In the beginning of time, there was a Grand Grandfather who ruled over his kingdom of Floratopia. There he spent all of his free time gardening in the backyard of his castle and producing anything from golden garbanzo beans to silver squash to bronze broccoli. He never strayed too far with his personal duties, because he had to keep an eye on his beloved granddaughters that were left under his care since birth.
Both girls shared their Grandfather’s sun-kissed skin and straight, long black hair. However, as opposed to his golden eyes, the girls both shared a pale rose eye color that was to show their purity and youth. They were accentuated by black kol marks that defined the almond shape. Luma was the oldest by 3 years. She was caring and patient and was the favorite among her people. Jeune was the youngest and least experienced of the two. She didn’t care about behaving appropriately and didn’t pay attention to the laws set by her Grandfather.
Jeune proceeded to break the most important law in all of the land, love is not to exist. Grandfather had lost Grandmother and Mother because of this thing called “love,” and he refused to be victim to it again. So Jeune met a man that tended to her Grandfather’s garden when he had to be away. The young man would sneak up into her room at night and whisper stories of marriage and couples until she’d fall asleep.
Luma was well aware of her sister’s reckless behavior but couldn’t bring herself to tell her Grandfather. His reign was at risk if any of the townspeople ever found out about Jeune and a man being together, let alone “in love.”
One night as the young man went to see Jeune, Grandfather was out near his garden, visiting his precious collection after a long time away. He caught the young man and demanded to know what was going on. The man admitted that he and Jeune were “in love,” and that they were going to get married one day.
Grandfather would not take any of this crazy talk so he sent the young man to the outer islands of Floratopia, where poverty and death were more common than dirt and grass. When Grandfather found out that Luma had known of this horrific act he thought long and hard about their punishment. He decided to banish them below; to a place he liked to call “Earth.” However, he didn’t want his granddaughter’s to perish so he made sure to lay out dirt for them where he’d grown vegetables and fruits to sustain them.
Jeune was so upset that she was separated from her lover that when they reached “Earth,” she took one look at it and began to pound at the ground. She was so mad that eventually the ground split into seven different pieces, all of different shapes and sizes.
Luma felt as if the land was too dry and barren so she lifted her arms and the flowers from her dress fell and bloomed into an assortment of grass, sunflowers, and roses that covered all of the land.
Jeune was heartbroken, so she hated seeing anything pretty or living around her dying, ugly love story. She didn’t want to be the only one upset, so she froze over some of her sister’s land, where flowers once grew now only ice remained. Luma was saddened by what her sister did to her masterpiece so she sat down and cried. She cried so much that her tears kept adding up and made their way into the space between all of the land.
Luma’s sadness reminded Jeune of her pitiful broken heart so she too began to cry. She missed her love and wished to be reunited with him, but that was not possible. So in order to comfort herself, she whispered songs that he used to sing to her and repeated the stories she’d fallen asleep to with him. She knew her Grandfather would send a gust of wind in his sleep while he snored and dreamt of onions and cucumbers. That breeze would carry her words to her lover, and he would be at ease that she was doing alright.
After calming herself down, Jeune felt bad and deeply sorry for what she did to her sister. She wanted to find something that would distract her sister and would get her back in a good mood. She picked up pieces of shaved ice from the land and began to build until she sculpted two identical dogs for her and her sister. She poked them both in the nose and they let out their first bark and took in their first breath of air.
Luma was in love with her new dog and named her Dally. She wouldn’t let the pup leave her side. Dally would help Luma throw ice into the water to create fish of different colors and species. They’d go on walks together and when Luma fell and made a large canyon, Dally helped her back to her feet.
Jeune loved her dog as well, but would have loved to share it with her man back home. She thought of him constantly and about how if he were there they could have taught the dog tricks together. She named her dog Mati, because he was indeed her only listener in all the land, her only mate.
She curled up and cried with Mati often and would use his fur to wipe her eyes. This caused spots of black to appear on his skin, where her eye defining kol had been. Mati didn’t push her away though; he just waited until she was finished to go swimming with the fish in hopes of removing the black from his pristine white coat.
However, no matter how long he stayed under or how many fish he bumped into, Mati could never get the stains to go away. He was sad that he was no longer as attractive as Dally was. He thought he was dirty and hideous.
Jeune thought his color was amazing, though. He had spots of black over his eyes, between his toes, on his ears, decorating his entire body. There had never been anything so unique and different in all of “Earth’s” or Floratopia’s history.
Dally thought so too. She started leaving Luma in order to spend time listening to Jeune’s interesting stories alongside Mati. In a place where love was allowed, Dally found herself loving Mati with all his spots and differences. She loved the spot on his left eye just as much as she loved the spot on the underside of his belly.
Soon they were caring for a small pup which they named Dalmatian. That was Mati and Dally’s pride and joy. Jeune and Luma were proud of what they’d done, challenging all of their beliefs to allow love to roam their new “Earth.” Since they were able to help love succeed, Grandfather rethought his decision to separate Jeune from her lover.
Luma returned to Floratopia in order to help Grandfather with governing the townspeople. Jeune remained on “Earth,” in order to care for the pups, the new fish, her husband, and for her newborn daughter, Fey. Grandfather happily traveled back and forth to visit both granddaughters’ and see their new creations. In the end love conquered all and restored peace among the worlds.