) I'll take care of this. My name is Toph Bei Fong, and I'll need 4 tickets.

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Suki: ooh the beifong card.

Toph: works all most all the time.

Suki: obivously. I mean Bei fong. well of course you know.

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(Toph pushes up a document bearing a gleaming golden emblem.)

(awed) Oh! The Golden Seal of the Flying Boar, it is my pleasure to help anyone of the Bei Fong family. (The Bureaucrat bows with a flourish.)

(arrogantly) It is your pleasure. As you can see I am blind, and these three imbeciles are my valets.

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suki: great combo. Beifong card plus blind card.

Toph: usually works All the time.

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(She gestures back to the others, who are grinning foolishly in a group hug.)

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Suki: wow.

Sokka: what?

Suki: nothing just change of mood.

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: (hesitantly) But the animal ...

Is my Seeing-Eye Lemur. (Momo hops up on her shoulder.)

Well, normally it's only 1 ticket per passport, but, this document is so official, I guess it's worth 4 tickets.

(She rapidly stamps four papers.)

Thank you very much.

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suki: that worked really well.

Zuko: really well

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(She reaches up and gathers them off podium, then walks off.)

(in file behind the others) Alright, we scammed that lady good!

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Zuko: yup.

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(Sokka is grabbed from behind and spun around by an attractive young woman in Earth kingdom uniform.)

(firmly) Tickets and passports please. (holds out hand)

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Zuko: suki you were there?

Suki: yup. I don't know how I didn't see you.

Zuko: I don't know

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(intimidated) Is there a problem?

(menacingly) Yeah, I've got a problem with you. (pokes

finger at his chest) I've seen your type before, probably sarcastic, think your hilarious, and let me guess, you're traveling with the Avatar.

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(eyes narrowing) Do I know you?

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sokka: sure do!

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You mean you don't remember? (yanks him close by his collar) Maybe you remember this. (She places a kiss on his cheek.)

Suki!! (They hug.)

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Katara and aang: awww

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(delighted) Sokka, it's good to see you!

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suki: definatly