A/N: Here, read about Will actually being happy. thanks to readingdidyoumeanbreathing on Tumblr :)
With a new fief always came new territory for a ranger to explore. The sooner they learned it the better, because it wasn't just their home. It was a weapon they could potentially use to their advantage, or their enemies' disadvantage. Whoever knew the land the best in a fight was usually the winner.
If there were lakes, they needed to know. If there was a big mountain nearby, they needed to know. If there was a field of cacti rumored by the locals to grow legs at night and run around, a ranger needed to know that kind of stuff.
Sometimes there were things similar to fields of haunted cacti. But sometimes it was much better.
In Will's case in Seacliff, that was a little place he liked to call Wildflower Hill. It was exactly what the name suggested: a hill covered in blue, yellow and purple wildflowers. It began where the forest ended, which made it very convenient for Will because that neighboring forest was in fact the same one his cabin was built in.
Sometimes Will enjoyed coming out there to de-stress. To lie down and relax, picnic, or sleep if he was tired enough. It was a luxury he could only afford once, maybe twice a week, but that was enough for him.
Too much and the place would lose its meaning.
Will laid in the field that day, in a big enough clearing so that he wouldn't be hurting any flowers. Tug stood behind him, grazing. Tug stood behind him, grazing.
There was nothing special about this day.
"Don't eat the flowers, Tug," Will mumbled. "They don't taste good." Not that he really knew.
Half a second later, Will heard a sputter and a snort behind him. "Told you," he said. The horse didn't reply.
Some wildflowers were poisonous, but he talked to the botanists in the town and made sure that none of the flowers here were. He didn't have to worry about Tug getting sick from it.
Still, it might look bad if there was a big patch of nothing in the middle of everything. Whenever he picked some wildflowers to use in his cooking, he made sure to pick at the edges of the field where it was less noticeable. And why would Tug want to eat flowers anyway?
Will closed his eyes and smiled. The breeze was being nice to him today. It caressed his hair, ever so slightly carrying it up and styled it on one side of his head just over his left eye.
A leaf fell down from a lone tree hanging over Will and landed on his nose. He tried to blow it off, but that didn't do a thing but push it up to lie in between his eyes.
And he laughed…
He laughed.
He didn't have to wonder why.
When Will opened his eyes again, he could tell some time had passed. Maybe an hour had gone by since he laid down, but he couldn't find it in his heart to care. He would most certainly regret it later, but he searched and searched and there was no fear inside him. Will couldn't remember when he'd last felt this way.
So it had to be worth it, right?
...Yes. Yes, it was worth it.
He reached over and picked a flower next to him. Tug was lying slightly higher on the hill, above his head, resting his own within Will's reach.
"I might make you a little flower crown," Will mumbled, picking some of the petals off the blue wildflower and placing them on Tug's head. "And me one, too."
Tug woke up during this, being extra sensitive as ranger horses should be… but he didn't move. Instead he let Will decorate his head with petals, then Will moved on to himself and sprinkled a few in his own hair to match.
Maybe most of them would fall out, but Will didn't care. He smiled and closed his eyes again. He could taste the sea salt on his tongue from the ocean a few miles away… he could feel the tiny petals of wildflowers kissing his skin. He smiled and let them take him away.
There was nothing special about this day, but Will liked it that way. Had it been something important, it might've taken away its real meaning.