Lia glanced at her body, and the first thing she noticed was her long black hair. The longest she could manage was until the mid part of her back, but her hair looked like a bird’s nest than an actual hair in the morning. Now, it was long, shiny, and a bit wavy, like those beach waves she admired but never managed to have before. And definitely, something that would not appear overnight.

Her eyes traveled down to her dress. A ‘dress’. She never wore dresses. Much less a floral dress. No wonder her legs felt cold and weird since earlier.

Everything about her felt wrong. At the same time, it also felt right. Familiar.

“Nowaynowaynoway,” she murmured. Panic started to settle in.

She scrambled to her feet and clambered to the small pond not too far from where she was sitting. The person who stared back at her was someone she did not know.

Aside from the color of the hair, there was nothing resembling her old body. Before her was someone who spent a long time in a salon to glam up for an event. Her voluminous hair made her already small face smaller, more dainty, almost elfin. Her peach-blossomed eyes narrowed as the face drew closer to the water, inspecting every side and angle. Lia bit her lips, the person on the water did the same. She made a face, the other did too.

Lia pulled back and placed a hand on her forehead. “Oh damn.” This.... couldn’t be happening, right?!

She tentatively peered at her reflection again. Yes, that was her alright. She looked away at the water. Then looked back again, with the hopes that every time she did, the face reflected on the water would change back to the person Lia had been looking at for the past twenty-six years.

But to no avail.

No matter how many times she moved, how many times she caused the water to ripple, it was the same dainty face looking back at her and doing the same things.

She took in a breath and tried to sort out her feelings. Which did not really take long because there was not a lot to sort out when she was feeling...nothing. When the initial panic subsided, there was nothing else inside her. No panic, no surprise, no anything. It was as if, deep down, she had already accepted this change. This easy acceptance came more of a surprise to her.

‘Well… If I transmigrated, it might mean that I’m already dead in my original world. So even if I wanted to go back, there’s nowhere to return too.’

That was a lot sadder than she expected. She sighed. “What now?”

Lia sat on the ground and thought of her situation. She seemed to be in someone else’s body. If that's what people call transmigration or even soul switching, she did not know, much less bother to understand. The fact remained -- she couldn’t return. No, she was stuck here in an unknown person’s body. Who was this person? She tried to go through the memories, but she was too tired from earlier recollection and too muddle-headed to think.

It was not like she was believing in her new world either. Where was this? Was she still in the same world in a different time period? Was this the past or the future? If there was something she was sure of was that this was not her time or even country. She hated that she was drawing a blank, like being handed with a fill-in-the-blank questionnaire where it was empty from start to finish. But there was not much she could do.

Lia laid back on the grass, arms wide, and closed her eyes, feeling the air on her skin. She was exhausted.

“What now.” She echoed her earlier question, just so she could break the silence around her.

She guessed she could accept this. In the other world, her life was wrapped up in the modernities required in the times, but it was also chaotic. Fewer woods even. Unlike in this world where there seemed to be no other person in the area.

A small smile escaped her lips. Maybe this wasn’t so bad, after all. She could live like this, away from everyone, spending her days in solace. That would be ideal.

Comforted by the thought, Lia almost fell asleep again when she heard hurried steps, coming to her direction.