"I never meant to offend her, it's just I can't understand believing in something like she does without empirical evidence," said Mr. Wogglebug as he and the beetle princess left the bee hive.

"The tale she told us the bees base their faith on did sound like nothing more than a story," agreed the princess.

They entered into a thickly weeded area of another village

"I don't see why they all need to have a supernatural creator to explain their existence," he continued. "Why couldn't it have been a natural life force which exists in the universe that drove the first living creatures to exist?"

"Of course," agreed the princess. "The Invisible Giant was just invented as a cause to whatever created the universe, as far as I'm concerned, no one knows what it actually is, there's no proof either way."

"The way I see it," he said. "Even if there could have been a creator, then what was it which created it in the first place?"

As they were conversing they came around a hill below of which they could see a small village and all around there were dozens of short stature bug like creatures with very black skin and big eyes and the clothing they wore was rather ragged in most instances, and they were running here and there, to and from their miniature sized cottages and meeting back at the center of the village where a big pile of assortments had been gathered.

"Why, those are curious little fellows," he said.

"Those are the villager fleas," said the princess. "They live only in these remote areas of the kingdom and they are rarely seen elsewhere. They are so isolated because they are a more ancient cult and they hold to many old rituals which no other in all the land practices anymore."

"Why is this so?" he asked curiously.

"I do not know really," she admitted. "My father would only tell me so much of their history."

"Well, now is our chance to find out more," he said as they trotted down the hill.

He soon came across a villager flea who was running out of its home carrying a large cloth sack over its shoulder as it rushed towards the gathering pile at the center.

Following after it he called out, "Hello, villager flea! Can you tell me what all of the rush going on around here is all about, please?"

The flea kept running as it responded panting "It is almost time for the sacrament!"

"What sacrament? What do you mean?"

The flea continued running until it reached the center of the village where many of its fellows had gathered and he dropped off his sack at the big pile they'd all gathered there. Then he rested a moment before he explained, "I have just given my share of our offering to the giant scorpion in the sky."

"What giant scorpion?" he asked confused.

"We are the only ones in this whole kingdom who know about and pay homage to the giant scorpion named Scallow. He has never appeared to us personally but we know he lives in the sky for we have at various times watched as he has hid our sun from view and turned day to night, for he feeds on heat and light and so wants to make a meal of the sun. So every time he gets hungry we gather the things we no longer need here and we burn them and the fire reaches to the sky and thus satisfies his great hunger."

"Really? Are you sure it's all true?"

"Of course we are, for what other explanation could there possibly be for why the sun has been disappearing in the middle of the day? Now, if you'll excuse me..." He left and blended in with the swarm of fleas gathered around the site.

Mr. Wogglebug felt reasonably curious. Turning to princess Wagneria he asked "Did you know about this ritual of theirs?"

"No, I didn't," she admitted. "I find it to be as strange as you do. My father had always told me these villager fleas were different from all other insects and therefore were not to be trusted."

"Hmm... I think I just might know the real cause of this..." he said thoughtfully. He reached into his suitcase and took out a small booklet and after flipping through it he said with delight "Aha! I thought so! It all makes sense now"

"What does? What have you found out?" asked the princess confused.

"The giant scorpion in the sky, it isn't real. It's really just a solar eclipse," he explained enthusiastically.

"What is a solar eclipse?" she asked.

"It is when the moon hides the sun. Now I must do what I do best and educate these villager fleas!"

He quickly stepped in front of the pile the fleas had gathered and stood straight with his arms in the air for attention. "Listen to me, all of you! You have no need to burn anything for their is no giant scorpion living in the sky, what you've believed in has been false!"

All of the fleas gasped and shook their heads in disbelief. Soon one with a small can in his hand stepped forward and exclaimed "Why how can you say such a thing? This is our ancient ritual!"

"I only speak the truth," he went on calmly. "There is no scorpion trying to eat the sun, it is only a solar eclipse," he paused a moment for effect, "I see none of you know what it is so I shall explain." He reached into his suitcase and took out a pencil and a large notepad and began sketching as he explained further. "You see, the Earth revolves around the sun and so does the moon and the moon is much smaller than the sun yet it appears to be larger than the sun because it is closer to us, and sometimes as the moon rotates around the Earth it passes in front of the sun and because of the facts I've just mentioned it hides the sun from our view, only briefly of course, and a solar eclipse is due to occur soon today and it shall come to pass all on its own, you have nothing to do and nothing to fear."

"Well," said the flea standing in front of the others, "what you say seems to make sense but how can we be sure we can trust it?"

"It's quite simple," he replied. "You see... if I hold my hat up to the sun it appears to be hiding it, even though it is really so much smaller. It's called an optical illusion. Now you try it and hold your hand up to the sun."

Most of the fleas did so and looks of realization at once came over their faces and a few more gasps were heard. "Why, he is right!" someone said.

Just then the daylight began to turn to darkness, and looking up they saw the sky was darkening as a large black circle was slowly passing over the sun. Soon they were left in complete darkness. Then slowly the dark circle began to slide away from the sun and slowly the sky lightened and the daylight was restored.

When at last the dark circle had totally vanished and the sun was completely shining again there was a big cheer amongst the village fleas and the one who spoken up for them all stepped up to Mr. Wogglebug and said "Thank you so much for relieving us of our ignorance. You are indeed a wise and great teacher, we owe you much."

He smiled with modesty and replied, "I only did what I felt was the right thing to do, and educating is the one thing I most love to do, being thoroughly educated myself."

"You are indeed," said princess Wagneria, "for I have never seen a finer example of teaching."

He looked at her and he saw her ebony eyes were full of admiration and respect. He had to admit he had been complimented before but never in a way which made him feel like this.

"What will we do now?" one of the fleas suddenly spoke.

He turned toward him. "Well, you just go on with your daily lives now, and take back your things which you brought here."

"We should like very much to do so," said the flea. "But still we are as cut off from the rest of the kingdom as we were before."

"Cut off? But why?"

"It is ancient history," replied the flea solemnly. "We village fleas were among the first to live in this land, and then came all the other insects and they couldn't understand us or our ways and rituals, they had their own religion and holy book and with them they stole our homes, destroyed everything we held valuable and crushed our spirits... and then told us we should be grateful to them."

"I can't believe they would do those things to you. You never did anything to them. You just wanted to live by your own ways as you always had," he said sympathetically.

"Exactly," said the flea sadly. "We didn't believe in their mysterious invisible giant, or in the dragonfly they claimed was sent down to be sacrificed for no reason. We held to our beliefs in the giant scorpion... until now. Now all we have is ourselves."

"Now you should just think for yourselves, each and every one of you. You are not obliged at all to convert to any religion that doesn't suit you or makes you feel bad about yourself."

"We don't have much of ourselves now for when our land was invaded so long ago so much of our traditions and our documents were ruined," said the flea with even more sadness than before.

"Then you must begin anew," he said. "Just like the sun came again after the eclipse. You must salvage what you have left and build on it, and maybe someday things will be even better than before."