Samsara

Amanda Price and Wikham: Lost in Austen

Girl reincarnated into Amanda with magic.

Boy reincarnated as Wikham.

Love abound.

AN: I don't own Lost in Austen or Pride and Prejudice. I own my characters, this premise, and what happens in the story.

Prologue

Incandescent stars winked and blinked in an inky sky. Two moons loomed ever closer. The air felt frigid, parched, and tight. She morosely recalled how in another life, one on Earth, that the air had tasted sweeter, cooler, fuller, and freer than the air here.

Erica Zanfloran wheezed in a whooping breath and rubbed at her aching eyes. She hated this planet. She hated this diminutive dingy room. This decrepit, crumbling and abandoned space port brought her little relief from the raging elements. A bitter sweet smile tugged at her dry lopsided mouth as hunger gnawed at her bones. She felt as though she were wasting away. Her bones felt brittle and heavy at the same time. Bright spots had started encroaching against her vision yesterday, and today it was only getting worse. Things had been better back then.

This wasn't Erica's first life. In fact, with the ongoing cycle of life and death, this was her forty-first attempt at life in a long line of adventures past. It also wasn't the first apocalyptic life she had ever led, but it was the first where she had magic. Magic that she had bound away into her soul for a chance at life with loved ones even amongst the ruins of civilization on a foreign planet. It didn't matter much now, since the people who had promised them their freedom at the expense of her reality bending magic had lied. This life felt like a big fat lie.

As another shuddering cough overtook her, Erica's squinty hazel eyes prickled with fat tears as she thought about her long deceased family and friends. She wiped away the blood that had splattered out of her mouth, during another coughing fit, against her almost skeletal forearm. There was no food or water in this abandoned relic of a place either. The looters and raiders had probably taken everything that had been worth taking.

She idly wondered in her dimming vision if she could have another shot at trying again. Or would she finally die for good this time? If not, would the next one start at the beginning? Would it be on Earth? Her Earth? Would she take some poor person's fully grown body like back in life five, seven, and fourteen? Would she even be human again? She'd lived life as a sentient tree once. It had been wonderfully peaceful. Would she still have magic? All these questions and more swirled around her darkening mind.

Wheezing, she brokenly hummed a long forgotten tune to comfort the hunger that tore at her gut. Her somber melody echoed against the crumbling walls around her as her heart spluttered its last beats.

Unknown to Erica, her cycle of life and death would continue once more, but in a fashion she had least expected.

Amanda Price was a rather ordinary girl. She loved Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, was proud that she had recently become a bank manager, had tenuous ties with her family, and was rather fond of fantasizing about living life as a rich housewife. She had just gotten her first flat alone and had been on her way back into London when life intervened.

Her obligatory visits to her family always left her feeling drained. Tonight was no different, even if it was supposed to be a celebration of her new found independence. At least she got her laundry done at her parents' place.

Amanda was driving down the bend a couple miles away from her parent's house. Her mother and father were finalizing their divorce, her younger brother had graduated, got a real salaried job, and married ahead of her. Her family didn't have time for her any more, and it didn't help that her sister-in-law wasn't the fondest of her either. They had gotten their lives together without her. These distracting thoughts pecked at the forefront of her mind.

The night sky provided only sparse light as the stars that peppered it twinkled and winked down onto the dark road. The lights on this road were always broken or off for one reason or another, and this only worsened the fact that one of her VW bus's headlights was out. She vowed that she would save up some money and get it fixed. If she could ever save up anything. Her degree only brought her debt and not the money or success everyone else bragged about.

She yawned and grunted at the dark thoughts that kept bombarding her. Sometimes she hated her life.

That was the last thought Amanda Price, of this world, would ever have. A moving van screeched and swerved into her lane. Its high beams blinded her as she swerved off the edge of the hill this road was on. All she could hear was the slow stuttering of her heart as a blinding white light erased her from this time in a single second as her heart stopped.

Dawn broke over the horizon as birds began their morning songs. Dew clung onto the plants and rocks scattered around the meadow. The wind blew through the sparse trees and along the long blades of green grass around a pristine VW bus.

Erica let out a groan and held her head in her hands. She blinked against the light that caressed her face and blinded her vision for a moment. She rubbed her eyes and let out a gasp. The air! The gravity! There were real living plants around her too! She strained her ears and beamed when she managed to hear bird song. Real living birds! Earth birds she so desperately hoped.

This wasn't where she was before. Looking down she noticed more differences that proved she wasn't still dying in a decrepit ruin. Last time she had checked her skin was a vibrant blue, not this pinkish white. Besides that, the sunrises there had always been an emerald green. The warm rays of sunlight that touched her looked yellow and so much like the light she had grew up with during her many human incarnations.

Erica unbuckled her seat belt and stumbled out of the vehicle. Bipedal. That was always a good sign. She warily eyed the VW bus and her surroundings. If this was her next life, it was arguably better than her last. She was happy to human again. At least it felt like she was human this time. It felt like a little bit like coming home after a very long journey, even if she wasn't in her original skin. She shivered. It was an odd thought that always traced the back of her mind like a branch scratching against a window pane.

She rubbed her temples as a wave of pain throbbed in her head. Erica slid down the side of the VW bus and let out a slightly hysterical laugh. The beginning of each new life always made her feel just a little off kilter. Kind of like that feeling you get when you take an extra step up the stairs and realize that you've miscalculated and begin to fall.

She sighed and looked up at the bright blue sky, "Another body snatcher life? Well I can't complain. This place is a million times better than the last body snatcher life."

Was her name still Erica here? It always felt odd getting a new identity, a new name, and sometimes, if she was lucky, a new family. She just hoped that she lasted longer here than before. She hoped she wouldn't have to die in any of the repugnant ways she had before. Erica shook away the awful gut wrenching fear that she would be raped to death again, starve to death again, and the other tear inducing possibilities that the universe had shown her. One thing that she certainly learned was that people weren't inherently good. Some people were just monsters with kind faces.

She screwed her eyes shut and grunted, "Fuck. My head feels like it's going to split open." Her usual optimism despite her insane cursed cycling life persisted despite the obvious trauma that impacted her during each recycle.

She pried her new eyes open and shook her head as she sighed morosely, "What I wouldn't do for some ibuprofen and cold water."

A sudden weight startled her into staring at her lap in utter bafflement. A large bottle of Advil and a cold glass water bottle now lay in her lap against her cold hands.

"Okay. Okay... Calm. I need calm. Do I really have magic in this life too? Also, whose body is this? Am I actually human? I think I feel human. Where and when am I? Am I on Earth? If I am on Earth, which Earth am I on?" she murmured to herself as she opened the Advil and water bottle. She popped in two pills into her mouth and gulped down some water.

Time wasn't as linear as people thought it would be, Erica had lived through enough centuries, among many different sentient beings, on different planets, and had swapped between each gender enough times to see that time was just a jumbled ball of yarn when you really got down to it... At least that was her opinion.

She took a couple more gulps of water and sighed. Erica felt more alert and energized than she had in a long time. She got up and slowly investigated the van she'd been resting against.

The VW bus was a dark green and seemed sturdy from what she could see. She'd never been good at identifying types of cars in any life time so she couldn't deduce what year this was just by inspecting it further.

Erica rooted through the car and found several things of interest. A dark brown leather purse, a large full brown paper bag that said Murroway Grocers, a fairly large rucksack, a tool kit, an emergency roadside kit, and a first aid bag were all she could find. The rest of the VW bus looked fairly empty.

She poked through the plain purse and pulled out a long black leather wallet. Unzipping the wallet, Erica found out whose body she had taken over this time. The driver's license said that it belonged to one Amanda Cecilia Price. The card said she was born on October 24th 1986. She apparently lived in Hammersmith, England. A bit of guilt trickled into her, guilt that she squashed down and away. She knew from experience that she never took the place of anyone that wasn't already dead. There was no need to feel guilt, she repeatedly stated in her mind.

Erica slid out of the back of the vehicle and peered around her with a frown. If this was England, it didn't look like any England she had been in during the 21st century in her recent last life cycles. She bit her lip in thought and slid back in, closing the door behind her firmly. She leaned back in the driver's seat and continued looking through her supposed purse. Looking closer at the license it said that it had been given in 1998 and was due to expire in August 2006. She gazed at the picture on the license and did the math. With the dates in mind, she guessed that this body was probably around 20 or 21. She figured that a peek at a mirror would confirm her hunch, and that she wasn't in the body of a purse thief.

Erica hummed to herself and dug further into the purse. She found an iphone, a compact mirror, what appeared to be a makeup bag, a couple black fountain pens, a sharpie, a pencil case, a travel card, an access card, a compact umbrella, a charging cable, Tylenol, a compact shopping bag, and keys.

A grin spread across her face. She had one of those old school iphone back in life nine when she was a kid. She'd been a young Japanese boy back then. That had been a nice life. Stressful since she had been reincarnated at the very beginning, but that family had really loved her. Tears leaked from her eyes as she reminisced about the families that had truly loved her. The warmth and safety that she had felt during those times made her heart feel heavy. She shook off those thoughts and scrubbed at her eyes. It wasn't time to reminisce. She had to figure out where and when the fuck she was...

She clicked the home button and found that the iphone could still light up. Its battery was fully charged, and the front screen stated that it was July 20th 2006, 5:17 am. It had no bars though. Erica bit her inner cheek and shoved everything back into the purse. Peering around the meadow through the window, she carefully snuck out of her vehicle and wandered around. She found a cluster of trees nearby along with a dirt road. Her brow furrowed. It didn't seem like she was in 2006. There wasn't any power lines, any sort of trail, or anything indicating that people usually went here. She retreated back into the vehicle, let out a deep sigh and poked through the large paper bag.

It had two containers of tupperware full of what looked to be leftovers; sliced pieces of roast chicken, veggies, scalloped potatoes and rice respectively. Beside the containers were a large bottle of shampoo, soap, some tampons, and a box of stainless steel cutlery. Under all of that was a thick grey faux fur blanket, and toilet paper rolls.

She tore open the cutlery and dug into the food with gusto. Erica couldn't recall the last time she had eaten anything in a very long time.

She let out a happy moan and leaned back against her seat after she finished eating. Looking at the butter knife, a resolute look crossed her face. She refused to die by anyone's hands but hers this time. She refused to feel as helpless and as week as she had in the other cycles when she was alone like this. After making that decision, Eric rinsed off the butter knife and laid it flat against her palm. She stared at the knife with gritted teeth till it twisted and contorted into a decently sized slim dagger. If she had to go, she'd go fighting and on her own terms this time.

Leaning further back against the van, she let out a sad sound. Erica guessed that she should figure out what she looked like, and if she had all or just some of her magic.

She tapped her lower lip with her finger tip and let out a deep sigh, "I should stop calling myself Erica. It might be a weird name in this place. Wherever and whenever I may be..."

She fiddled with her license and narrowed her eyes to reread the name printed on it through the streaming light. Amanda Cecilia Price. She frowned and made a decision, "I'll go with Cecilia. It was pretty common in both the far past and future. Amanda not so much... I think."

Erica...no Cecilia... Cecilia picked up her compact and stared at herself. She frowned at the artificial bottle red hair, and bad bangs. She had a squarish face now, pale skin, full lips, a straight nose, and hazel eyes. She smiled at herself and found that she also had dimples along with straight white teeth. Well, at least there was that. She cringed at the thought of having shitty teeth in what could possibly be the past. She did not miss substandard dentistry from any era before the 20th century.

Cecilia squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head vigorously. Her hair slowly changed from a dark sharpie red into thick dark brown locks that lengthened past her shoulders and loosely curled. Her old bangs grew out along with the rest of her hair. Opening her eyes she found that only her hair had changed.

She choked back a cry and held back tears that threatened to fall. She certainly did have more than a smidge of magic, probably not all of it, but enough she supposed. This was the hair she had from her last life as a human girl. She didn't recall a lot from that cycle since it was so far back, let alone her name there, but she had always recalled how that mother would run her fingers through her hair whenever she was upset. She touched her hair in slight awe and despair before chastising herself. There wasn't time to be depressed. It wasn't like there'd be daylight forever.

She felt the usual drain on her strength with using magic, and figured that the same rules of magic applied from her last life. Magic cost stamina.

Happy with that thought, she pulled over the rucksack and poked through it. She found a bunch of clean laundry. She supposed that was handy. She found a leather belt and furrowed her brow. She'd need to keep the dagger on hand and not just nearby. She'd learned that the hard way. Holding the dagger and leather belt together she laid them onto the ground and snapped her fingers. With a twist and a shake, the dagger and belt seemed to meld together in a haze before lifting up into the air and plopping back onto the ground. Picking up the dagger and it's sheath, Cecilia strapped it onto her right arm.

A cynical smile stole across her face before she snorted, "Better safe than sorry."

She sighed and stretched out her new shorter legs and checked on her wristwatch. It was already noon. She tilted her head back and thought about what she'd have to do.

Dirt roads and no power lines along with no phone towers most likely meant the far flung past, which was both good and bad. It was safer to assume the past because a stagecoach could be explained away, a car not so much.

She dragged all her new stuff out of the vehicle and stared at it with her hands on her hips.

"I can totally do this," Cecilia nodded to herself, trying to lift up her spirits. She hadn't practiced that much intentional magic in a long while and a tiny part of her feared that something would go wrong.

She took in a deep breath and snapped her fingers. The VW bus slowly twisted, creaked, and contorted into a stagecoach. She leaned in and tapped the dark green stagecoach with her finger and it seemed to ripple for a moment before changing into a shiny black color. Cecilia took a step back and happily gazed at her work. The weariness that tugged at her body was expected and she shook it off. She'd deal with her renewed hunger and thirst after doing a couple more tasks. Daylight was waning and she didn't want to get caught unaware by anyone. If this was the far flung past, she'd have good cover, and if this was the future...then she could just say it was for a movie. People always bought shit like that.

She conjured up two large heavy leather steamer trunks and popped them open. She emptied out the brown bag, the tool kit, the emergency roadside kit, and the first aid bag along with the rucksack and emptied it all between the two trunks minus the food. Gently folding the rucksack and brown bag, she stowed them away into a trunk as well. After accomplishing that task, Cecilia sat down and dug into the other tupperwear container of food as she finished off the last little bit of water in her water bottle. She didn't have anything left for dinner, water or food, but she figured that she'd be able to conjure up some water at the very least later on. Hopefully if she found out the proper era or something close, she could conjure up some time current money for more supplies after taking a break later on.

With a grunt, she hefted up the now heavy trunks onto the luggage carrying part of the stage coach and pursed her lips in thought. She deftly swiped her purse off of the ground, and caressed it slowly as her brow furrowed in concentration. The black leather purse clutched in her hands slowly morphed into a black leather satchel. A bead of sweat dripped down her temple and she let out an irritated sigh before she wiped it away.

The sun had already dipped lower in the sky and the air seemed cooler. She glanced at her watch and cursed. It was already around 4 pm. A disappointed sigh escaped her slightly chapped lips as she hefted herself up into her newly transfigured stagecoach. The cold would come in at night, and she didn't really know if there were things that could eat her around here. Shaking her head, she made a decision. The next animals that went by her would have to be transfigured into horses, no matter how distasteful it seemed.

She stared through the glass window in the stagecoach and waited. She waited. And waited. And waited. Finally after an hour of watching a seemingly empty darkening meadow, two rabbits popped up in her vision. She jolted up in her seat and sharply snapped her fingers while keeping an eye on her two targets. They let out rabbit screams of anguish as magic ripped, molded, and contorted them into two brown horses. Both animals looked startled and hurt in their new forms, but she squashed the pity that was rising from her gut as she dashed out of the stagecoach towards them. As she ran towards them she plucked a long strand of grass as she ran by and tightly gripped it. She shook it and it soon morphed into two leather harnesses for the horses. She looped it over their necks and gently guided the dazed animals towards her stagecoach.

After harnessing them in, which was pure guess work and luck on her part, she looked down at her clothes and frowned. Just to cover her bases, she turned her thick dark wool coat into a long wool cloak with a hood. Her jeans and t-shirt were transfigured into a long empire waist dress that fell past her knees with just a shimmy and a shake. Her cotton socks turned into wool tights. Her brown leather ankle boots were transfigured into taller sturdy leather boots with just a shake of each foot. It was best to try and blend in as much as possible, and she'd rather be deemed old fashioned than otherworldly and stoned to death. She hated dying that way. She lifted herself up onto the stagecoach and gently grabbed a leather handle and sat down.

With a sharp snap of her fingers, the lantern that hung against the stage coach lit up and pooled light around the darkness that had started encroaching her. She shuddered a little before pulling at her courage and muttering about how she could do this. Cecilia held onto the reins and startled the horses into a gentle trot out of the meadow, past the cluster of trees and onto the dirt road. She hoped she wouldn't have to travel long before finding shelter and food.