On Appa's back, Aang traveled from the Southern Water Tribe to Omashu. It was dangerous, because the Fire Nation was hunting down all airbenders, especially airbenders Aang's age. However, it was less suspicious for an Air Nomad to be flying around the world than for a Water Tribe escort to carry him to the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation didn't know that he had started his training, but they weren't stupid. Given enough evidence they could put two and two together. Besides, he had spent a year in his Quest running from the Fire Nation, and he had a lot more places to run to now than he had then.
The war hadn't really begun in earnest because the Fire Nation's priority was still to hunt him down. They had started the siege on Taku(2) because of its strategic location and its importance in Earth Kingdom commerce, but Aang doubted the city would come down in the near future. Taku was a trade city, and so it had a very weak military presence. In the Spirit Quest, the Fire Nation had annihilated the city easily, but the surviving airbenders proved to be a thorn in their side. They flew soldiers from Ba Sing Se and Omashu to Taku, and they were able to stop the Fire Nation attack. In return, Taku made weapons and other manufactured goods and gave them to the cities. Also, it was impossible to put the city under an effective siege because the Air Nomads would fly food and other supplies into the city. Trade didn't even stop, because merchants were flown in and out of Taku.
The Earth Kingdom and Air Nomads made a great team, even though they probably would be hard pressed to admit it. The Fire Nation couldn't focus their attention on the Earth Kingdom until they neutralized the Air Nomads, but they couldn't catch the Air Nomads because the airbenders could flee faster than they could chase, and they could find shelter in the Earth Kingdom cities. Even though it was dangerous for Aang to travel alone, most of the Fire Nation's attacks were centered on Taku and the villages of the northwestern part of the continent. They didn't dare attack a city as powerful as Omashu so early in the war.
Aang reached the city without any issue, other than a slight scare with a Fire Nation ship. The familiar walls of the city were comforting to him. Omashu was a city that had remained unchanged even through a hundred years of war. As he approached, some people stopped and stared at the flying bison, but just as many of them went on their way as if nothing exciting was happening. Only one of them mattered to Aang.
"Bumi!" Aang cried, throwing himself off Appa and into the arms of his friend. The boy laughed before setting him down.
"Are you going to teach me earthbending?" Aang asked.
"I might have," Bumi cackled, "but you broke all the rules!"
"What do you mean?"
"Avatar Roku mastered airbending when he was nineteen-almost twenty- years old. If you had taken that long to master waterbending, I would have been twenty two." Bumi was two years older than him. "That would have been old enough to teach you. But as it is…" Bumi shrugged.
"Bumi will be assisting me. That is- if he can stay focused for long enough to be of any use." Bao, Bumi's father, had always been a stern man, but Aang didn't remember him being so severe. He imagined that being a King during a war would make you very crabby. Aang wanted to shout that Bumi had kept Omashu free for nearly a hundred years, but his friend didn't look fazed at all by his father's temper, so he decided he would only make things worse.
Bao didn't waste any time. As soon as Aang's things were moved to his quarters, the man started teaching him (his teaching involved liberal amounts of shouting and earth-shaking stomps). Aang was reminded of Toph, except without any Katara to run interference. His only reprieve was the fact that Bao was a very busy man, and couldn't dedicate all of his time to training Aang. Whenever he left them, he would order Bumi to take over. Bumi obeyed his father, of course, but his idea of training was a lot more enjoyable than his father's. They would slide down the mail chutes, earthbend rock candy, or play earth soccer.
The most jarring part of living in the Earth Kingdom was the meat. Aang had gotten used to (as much as he could, anyway) eating meat, but at least in the Water Tribes they had respected the animals they slaughtered. In Omashu, they ate only the best parts of the beast, leaving the bones, organs, or even just tougher meat to rot. Bumi tried to explain that they buried the animals to keep the earth fertile, but Aang wasn't convinced. Yes, they did bury the carcasses, but that didn't excuse their attitude about it. In the Southern Water Tribe, the hunters sent a prayer to Tui and La every time they killed an animal. In the Earth Kingdoms the beast was killed, cooked, and discarded. Some people even hunted just for the sake of enjoyment, murdering the creature and then letting it sit and rot.
He was so disturbed that on the Winter Solace he meditated and talked to Avatar Yangchen.
"Yangchen, how can we just sit back and let people disrespect life like this?" Aang asked. Seeing that his past life had an almost patronizing expression on her face, Aang continued quickly. "I understand that eating meat is sometimes necessary, especially for earthbenders who need big muscles and lots of energy. That still doesn't excuse the waste of life. I'm the Avatar. Can't I fix this?"
Yangchen smiled at him, but the expression had no mirth to it. Aang wondered what had happened in her life that had made her so bitter. "Young Avatar, I myself asked the same question many times. What you must realize is that no one culture is inherently better than any other."
Aang began to protest, but Yangchen cut him off.
"Aang, what do you think your waterbending teacher, Ahnah, would do if you tried to take her children away from her?"
Aang didn't understand the change of topic, but decided to go with it. "I'd have to kill her first. There's no way you can take a Water Tribe mother's children from her." Everyone knew that.
"Yes, but isn't it true that in the Air Temples we take children from their parents? Isn't it true that we never let those children know who their parents are?"
"But that's different!" Aang protested.
"Why?" Yangchen said quietly, but intently. "Because that is ourculture? It makes sense to us, but what about all of the Water Tribe Avatars? To them, stealing children from their parents is evil. Don't you think that at least one of us," Yangchen said, referring to their past lives, "Has considered righting what they consider is wrong?"
Aang didn't know how to respond.
"Aang, every Nation has things that make it unique. Yes, we may consider some of them 'good' and some of them 'bad,' but to remove those distinctions would be to destroy all four of the Nations. That is what you are fighting to prevent right now."
"I don't understand," said Aang. Suddenly mist swirled around Yangchen, and she disappeared. When the mist dissipated, Roku sat in her place.
"Aang," he said, "This war did not start because Sozin was greedy, or because he lusted to rule the world. Sozin saw the world as a land divided. He saw the Air Nomads as a disorderly mess, the Water Tribes split in twain, and the Earth Kingdoms a massive mesh of anarchy."
"But I thought the Earth Kingdom was ruled by the Earth King," Aang said, confused.
"If there is a true Earth King, then how can Bao be king of Omashu?" Roku challenged. He shook his head. "Each city-state is independent of each other. The king of Ba Sing Se calls himself the Earth King because when Chin conquered the Earth Kingdoms, Ba Sing Se was the only city-state that remained independent. In fact, the city-states often come to blows and miniature wars. This war against the Fire Nation is the first time in centuries that they have ever cooperated. Fire Lord Sozin saw that the world was divided, and often warred against itself.
"You see, Aang, the Fire Nation is ruled supremely by the Fire Lord. Even if the Lord is wrong, or evil, it is considered dishonorable to the highest degree to disobey your Lord. The Fire Lord is considered the Son of Agni, and to dishonor your Fire Lord is the same thing as dishonoring Agni himself. It has been over a thousand years since the last civil war within the Fire Nation. Sozin believed that if he could spread his culture to the world, that he could end all war permanently. It was very simple logic: the Fire Nation didn't have any civil wars, so if the whole world were the Fire Nation, there would be no more wars."
"You mean," Aang said weakly, "That Fire Lord Sozin wants to create an era of world peace?"
Roku chuckled mirthlessly. "Yes, rather hypocritical of him, don't you think, to make peace by creating the worst war in thousands of years? Sozin didn't understand or respect the cultures of the other Nations, and the whole world paid the price. Do you understand now, Aang? You are learning the four bending arts, yes, but you are also learning to understand and accept the cultures that created said arts. It is natural for someone to be offended, or even disgusted by certain aspects of other cultures. That's the reason that the Avatar exists. We are of all Nations and of none. It is not your job to change the world as you see fit. It is your duty to keep the four Nations in balance, and therefore in peace."
Aang didn't get a chance to respond, because the Spirit World faded away like water slipping through his fingers, leaving him face to face with Bumi. After his conversations with Yangchen and Roku, he tried to see past his disapproval of Omashu's customs, and instead see the good. Everyone knew that people of the Earth Kingdoms were stubborn, but few people could see the good side of that stubbornness. Water Tribesmen were loyal to their families, and secondly to their tribes. Friends were well and good, but blood was far thicker than water. While family was important to the Earth Kingdoms, loyalties were formed independent of family bonds.
Once, Aang accidently broke a vase that was passed down from generation to generation, the kind of vase that no one actually cared about until it was in pieces. King Bao had been furious, but Bumi argued with him for hours. It was the only time Aang had ever seen his friend yell. The other boy had argued that the vase was ugly and useless, and that no one had actually liked it. In the end, the two boys were cleaning out toilettes with toothbrushes.
"Bumi," Aang had said, "Why did you bother? It was my fault. I broke the vase and I was wrong to be so careless."
Bumi looked at him like he had said the sky was orange. "What does it matter if you're right or wrong? You're my friend."
Aang understood then that Bumi would walk off the end of the earth for him- not because he was the Avatar, but because he had earned Bumi's loyalty. He also understood why the Earth Kingdoms could never be united under one ruler. The people of Earth weren't like the Fire Nation, or even the Water Tribes, who would respect their Lord of Chief simply because the man was in charge. In the Earth Kingdoms, respect had to be earned, by working and sweating and bleeding with someone. Loyalties existed in many different forms in the four Nations. The Fire Nation was unquestioningly loyal to the Fire Lord, the Air Nomads to their Elders, the Water Tribes to their families, and the Earth Kingdom to their friends and comrades. Aang knew then that he would never have a friend as faithful as Bumi.
When he finally mastered earthbending after two years it was bittersweet. He was on track; he still had one more year to master firebending before the Fire Nation would stop looking for him among the Air Nomads and begin destroying the world in earnest. Even so, for the first time he wished that he was just an earthbender, and not the Avatar, so that he could stay with Bumi. Unfortunately, he had a destiny to accept, and a world to save.
"Promise that you'll visit me," Bumi whispered, embracing him.
"Of course, maybe I'll even make a mountain right next to Omashu so that I could live there and visit you all the time."
The two friends shared a smile and one last hug before Aang got on Appa and flew away.