Saving The Monster Race Starts With Breeding The Elf Village

Sigrid shook her head, her ponytail swaying with the motion.

It didn’t matter. What mattered was the reality of her situation.

The Rider’s Covenant, the sacred bond she had dreamed about as a child had been formed.

She had willingly accepted a rider upon her back, and now that bond was sealed.

But, she never expected it to be in the way it was.

After all, she had always imagined her rider would be another woman. A sister in arms.

Someone she could laugh with, train with, fight alongside as an equal.

But instead...

Instead, it was Luca.

And that was exactly why she felt extremely awkward right now.

If it had been another female rider, she would have been delighted. She would have felt no problem letting another woman ride her back. She would have been rather enthusiastic about it, even.

But now, it was Luca.

Male. Human. The same race that had been raiding the continent helplessly for hundreds and hundreds of years.

It was such a bizarre scenario that she couldn’t help but look up at the skies, her heart heavy with a strange mixture of emotions.

’Is this what you meant, Mother?’ She thought. ’Did you predict something like this would happen?’

’Did you know that I would one day end up carrying a man on my back, bound by the very Covenant I had dreamed of as a child?

She let out a deep sigh.

What exactly was her relationship with Luca now?

It had started off messy from the very beginning.

She had admired him for saving the continent, that much was true.

But then those dreams had started.

And then she had fought him. Challenged him. Dragged her entire brigade into a bet that had spiraled completely out of control.

And now he was riding on her back because she had begged him to do so

She had literally forced a man to get on top of her.

The thought made her want to gallop into the nearest lake and submerge herself until the embarrassment faded.

But the irony was not lost on her.

When it came to battle, she was fearless.

She would charge into certain death without a moment’s hesitation and even give her life for her people and count it a fair trade.

But this? This complicated, tangled situation she had stumbled into?

She had no idea how to navigate it. No training had prepared her for this.

She was utterly, completely, hopelessly out of her depth.

And then she remembered what she had overheard last night.

—

Last night, when she had been heading back into the village after the disastrous duel, she had passed by a group of younger centaurs who were whispering among themselves.

She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. But their voices carried in the still night air.

”So...” One of them had said, her voice hushed but eager. ”Does this mean Commander Sigrid is really his steed now? Like, for real?”

Another centaur had replied, ”That’s what the bet said, right? She lost. The Hero won. Now she has to carry him around.”

”But that’s not just carrying him around.” A third centaur had chimed in. ”That’s the Rider’s Covenant. That’s a bond.”

A pause. Then the first centaur spoke again, her voice dropping even lower.

”Doesn’t that basically mean...it’s almost like having a husband?”

Sigrid had stopped breathing.

”Don’t be ridiculous!” The first centaur had scoffed. ”It’s a battle partnership. Nothing more.”

”Is it?” The first centaur retorted. ”Think about about what the covenant says.”

”A person rides on your back. They trusts you with their life. You trust them with yours. You move together, fight together, exist together.”

”If you think along those lines, the Hero is closer to the commander than anyone else in the world. Closer than family, some say. If that’s not like a marriage, I don’t know what is.”

”But he’s human!”

”And? The Covenant doesn’t care about race. It never has.”

Sigrid had felt her face ignite. She had pressed herself flatter against the wall, praying neither of them would notice her.

”Besides.” The first centaur had continued, her voice taking on a gossipy, almost teasing quality. ”It’s not like the Hero forced himself on her. From what I heard, the Commander literally begged him to ride her. He tried to refuse. Multiple times. She wouldn’t let him leave until he got on her back.”

”No...”

”Yes! I heard it from Dalia, who heard it from Petrice, who witnessed the whole thing. The Hero kept saying no, and our commander kept insisting. If anything, she’s the one who dragged him into this!”

A shocked silence.

Then, in a scandalized whisper: ”So you’re saying...our commander basically forced the Hero into a compromising position?!”

”I’m saying if the roles were reversed, and a male centaur had insisted a female rider mount him despite her protests...we’d call that predatory behavior.”

”That’s—that’s completely—”

”I know. But it’s also kind of funny, isn’t it? The mighty Commander Sigrid. The most honorable knight in the brigade. And she basically dragged a reluctant man onto her back.”

The second centaur had let out a strangled sound that might have been a laugh or might have been horror.

”When you put it that way...it almost sounds like she was choosing her mate.”

Sigrid had not waited to hear more.

She had fled into the night, her hooves barely touching the ground, her face burning so hot she was certain it would ignite the grass beneath her.

—

And now, in the cold light of morning, those words still echoed in her mind.

Husband.

Mate.

The one man closest to you.

’Gods above. What have I done?’

She had bound herself to Luca through an ancient, sacred tradition. A bond that, in the eyes of some, was not so different from marriage.

And now here she was, carrying him through the highlands, his thighs warm against her flanks, his body shifting subtly with every step she took.

Each movement was a reminder of his presence.

Each shift of his weight was a whisper of the bond they now shared.

She felt her head grow dizzier and dizzier.

Why had she been so stubborn? Why couldn’t she have simply accepted Mavis’s victory and moved on? Why did she have to cling to her principles so tightly that she had backed herself into this corner?

But even as these thoughts tumbled through her mind...

She couldn’t help but acknowledge something else.

’This isn’t...entirely terrible.’

She narrowed her eyes slightly, her thoughts turning hesitant and uncertain.

Of course, she wasn’t suggesting she wanted this!

She would have preferred if no man sat on her back at all. That was simply the truth. She was a warrior, a commander, a knight.

She was not a steed to be ridden by a man.

But if she was going to be forced into a scenario where someone had to ride her...

She honestly did not mind that it was Luca.

From what she had observed, he was genuinely respectful, kind, fair. He treated everyone with the same easy warmth, regardless of their race or status or strength.

She had even watched the elves back in their village gaze at him with such open love and tenderness in their eyes, that it was almost painful to witness.

And these were elves. The most guarded, most suspicious race on the continent.

Yet somehow, impossibly, he had opened them up.

He had earned their trust. He had made them love him.

That spoke volumes about his character.

He was also cheerful. Playful. He didn’t seem like an evil man at all.

In fact, he seemed like the opposite—someone who genuinely enjoyed life and wanted those around him to enjoy it as well. Someone who could be trusted.

If it had been anyone else riding her right now...

She thought about the male centaurs of her own race. Their arrogance. Their pride.

Their unshakeable belief in their own superiority despite having done nothing to earn it.

The thought of one of them sitting on her back—claiming the right to ride her, asserting dominance over her made her feel physically ill.

She would rather die than allow such a thing.

But Luca?

Luca was...different.

She didn’t mind it.

The realization startled her. She turned it over in her mind, examining it from different angles, testing its validity.

And each time, she arrived at the same conclusion.

She genuinely didn’t mind.

’Well. That’s...unexpected.’

Curiosity flickered within her.

Was Luca feeling as awkward about this as she was?

Was he also struggling with the implications of their new bond?

Was he, even now, blushing and fidgeting and wondering how things had become so complicated?

Shyly, with a hesitant movement, she turned her head to sneak a glance at him.

And she froze.

Luca was not flustered in the slightest. In fact, he was doing the exact opposite.

He was examining her!

With absolutely no shame whatsoever, he was studying the place where her human torso merged with her equine body.

He was even bending down, trying to peer through her clothing to see exactly where the transition occurred. Where the skin became fur. Where the spine curved and changed.

Sigrid’s face erupted in flame.

’WHAT IS HE DOING?!’

But he didn’t stop there.

His attention shifted to the spine of her horse half, watching the vertebrae shift beneath her silver coat with every step she took.

His hands hovered in the air just above her back, his fingers twitching as though he desperately wanted to touch but was holding himself back through sheer force of will.

’No. No, no, no. Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare touch—’

His gaze traveled lower. He began studying her legs with the same intense fascination, watching her muscles flex and flow beneath her skin as she walked.

There was something reverent in his expression—the look of a scholar examining a priceless artifact, or an artist drinking in the details of a masterpiece.

Sigrid herself felt thoroughly scandalized.

’Just a moment ago, he was acting so reluctant, begging me not to make him get on!’

’Now that he’s up here, he’s examining me like a prized artifact at an exhibition!’

Even so, despite her burning cheeks and racing pulse, she bit her lip and remained silent, refusing to break her composed posture.

That is until Luca shifted his weight, turned his upper body around, and began staring intently at her rear.

That was the absolute limit.

Sigrid snapped her head back, her face bright red.

”S-So...Sir Luca...what, precisely, are you doing?”

Luca looked up, his expression picture of pure, wide-eyed innocence.

”Hmm? What do you mean? I’m not doing anything at all. Just sitting here like a polite passenger.”

”No!” Sigrid stammered, her ears twitching frantically. ”I mean, you...you are doing that, yes, but you are also—”

She caught herself, swallowing hard before forcing out the embarrassing truth.

”You’re also examining my body! You’re looking at me...all over, trying to burn holes through my coat with that gaze of yours!”

”Why are you looking at me like that?!”