The Dragon’s Last Flight has finally entered the alpha testing phase, and I couldn’t be more excited. Not only is it a thrill to see all of the artwork together, in the game, for the first time, but I’m also chomping at the bit to finally share the game—albeit in a limited capacity—with more folks once we hit the beta testing phase! Meanwhile, I thought it was high time we had a proper meet-and-greet with Tashka—our leading lady, a dragon who can turn into a human.

Who Is Tashka the Dragon?

If you aren’t familiar with her yet, Tashka is a dragon—most likely the last dragon—in the world of The Dragon’s Last Flight. She lives alone in a cave in the mountains until a grizzled old dragonslayer named Marius wanders into her life and changes everything—for better or worse.

You can tell a lot about a creature from its habitat. It is as true of dragons as it is of humans.

-Marius, The Dragon’s Last Flight

(Tashka’s name, by the way, takes phonetic inspiration from “Taisce,” an Irish Gaelic word and name often translated as “treasure.”)

To Marius’s surprise, Tashka’s cave isn’t filled with treasure or the skeletons of failed dragonslayers. The only decorations worthy of note are the dragons carved into the walls—crude sketches of winged beasts likely long gone from the living world.

As Marius soon realizes, there is very little truth to the dragon lore he grew up with—and much more to Tashka than meets the eye.

What’s This About a Dragon Who Can Turn Into a Human?

Tashka was born—and identifies—as a dragon. But she and the rest of her kind are also able to shapeshift when they wish. Much of the story of TDLF hinges on the fact that Tashka is a dragon who can turn into a human.

But that’s not to say she enjoys the change. Humans are frail things compared to dragons; their backs are bare of wings, their bellies barren of fire, and their two legs feel rather wobbly when one is used to walking on four. But even Tashka admits there is some common ground between the two species. Both, after all, are ultimately mortal.

Our fire cannot defeat decay. Our wings cannot carry us out of the reach of our fates. In the end, we die, just like every other creature alive.

-Tashka, The Dragon’s Last Flight

Being an older dragon, Tashka is confronted by the issue of her mortality on a daily basis, and she seems to be struggling with it. Marius, being an older human, empathizes, though the pair appear to harbor some very different beliefs around life and death.

Behind the Scenes: Tashka’s Dragon/Human Evolution

Odd Lazdo and I came up with Tashka together, back when we first started working on an early version of TDLF for NaNoRenO in 2019. Her design was largely our lovely artist’s invention; all I knew was that we wanted her to be big—perhaps the size of a modest house, certainly large enough to carry a man off to his destiny (or doom)—and different from the dragons we’d seen before.

Do not let fear blind you. I will not let you fall.

-Tashka, The Dragon’s Last Flight

Early sketches went through a few iterations, but it was decided very early on that Tashka’s look as a dragon would draw on unusual sources of inspiration—golden goat’s eyes, dinosaur-ish feathers and scales, a snakelike head and neck. Her color scheme mostly came from a desire to help her stand out against the greens and browns of the game’s setting—not to mention, purple is a prideful color, quite fitting for a rather proud draconid.

From here, it was easy for me to imagine her in human form. Her clothes, of course, would mimic her purple and pink plumage; her long white hair is likely an echo of Amalthea’s from The Last Unicorn. Artist Rhaez Loean did a beautiful job of bringing my vision of her to life in ways that went above and beyond my expectations.

Writing her story—and make no mistake, TDLF is as much her story as it is Marius’s—took me to some pretty dark places. But it was also so much fun writing dragon dialogue. I love a good snarky elder character with the bite to back up their bark, and her chemistry with Marius (whether friendly or romantic) took on a life of its own very early on in the drafting process.

As for her fate—well, dear readers, that will be entirely up to you. Your choices as Marius will dictate not only where her relationship with him will go, but where both characters will ultimately end up. Whether or not they live happily ever after, together or apart, is in your hands… 

Choose wisely.

The Dragon’s Last Flight is a visual novel game about a dragon who can turn into a human and the dragonslayer whose fate becomes entangled with hers. Play the demo for free today on itch.io, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know about beta testing opportunities and other official announcements!