### 178

Your psychic powers prove very effective: the giant insect obeys your command not to attack. Yet, before it flies away, it sprays the stamen with a misty vapour which causes the petals to close up.

Hurriedly you retreat along the stamen and narrowly avoid being crushed to death as the huge petals fold in on themselves. Your innate Kai Discipline of Animal Mastery has saved you from a confrontation with the giant insect, yet the creature has used its own innate abilities to thwart your chances of escaping from the plant this way. The vapour condenses and runs along the stamen, making it difficult for you to maintain your grip, and reluctantly you are forced to retreat all the way down to the bowl of the corolla, to where the hollow stem is now the only chance you have of getting out of this plant alive.

Turn to 103.