Give me an interesting word, a canon, and (if you like) a character. I'll write you a ficlet.
(I guarantee to fill the first five prompts, after that I will still do my best but historically I fail a lot.)
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Katara can still perfectly recall the first one she ever saw; a gnarled, stumpy thing clinging to a cliff at the edge of the sea. Worn and weathered by the wind-flung salt. Still, it instantly arrested her, and she would have called for Appa to stop - except that the next moment they had cleared the cliff top and there were more trees, their branches stretching towards her like a greeting. She had always heard that the lands to the north were filled with green and growing things, but she had never understood the reality. She was transfixed, and so was Sokka, while Aang beamed at them both in delight.
That was a long time ago. Or, to look at it another way, it was at the start of the summer - but they were all so much younger then. In the meantime she's grown used to trees, and to warmth, and to war.
And her heart almost stops when she walks outside to see the leaves turning brown and falling from dying trees. Leaves which were green and used to dip and sway against the sky… She runs to find Aang, to tell him they haven't brought balance to the world after all.
He giggles at first, but stops immediately when he sees her face. "It's normal," he says. "It happens every year. Trees lose their leaves for winter, and then they grow again in the spring."
She feels very stupid, and ashamed of her ignorance. "I didn't know that."
Aang takes her hand, pulling her back outside. This is one of the times when she loves the simplicity of his good nature. One of the others would have mocked her, even if kindly (well, maybe not Toph, who has suffered the humiliation of not knowing something which everyone else can see with a glance), but not him. "See?" he says, gesturing to all the trees in view.
No one passing by looks at all worried. Katara feels silly for missing such an obvious cue. "I guess," she says. "So all the trees will go bare?"
"Not the pines," Aang says. He smiles at her. "I think you're really lucky, you know."
"How do you mean?"
"I'd love to experience autumn for the first time. It's so beautiful."
She notices all the colours the leaves are turning; yellow and red and orange and brown. The wind tugs them loose and twirls them through the air. "I guess it is," she says, and smiles back at him.
"And in the spring," he says, "we'll be able to see them growing back. There'll be blossom too. You'll like that."
Had she been feeling old a moment ago? The feeling's already passed. She's young again, with so much yet to see.
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