First there was gold一
And the lands her forefathers knew glittered. They danced together in the wheat and under the sun. Their lands were rich and they were happy. Lyubov had many mothers, many fathers.
Then there came brown一
In those days the ground was hard and the weeds were tough. Lyubov became a creeping vine. Her teeth were sand. Her eyes were bark. Her fathers died, her mothers mourned.
Their world became red一
Like salvation. What belonged to one, belonged to all. Her mothers and fathers became everyone else’s and time stood still until it was told to move. The grass grew in straight paths, the water was always cold. Everyone had exactly enough.
But the Red was also blood. It ran down her legs and lodged in-between her teeth. Lyubov was a daughter of the ages and her comrades were dying all around her. There was no hiding from the Red and those who upheld the Members.
She jumped into the sea. The cold, foaming sea where her mothers and fathers had thrown themselves before her. Lyubov swam. Blinded by salt and mist and sorrow. She swam until her legs ached. Until she was spit out onto a white, dazzling shore so different from the Red country she used to know.
Lyubov came from the ocean like a streak of soot. Her body glistened, lean and thin beneath the glorious sun. She took in the air thick with salt and smiled to herself, tucked her chin against her chest in a feline way. Hooves sinking into the sand as she picked her way along the shoreline, unsure of where she was but knowing it would have to be better than the Red world she left behind.
lyubov