Summary

The wasp forces Flora to follow her in Chapter 22. Flora is barely able to move on her own and must trust the other insect. The wasp taunts Flora about the bees’ adherence to turning nectar into honey, when the wasps forage after pure sugar. In hopes of bringing home something useful to eat, Flora allows the wasp to feed her candy from a residential development, and it almost immediately makes Flora ill. She realizes the wasp has led her to an enormous wasp’s nest, and Flora must maneuver quickly to escape. Once free of the wasps, she is well and truly lost, her mind altered by the sugar rush. A storm descends on the valley and she is thrown about in the wind currents and rain.

In Chapter 23, Flora finds a dry crevice in an old beech tree in which to wait...