One hundred years before the start of the series, a 12-year-old Airbender Aang learns that he is the new Avatar. Fearful of the heavy responsibilities of stopping an impending world war and with the impending separation from his mentor Monk Gyatso, Aang flees from home on his flying bison Appa. During a fierce storm, they crash into the ocean, and Aang's Avatar state freezes them in a state of suspended animation inside an iceberg.