View source for The Flames of Hope

{{DISPLAYTITLE: ''{{PAGENAME}}'' }}
{{Book
|title            = ''The Flames of Hope''
|image            = Wings of Fire 15 US.jpg
|arc              = [[:Category:Third arc|The Lost Continent Prophecy]]
|book_no          = 15
|page_amount      = 330
|publication_date = April 5, 2022

|isbn             = 978-1338214574

|prologue         = [[Raven]] 
|protagonist      = [[Luna]]
|epilogue         =[[Luna]] 

|character_list   =[[:Category:TFoH Characters|Character List]] 
|cover_gallery    = [[{{PAGENAME}}/Gallery|Cover Gallery]]

|preceded_by      = ''[[The Dangerous Gift]]''
|followed_by      = 
}}
'''''The Flames of Hope''''' is the fifteenth book in the ''New York Times'' bestselling series ''[[Wings of Fire (book series)|Wings of Fire]]'' and the fifth book in the third arc. The main protagonist is [[Luna]].{{Ref|Event|https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugwz69jlFvVMtLH0O6t4AaABCQ}} It was published on April 5th, 2022.<ref>https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1338214578/</ref>

It is preceded by ''[[The Dangerous Gift]]''.

== Dedication==
For Steve Malk, Who first said "What do you think about dragons?" and made all of this happen; i am so grateful! And for Sunshine- I love you forever snuggles
==Summary==
''With talons united …''

Luna has always wanted to change the world — to fix it, to free it — even if she's never actually known how. Now that all of [[Dragons|dragon]] — ''and'' [[Humans|humankind]] are in mortal danger, Luna is flying back home to [[Pantala]] with a team of dragons on a rescue mission, determined to be brave and useful.

But saving a continent isn't as easy as a [[The Lost Continent Prophecy|prophecy]] makes it sound, and "facing a great evil" definitely requires more than the [[SilkWings#Abilities|fiery silk]] that Luna is uniquely able to create. As she fights her way to the abyss that hides the dark roots poisoning Pantala, Luna must uncover a long-buried secret and unite her friends, her enemies, and her own powers. If she doesn't, she won't get to change the world. She'll have to say goodbye to it — forever.

==Plot==

===Prologue===
[[Raven]] reflected on the the Leaders' plan to abandon the abyss and never mention it, talk about it, and act like it was never there. Raven thought that it was right to stop worshiping the abyss, but she felt that [[Vole]], the current Guardian of the Abyss and [[Mole]]'s big brother was too hard to leave behind. She thought about a human named [[Quartz]], who was "extremely boring" and Raven would not mind giving him up. Then, she visited Mole, and the two started to talk about how to find "[[Sundew|the dragon]]" that Vole had mentioned in his message from the abyss. They contemplated for a while, and then decided to bring a dragon there, thinking that that the abyss will bring Vole back.       

===Part One: The Land Across the Sea===
Luna was shown how to use a [[Animus enchantments|dreamvisitor]] by [[Tsunami]] and used it to visit [[Swordtail]] in his dream. The dream was of Swordtail paralyzed in Misbehavior's Way, with Swordtail saying that it was where he needed to be, with Luna objecting to it. She pushed him off the pedestal, allowing Swordtail to move since he instinctively used his wings to break his fall. Luna told Swordtail that they were going to break the mind-control. Luna then asked Swordtail where he was in real life, and he told her he was in [[Cicada Hive]]. Luna then agreed to meet him in the Mosaic Garden after they broke the mind-control. They talked about the day that Swordtail asked Luna to be his girlfriend, and him sitting on the box of honey drops prior to that. The reunion ended with [[Wasp]] forcing Swordtail to wake up, and Luna was brought back to her physical body, holding the cold dreamvisitor instead of Swordtail's warm claws. 

Luna then set out with the rest of the stealth team to find the abyss in Queen [[Snowfall]]'s vision. On the way there, they were attacked by multiple [[HiveWings]] and a [[SilkWings|SilkWing]] who were under Queen [[Wasp]]'s control. Using the [[IceWing gifts|gift of stealth]], [[Sundew]] was able to hide part of the team but Tsunami, [[Pineapple]], and [[Qibli]] were not hidden and Tsunami and Qibli were injected with the paralyzing HiveWing toxin. The dragons fought but the visible dragons and an invisible [[Moon]] were captured and taken to [[Wasp Hive]]. Most of the HiveWings took the prisoners. Four were badly injured, however, and were left on the island. The remaining members of the team talked and decided what to do. Sundew and [[Lynx]] ended up following the attackers to try and rescue the captured dragons. The others went to Pantala, and waited for the others. 

They ended up in a cave system, and in one of these caves they found a human studying a dragon book. [[Wren]] followed the human to their village and learned that the human from before is named [[Axolotl]]. When the dragons and Wren became visible again, they asked Axolotl about the abyss and Axolotl agreed to take them to a village known for worshiping an abyss if the dragons translated a dragon book for them. On the way there they were spotted by [[Pokeweed]] who took them to dragons hiding from Queen Wasp. The group was made up of SilkWings from [[Bloodworm Hive]], [[Jewel Hive]] and [[Mantis Hive]], as well as Lady [[Scarab]] and Lady [[Jewel (HW)|Jewel]], and [[Bryony]], [[Hemlock]] and Pokeweed. The dragons were very curious about the newcomers and a young SilkWing named [[Dusky]] became very attached to Luna. He said, "It's just me," hinting that he has no family. Luna ended up making flamesilk for the dragons and told them about the 5 kinds of flamesilk: gold silk, firefly silk, glow silk, blaze silk, and sun silk. [[Tau]] told Luna and the others about a place she knew where humans got water and agreed to take them to it the next day while Hemlock and members of the Bloodworm Hive [[Chrysalis]] agreed to go to [[Lake Scorpion]] to watch for the missing members of the Super Secret Stealth Team.

In the morning, Luna met [[Whitespeck (TFoH)|Whitespeck]] who told her about Dusky's family and Bloodworm Hive. She then left to find the human colony with Tau, [[Cricket]], Bryony, [[Bullfrog (MW)|Bullfrog]], [[Sky]], Wren, Axolotl, and Dusky. On the way there, however, Raven and Mole kidnapped Dusky, and Luna and the others chased them to the Abyss. Wren talked to them, trying to convince them to release Dusky, but before they could hand him over, Vole jumped from the ceiling and grabbed Dusky, jumping into the abyss. Luna then followed him. 
=== Part Two: A Secret Buried Far Below ===
When Luna witnessed Dusky being taken by Vole, she jumped into the abyss, however: she is brought into a strange room illuminated by an unknown source. She then sees the [[Othermind|Breath of Evil]] growing throughout the place. She follows Vole to an entrance to another cave from which the Breath of Evil seemed to be growing. She realizes that this cave is more like a room, with pillars and a throne.  She is disturbed by what she sees on the throne: a plant growing from a human holding a dragonet. Luna, thinking it is Dusky, approaches closer, but then she realizes that the plant was growing through the human and dragon skulls and they must both be dead. An unknown voice commands Luna to step back and proclaims themselves to be the emperor of the world. Luna, while conversing with the Othermind, looks back to the dragonet and wonders about the origins of its tribe since they looked unlike any tribe she had ever seen, seemingly a hybrid. This dragonet is also realized to have leafspeak, which then goes to reveal another voice, with the prior voice being frustrated that Dusky was not Sundew. The other voice whispers that it wanted Dusky. The first voice then goes to mock Luna for thinking she could escape with flamesilk, which Luna realizes is impossible, because her mind would be taken over by the smoke from the vines. Realizing she is trapped, she calls for help in vain. The voice claims they would love more dragons to play with. Vines start to ensnare Luna and Dusky, and they soon pass out.  

Next, the two awake in a seemingly dream-like state and they question where they are, remarking that the area looked like [[Sanctuary]]. They then hear humans, who are playing among themselves. Strangely enough, Luna could make out what was being said, and a little human boy named [[Coyote]] is introduced, claiming to be an emperor. Luna realizes that the group is searching for dragons, with them claiming they have not seen one for at least a year. The humans then move, and Luna follows them hiding, hoping for them to not see her. A human city looms upon them, which startles Luna. The humans talk about affairs with two other Empires: the [[Diamond Army]] and the [[Jaguar Empire]]. Luna is then worried they have seen her, but it seems they cannot see Luna at all. She tries to touch Coyote and he walks straight through her. Then the whole world goes into a strange haze, and they find themselves before a cave nesting a dragon, one with two wings and orange scales with a yellow underbelly. The unknown dragon cannot see her either.   

The humans wait for the dragon to leave the cave and rush inside. Coyote and [[Cottonmouth]] are shown to be older, which indicates a passage of time. They come back out with an egg in their arms, with Cottonmouth remarking that he knew a nest was set up in this area. He then asks how many eggs there were, in which there were three, Cottonmouth commands the group to go get the other two eggs, in which Coyote protests to. One of the other humans questions him, wondering if that would make the dragon notice, to which Cottonmouth responds by stabbing him in the gut and killing him. In the end, they gather all of them, With this knowledge, Luna thinks to herself that the group of humans had something to do with the grotesque-looking human and dragonet on the throne earlier. A shift occurs again and this time Luna is at a small island, with a different group of humans gathering eggs. The humans remark how other empires are collecting dragon eggs in the hope of using them. More shifts occur, and Luna witnesses many cruelties that the humans inflicted on the newly hatched dragonets. Just then, a group of gigantic dragons came, with multiple scales and identifiable traits with multiple tribes, depicting the common ancestors of each tribe. Luna realizes that this was the beginning of the [[Scorching]].  

Dusky is enraged, thinking humans are awful, but Luna defends them by stating not all are the same. She connects this to the HiveWings, and contemplates on how she cannot wish for a genocide. Another flash passes and a group of worn-down humans are shown, with Cottonmouth holding a large box. Luna was confident the box held a dragon egg within it, questioning his morality and why he was so greedy for power. The haze of shadow takes over the world again and they are in a lush, sunlit jungle, Luna realizes this was Pantala before the [[Tree Wars]]. Cottonmouth is shown again, except he has found the Breath of Evil and claims that he can use it to control the dragon tribes. The humans, skeptical, think that the plant is strange, and creepy. An almost hatched dragon egg is ahead of them in another flicker of the world and it seems that Cottonmouth is experimenting on reptiles. A voice rings with perfect clarity, stating that it did not like this part. Luna asks who had said that, but there was no response. A group of humans barge in, bringing samples of the plant, and Cottonmouth reassures them that whatever he was planning would work. He demonstrates the power of the plant by making a human bow, this human was notably from another area, which had been in the small island. Cottonmouth opens a box, in which a small head is spotted. Luna remarks that she did not look like any of the tribes, but a mix of a few of them. Cottonmouth is speaking cruelly with the dragon, and Dusky remarks that the dragonet had been named [[Freedom|Lizard]], and she wanted an actual name from a dragon. Just then, the dragonet spoke to Dusky, and stated she did not want him to speak for her. Cottonmouth spoke, in [[Languages|Dragon]], stating that she was interrupting the story. Lizard in response yelled that she hated experiencing the same thing for the past five thousand years. They then seem to argue, and Luna asks if they can hear her and Dusky. Lizard, seeming annoyed by the question, then asks Dusky to give her his memories.  

This confuses Dusky, asking how and why he would do that. She states that he must allow her to, and again tells him to give her them. Dusky says no, frustrating her. Lizard then goes on to state that she is the most miserable dragon to ever live, so she deserves what she wants. Lizard says that Cottonmouth got the both of them caught by the plant. Cottonmouth disagrees, citing that Lizard was rebellious and annoying. They then have another exchange of arguing in which they were blaming each other for faults committed. It seems more so that Lizard and Cottonmouth view dragons and humans as toys, with Lizard throwing a tantrum when Cottonmouth suggests killing Dusky. The [[mindspace]] is then revealed, which is how Lizard and Cottonmouth were able to allow Luna and Dusky to see their memories and lets them shift the area, Lizard demonstrates this by showing the Weaver Hall, Dusky's school. Dusky wondered how Lizard was able to do this and asked if she had his memories. She responds by saying that he needs to let her have them, and she had seen this through a HiveWing, of which she used to watch Dusky. Luna then requests to see [[Blue]] and Swordtail, to which Lizard reluctantly does. The mindspace shifts again, this time towards a HiveWing within sight of Swordtail. Luna asks if Lizard could bring Swordtail to the mindspace, in which Lizard replies she could, but did not want to as it was tiring. Lizard then complains that SilkWings are boring and thought it would be more fun to have new dragons. Luna asks if Lizard felt bad for the dragons she controlled. Lizard snaps and is enraged with the concept of feeling bad for them. She says those dragons could actually live and did not have to be stuck all the time with Cottonmouth, saying how her life is the worst and how those dragons should feel bad for her.  

Luna agrees that Lizard's life is awful and Dusky asks if they could free her. Cottonmouth chuckles and Lizard reveals the the only reason they are alive is because of the Breath of Evil and if they were separated, they would die. Cottonmouth then ponders if the mind control will work on the dragons from [[Pyrrhia]]. Another shift occurs and they are transported into the throne room of Queen Wasp with Tsunami, Pineapple, and Qibli in front of them, bound and Cottonmouth then commands Queen Wasp to not kill them, and unbind them in which she is defiant to, but caves in. Cottonmouth interrogates the group, and demands to know where Sundew is. They refuse to answer and Wasp proclaims that the invisible one, Moonwatcher, is missing. Luna thinks that Lynx and Sundew saved her. Wasp then complains that she cannot deal with whatever the invisible dragon was using. In response, Cottonmouth steps out of the mindspace, appears where Wasp was sitting, and forces her to choke herself. Luna is then scared for the group, and pleads to Lizard to free them, but she declines. Luna then offers her memories, tempting Lizard. The group of dragons then attempts to escape, with Pineapple shooting venom at Queen Wasp. Lizard asks Luna if she would really give her memories if the group got away, and Luna again accepts. Lizard then clears a pathway, allowing the group to escape. Luna questions if they were safe and Cottonmouth denies it, revealing that he already has one of them under his control. He then claims they would all be there soon.    

=== Part Three: Talons United===
Luna hears Cricket calling to her in the real world, outside of the cave. Cottonmouth uses Luna's real world body to trick Cricket and the others to go after Sundew, so he could capture Sundew. Luna calls him a monster to which he replies saying that anyone would have taken the chance to be him. Lizard loudly demands Luna to give her memories as promised. Luna worries about what Lizard would do with the memories, before Lizard replies saying that nothing will happen to the memories. Lizard explains that Wasp is only in charge of the HiveWings and is only just one of Cottonmouth's "big toes". She continues, saying that all three of them, Cottonmouth, her and the plant, can control all the mind-controlled dragons. Cottonmouth is just the active one because he refuses to let Lizard control anything and the plant does not have a mind of its own. Dusky then offers to share his memories first to Lizard, which Lizard replied eagerly to. In Dusky's vision, they are brought to Bloodworm Hive. They see Dusky's father trying to make a younger Dusky try and say his own name. He fails to do this as Dusky was only able to repeat "Dada". Dusky asks for a banana before Dusky's father replies that they do not have any bananas. Dusky runs to retrieve a rotting banana that he was hiding and shows it to his father. This vision ends and Lizard is repulsed by the vision and declares it to be "boring".

Luna comforts Dusky after seeing his vision. Lizard calls Dusky's father strange, as it was not very "dragonlike" for a parent to care about their dragonets. Luna tries to convince Lizard that dragons do care about each other, but to no avail. Lizard then demands Luna to give her memories, which Luna hesitantly obliges to. They appear in the art room of Silkworm Hall. In the vision, they see a younger Luna, Blue, Swordtail helping [[Io]] with her [[Metamorphosis]] weaving idea. Blue was worried that they would get caught which the others reassured that they would not. Swordtail and Blue go off to tidy the art room, while Io and Luna stay behind. Io wondered where she should put her Chrysalis symbol. Luna gave a suggestion which made Io interested. Swordtail suddenly bursts in, saying that the headmaster is coming. Luna and Swordtail played as a distraction so that Io and Blue could quietly escape from the school and vision ended there. Lizard called Luna and Swordtail "nitwits" for allowing themselves to be caught. Luna explains that Blue would have been sad if he got caught, so Luna and Swordtail gave themselves away so he could get away. Lizard still did not understand why Luna would care so much about another dragon. 

Suddenly, Pineapple appears in the mindspace. Pineapple is initially confused about where he is before Luna tells him that Cottonmouth has taken over his body. They watch Tsunami, Qibli and Pineapple/Cottonmouth escape from the Hives. Qibli reassures Cottonmouth by saying he did the right thing, shooting Queen Wasp. Cottonmouth reacted nonchalantly which made Qibli worry even more. Tsunami asks Cottonmouth and Cottonmouth says that they should head towards Lake Scorpion. Qibli is confused on how Cottonmouth knew about Lake Scorpion to which Cottonmouth quickly replies saying that Luna told him. Luna asks if Lizard could jump into Pineapple to which Lizard replies saying she could not, while Cottonmouth was still in Pineapple. 

Luna then asked if the leafspeak was her power and Lizard admits that it was all her. Luna realizes that Lizard could let them out, but Lizard refuses. They continued to watch Pineapple's physical body and the others fly until they saw a fire down on the ground. The three dragons went down to investigate the fire and were greeted by Sundew, Moonwatcher and Lynx. Sundew was surprised that they managed to rescue themselves from the Hives. She continued saying that they wanted to save them, but they grew worried about Luna and the others. 

In the mindspace, Luna convinced Freedom to let her and Dusky be free from the vines, in turn for Pineapple giving Freedom his memories. Freedom agreed, and then they were shown a memories of Pinapple and Jambu cuddling in a hammock. After Freedom finished going through Pineapple's memories, Moon then appeared in the mindspace. She explained to Luna that she could read minds and that was why she was in the mindspace, and that she was not controlled by the breath of evil. She found out that Pineapple had been mind controlled, and disappeared from the mindspace when Cottonmouth came back to it and saw her. Moon told everyone that Pineapple was controlled by the othermind, and a fight broke out between the invisible dragons. Lynx asked Sundew to turn everyone visible again and she did. Cottonmouth wanted Sundew to fly to the abyss, and threatened to hurt Luna if she did not. Sundew agreed to go to the abyss, thinking she could use her leafspeak to defeat the breath of evil. Everyone except Pineapple's physical body was turned invisible again, and they flew to Lake Scorpion. On the way there, Luna had an idea to try to show Freedom that most dragons are not bloodthirsty and violent and mainly want to love and be loved. Moon and the dragons flying to Lake Scorpion all agreed to give Freedom one memory each, using Moon's mind reading. Moon's memory was of her feeling lonely, waiting for her mother in the rainforest, and naming the three moons Imperial, Oracle, and Perception. Sundew's memory was of her meeting Willow for the first time. Lynx's memory was of her playing a fort game with some dragonets from the royal family, and when she became captured, Hailstorm threatened to throw her into the ocean if Snowfall did not give their team the fort. Snowfall said that Lynx was a great swimmer, and that she was not scared of walruses, which Lynx agreed to. Qibli's memory was of him getting stolen from, and then an older female dragon stood up for him, saying it was for justice. Qibli then said he would fight for justice when he was older, and changed his mind, saying he would fight now. He ran and sank his teeth into the dragon who had stolen from him, starting a fight. Tsunami's memory was of her and the other prophecy dragonets arguing over which kingdom was the biggest.  

''Coming soon...''

=== Epilogue ===
Luna looks up and notes that the sky was full of dragons. She had already made six weavings, trying to display how beautiful it was, but still could not capture the true breathtaking sight of the skies. Swordtail suggested that she make a tapestry of the [[SilkWing Assembly]], the new governing body for the SilkWings. He did a mocking impression of them to which Luna replied to saying that they will get sorted out eventually. A lot of things have changed between the defeat of the Othermind and now. Queen Wasp had been thrown in her own flamesilk cave, along with the rest of her sisters. Lady Jewel was now Queen Jewel of the HiveWings, which some of the HiveWings responded negatively to. Some of the HiveWings wanted to be as far away from the Hives and from any remainder of Wasp; these dragons had moved into the new [[LeafSilk Kingdom|SilkWing encampments]]. Another group of the HiveWings wanted Queen Wasp back, mind control and all; this which mystified Luna the most. She was glad that there were dragons like [[Belladonna]] who were happy to take care of that problem. Luna had hoped that everything would be fixed once they defeated the bad guy, but it was not. Swordtail reminded her to focus on the dragons that were trying to do good instead of the ones who are doing bad. 

Soon, Blue, Cricket, Axolotl, Sundew, [[Willow]], [[Bumblebee]] and Cricket's parents arrive. It was mentioned that most of the dragons like Cricket's father, [[Malachite]] and the [[The Librarian|librarian]], who have been mind-controlled for years, have taken refuge in the LeafSilk Kingdom. Blue comments on how beautiful everything looked and Willow joked about how it would take a magician for Sundew to eat anything. Swordtail wanted to have a tree planting party and was deeply outraged by Sundew's idea of the tree planting party. Luna and Swordtail joked around with each other, before Cricket showed her tree that she left behind at Terrarium Academy to Sundew. Sundew with the power of her leafspeak helped the tree grow into a mighty tree. Sundew suggested that Luna should make a tapestry of the tree, before Swordtail showed them Luna's previous tapestry. Luna comments to Cricket that she does not want to make a tapestry of the Scorching or Freedom's backstory as she wanted to make happy weavings. Cricket agreed that she would write books of the true history as she felt it was her responsibility. Malachite offers to help Cricket with that and the two find that they have a lot in common with each other. Luna wonders if there is a point to having big dreams at all if they do not come true. The others disagree, saying that the world needs big dreams. Luna accepts that while she can empathize with the dragons that hurt them, that does not mean they get an excuse to do terrible things. Sundew asks for the dreamvisitor to try and contact their Pyrrhian friends and see if they want to visit. Luna mentions that [[Jambu]] and Pineapple plan to visit soon and Swordtail adds they will also visit Pyrrhia. Luna wonders about what the future will hold for both dragons and humans. 

==Trivia==
* Sky and Wren appear on the back of the cover.<ref>[[:File:Wings of Fire 15 Full.jpg| ''The Flames of Hope'' English Cover]]</ref>
*The Barnes and Noble version of the novel comes with a poster of Luna and Swordtail flying in the sky.<ref>[[:File:TFoHSpecialEdition.jpeg| ''The Flames of Hope'' Poster]]</ref>
*The novel is the first book in the series to have non-binary characters.

==Gallery==
Click [[{{PAGENAME}}/Gallery|here]] to see the cover gallery.

{{References}}
{{EventReferences}}

{{Book Navbox}}

[[de:The Flames of Hope]]
[[fr:The Flames of Hope]]

[[Category:Books]]
[[Category:Main series]]
[[Category:Third arc]]