Beautiful Day

The day was beautiful. The sun was shining from a blue sky thinly coated with wispy strands of clouds, and a pleasant spring breeze played with the fresh blossoms blooming upon the trees that lined the bank of the lake.
It was too beautiful a day for what I had to say.
"Hansen, I have to go home."
"Jessie, you may return to the capital whenever you like," Hansen said, a soft smile on his face as he gently took my gloved hand.
When I pulled my hand away, his smile faded slightly as confusion filled his pale eyes.
"I don't mean to the capital," I said, shaking my head. Whenever I thought of home, it was never the capital that filled my mind.
Home was a forest where the sky was always filled with the color of fire. Everything there was tinted in spectacular shades of red, a place where my hair melted into my surroundings, instead of sticking out amongst people whose hair only seemed to come in browns.
"Jessie," Hansen gave a sigh, as if my capital-given name weighed as heavy on his tongue as it did my ears, "you know you can't go back."
He reached out a hand to me, but I turned away, the heavy layers of my dress a reminder of where I was. Cumbersome fabric. I stared out at the lake and its relection of the blue sky.
There were too many colors here. I still didn't know the names for all of them.
"None of you have let me try to open the door again," I said, hands clenching as I remembered the day I'd found myself in this world. How even as my eyes were nearly blinded by the kaleidoscope of colors, I turned around a scrabbled at the stone I'd just emerged from.
How I'd huddled against that stone sobbing for days, fingers coated in my own blood from when I'd torn the skin while attempting to make a simple carving of a door in the stone open.
Hansen had been part of the group that found me, though they hadn't been looking for a girl in those woods. No, they'd simply been out hunting with Prince Scorpius.
I hadn't known who he was, or even what they were saying to me, for our two worlds did not share a language. They'd had to drag me away from the stone, fighting for every step back to the capital.
"You don't understand," I said softly, then threw out my arms, "all of this, it isn't right! There's too many colors, and everything tastes wrong, even the air!" I turned back to me, trembling with the weight of it all. "I know it's been a year, and I know that your King has been more than generous in allowing me to stay at the palace while I learn about this world, but it just doesn't feel right!" I lifted my hands to my face, wishing I could feel the comforting calluses instead of soft silk. In a softer voice, I add, "I know Prince Scorpius has asked you to propose."
As if it was the Prince's responsibility to see me wed. As if I were some noble woman who needed a husband and manor to care for.
As if I hadn't had people who relied on me back home, who counted on me to one day lead them. As if I hadn't left my heart behind, in the hands of one whose path would now never merge with mine.
I head Hansen take a hesitant step toward me, though he made no move to  lower my hands from my face.
"I know you have lost much. More than any of us could possibly imagine," he began, voice soft, "I know you don't want to give up home that one day you'll be able to return to your home. But it has been a year. Scorpius has had those he trusts working on that stone door ever since we brought to the palace. It hasn't let anything in, and it hasn't spat anything else out.
"You've shown so much courage since your arrival in our world, and so much strength in the face of so much unknown. I know you don't want to give up hope that one day you'll make it back to your home world." Hansen stretched out a hand palm up to me, his eyes soft. "I don't want you to give up that hope. I just want to know if you'll let me help carry that weight."
I lowered my hands, staring at his outstretched hand. "I left my heart behind," I said, unsure if I could grow to love another. Would it be fair, if all I really wanted was to get back home?
Hansen smiled, a bittersweet smile that made it seem as though he knew my thoughts. "I would go with you to find it."
I frowned at his words, guilt nipping at me for wanting to accept them. He didn't know what he was offering, what he would lose.
But another part of me almost felt a shade of my heart return.
"Would you?" I asked.
"I would."
I took Hansen's hand, and we walked back down the path toward his manor.
Perhaps today wasn't too beautiful after all.