"Hills of nothing?" interrupted Greg, looking at his map.

"Quite correct," Stickly said, with teary eyes and an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, I would give anything to munch on a juicy leaf right now," sobbed Stickly.

"Yes, I'm kind of hungry too," realized Greg. "But how did Spindly manage to do it all and win all this land?"

"Easily," replied Stickly. "He convinced the Waltzing Wasp's tribe to become soldiers. Now they are called Spindly Spider's Wasp War. They guard the outside of Spindly's kingdom, which used to be called Gorgeous Gina Glow Worm's Kingdom. Gina was a beautiful princess and she used to have the most breath-taking castle with all different kinds of treats and goodies in it."

Greg listened intently with growing interest to the story. "Do the wasps live in Spindly's kingdom?" he asked.

"No, the wasps have a huge city in the Forest of Flight, and the busy bees have a village in Honey Comb Valley," Stickly answered.

"Well, doesn't Spindly get bored or lonely?" Greg asked, trying to soak up as much of the story as possible.

"Maybe sometimes, but he takes a daily trip every day to Pesky Pond for lunch to gobble up one of those monstrous mosquitoes, and the rest of the time he can pester Gina, the princess."

"Ugh! I hate mosquitoes!" Greg said a little too loudly, for then came a mosquito about the size of a basketball.

The mosquito buzzed loudly above their heads. "Bzzz. Nonsense, bzzz, everyone loves a mosquito."

"Well, what's their use?" Greg asked.

Stickly whispered in Greg's ear, "They have no use."

The mosquito buzzed even louder and angrier. "Why, if you didn't have mosquitoes you wouldn't have life!" he screamed. "Everything is connected in a chain! Don't you know that!"

"I don't quite see what you mean," Greg put in.

"People these days!" The mosquito sighed and flew off.

"Now you know why we call mosquitoes pests," Stickly said. "Now where do you want to go?"

"Go?"

"Yes, you did want to go somewhere, right?" Stickly asked. "Well, let's go to Honey Comb Valley."