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Overview[]

Bumi remembers how he first met Aang.

Content[]

1 BG[]

As I walked through my home city, Omashu, I did what I always did: looked for new possibilities. The city was a bustling metropolis, supposedly the birthplace of Earthbending itself. I was also an Earthbender, but I didn't think I was that good yet.

I continued walking through the city, eventually seeing a small piece of wood fall from the tier above. I walked to pick it up, since I normally didn't see pieces of wood falling from the sky. I leaned down to see what it was, and a boy about my age whisked in from the tier above. This bald kid just scooped the piece of wood right up from under my hand. He then ran away with a loud laugh.

I ran back after him, curious to find what that wooden piece happened to be. After he looked back, he created a ball of air in his hands, and balanced himself on it. I couldn't keep up as the bald kid zoomed away from me.

I ran after him, nonetheless, curious to details of that single piece of wood. The kid them jumped off of the side of the city. I looked over, and saw him jumping to the lower level of the city. I looked around, almost thinking that I lost him. I saw a mail man doing his normal duty, and I got an idea. I ran over to the huge mail chute and hopped into a mail cart. I used the little Earthbending skills I had to move the cart to the chute and began sliding down. It was much more fun than I had ever imagined.

As I began falling to the bottom, I managed to catch a closer glimpse of the kid who took the wood. He had a bald head, and I noticed light blue tattoos on his head. The orange and yellow clothes were a giveaway too; that kid must be an Airbender! The kid waved and shot me a large smile, which I returned. I hopped out of my cart and landed in front of the young Airbender. "May I please see that piece of wood?" I asked politely.

"I'm sorry, this belongs to my guardian. I can't let just anyone see it," the boy replied, turning and running in the other direction. I followed him, eventually ending up in a dark ally.

"I want to see it!" I announced as the boy stopped. He began walking backwards slowly, eventually bumping into me.

"I think we're in a bad part of town..." the boy muttered to me. I looked around his head and saw a few old, mean-looking men walking slowly out of the shadowed part of the ally.

"Hey, punks. We're busy doing business," the oldest one announced.

"We were just leaving!" the young Air Nomad quickly said, trying to walk further backwards, but he forgot that I was there. "Back away slowly..." he whispered to me, but I wouldn't budge.

"I think they might have seen something," another criminal announced. He pulled out a dagger and began walking towards the two of us, menacingly. "We'll just have to make sure they can't talk."

The boy twirled his hands and sent a jet of air at the gang members. The jet also pushed us backwards, out of the ally. "Run!" the boy yelled at me, as we both got up. The criminals ran at us, out of the ally, and we ran all over the tier of the city.

Young Bumi and Aang sliding

Aang and Bumi ride the mail carts

Eventually, I saw a mail cart filled with lettuces. "There!" I told the boy, who nods in agreement. We jumped into the cart and I used my crude Earthbending to send the cart down the chute.

"MY LETTUCES!!!" we heard as the cart took off. As we coasted down the chute, I finally got to talk to the kid.

"What's your name?" I asked curiously.

"Aang. You?"

"Bumi," I replied.

"Well, you had a good idea jumping into this cart," Aang told me.

"I think our ride is coming to a close," I said as I saw the end of the chute.

"Do you think we should get out?"

"Yes. Lettuce leaf," I replied, pulling a leaf off of the nearest lettuce and hopping out of the cart. I landed on the city floor below me, and Aang floated down a few seconds later. "What was that thing that you won't show me?"

"Oh. It's just a White Lotus tile, you know, for Pai Sho."

"I haven't ever played that game before," I told the young boy.

"I'll teach you what I know," Aang replied, sitting down and explaining the motions of the tiles, what you are allowed to do, and what you're not allowed to do. This interested me greatly, and I think I understood it well. Aang talked about the movements and strategies for hours, and I listened attentively.

"So, you can only move the lotus tile this way?" I asked while making a trail in the dirt with my finger.

"Exactly! You're really getting the hang of this!" Aang exclaimed.

"Hangodiz? Isn't that a horrible disease?" I replied, confused.

"No, if means you understand what I'm talking about," he corrected as I nod.

Aang looked up at the sky, and it was almost sundown. "Oh no! I'm supposed to meet Gyatso at the middle ring of the city at sundown! I'm gonna be late!"

"Here's a way up the city," I tell him, spinning him around to the mail cart we once used. We empty the lettuce from the cart and hop in. I begin thrusting the cart uphill. As we got to the middle of the arc, the cart started slowing down.

"I've got it!" Aang screams as he turns around and shoots a powerful jet of air in the opposite direction. The cart jets forward, and the cart nears the top of the chute. "We made it!" Aang replies, shooting another jet to ensure we made it up to the top safely. "Well, goodbye..." Aang tells me, turning and seeing Gyatso turning around a corner.

"Will you be back anytime soon?" I ask.

"Actually, Gyatso says we're coming back in about a month. Meet you here?" Aang suggests.

"I will be waiting." I see the young Airbender run off and meet his guardian, and the two walk towards the city stables. A few minutes after they left, I walked towards where they were standing, and noticed something on the ground. I kneel down and I picked it up and laughed loudly to my self. It was a white lotus tile.

I decided that I wanted to go lower in the city, so I began trying to remember where the stairs to go further down the city were. The city was so big, that even its own residents could easily get lost. I then saw the chute, and I realized what it truly was, a perfect super-slide.

0 BG/AG[]

A month later, right on schedule, Aang arrived back in Omashu. He seemed a little sad, so I decided I would cheer him up. I motioned to the mail system, and the cart in front of me. "Look around you, what do you see?"

"A mail system?"

"Instead of seeing what they want you to see, you've got to open your brain to the possibilities," I say with a nudge.

"A package sending system?"

"The world's greatest super-slide!" I say while throwing my arms into the air.

"Bumi you're... a mad genius!" The compliment made me laugh. It was perfect, a genius couldn't open his brain the way he needed to, but a madman wasn't fit to think at all.

We hopped into the cart and began flying down the chute. We laughed the whole way down, eventually crashing at the bottom layer of the city.

We walked the whole way back up, since we destroyed that particular cart. We talked about the bending arts, and the four nations. Aang still seemed to be hiding something. When we reached where he was supposed to meet Gyatso, he took out a Pai Sho board from the saddle of his Flying Bison, Appa. "Are you ready to put you skills to the test?"

I laughed again. "You betcha!" I sit down and we begin playing. We got to a point, and I made a bad move. He seemed to have missed it, and moved his Lotus tile in the opposite direction. "Why didn't you capture my tile?" I asked curiously.

"Sorry, avoid and evade. It's what we Airbenders are supposed to do," Aang replies with a grin. We finished up the game, and I managed to win. "Bumi, you're amazing at this game! Are you sure you've never played before?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure." I couldn't remember a time when I had played. "Yep. I'm sure I've never played."

We laughed. We played again, and I won again. We kept playing until the sun fell again. "When are you coming back?" I asked as he got up and put away the game board.

"We're supposed to come back in the middle of fall. I'll see you then, right?" Aang says with a smile.

"Oh, I'll be waiting." I replied. Aang turned and ran off, catching up to his elderly Airbending master.

"Bye Bumi!" Aang yelled as Appa took off.

I waited until I would see him again.

About a month later, the citizens of the city looked at the Great Comet that only passed the earth once every hundred years. I watched the comet with them, wondering if it could actually be used for anything. Little did I know, it was being used for something else.

The day in winter that I was supposed to see Aang came and passed. Aang never showed up. I wondered what happened, until one day, a rumor began passing through the city. The Air Nomads were killed. I felt sad for my friend, but there was another rumor that said that the Fire Nation was beginning a war against the other nations. The current king, Diju ordered that all Earthbenders begin intense training. I realized that I needed to learn.

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Warning: Default sort key "Slide, The" overrides earlier default sort key "Act 1: The Slide".

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