Diego woke up at dawn, relieved that the rain had stopped. Feeling rather guilty about having left Felipe alone in the hacienda the entire night, he hurried to get dressed and descended the stairs leading to the taproom just as Victoria was exiting the kitchen.

"Good morning, Diego!" She greeted him, her eyes looking at his ruffled white shirt and her mind staring right through it until she had to look away or turn red.

"Good morning, Victoria!" He replied, admiring the necklace she was wearing and deciding it had been a good gift. "Do you know if my father is awake already?"

"Not yet, as far as I know. Is there something wrong, Diego?"

"I guess I am a little preoccupied about Felipe." He answered as he took a seat at one of the tables, and the taverness poured him some coffee without even asking if he wanted any, then sat down with him.

"Gracias!" He uttered as he raised the cup to his mouth and took a sip.

"De nada." She answered and took a sip of her own coffee. "Did I already thank you for your gift, Diego?" She asked nonchalantly as his heart froze at thinking she had discovered his secret.

He decided to play it safe, anyway and simply questioned "My gift?"

"Yes. The book. You were my Secret Santa, weren't you?"

"Oh… Yes… You weren't supposed to know that." He explained his confusion, relieved he had had the occasion to give her presents as both Diego and Zorro that Christmas. As his public persona, he usually avoided doing that, except on her birthday, less anyone started to suspect him. "It's one of my favorites. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have."

"I'm sure I will… as soon as I have the time to read it, that is!" She chuckled.

"One can always make time to read a good book." He encouraged her. "I do wonder what's with my father, though. He's usually up before me."

"Well… he did go to bed rather late last night…"

"Late? It was barely 11 pm…" Diego pretended to know nothing about their midnight conversation.

"Yes… but then he couldn't sleep, and neither could I, so we spent some time talking and only got to sleep around 2 a.m."

"Really? Anything interesting came up?" He wondered, as if he had no idea of what she was talking about.

"Well… No… Nothing that interesting comes to mind…" Victoria uttered, teasingly. She had been doing that a lot, she realized: teasing Diego. Suddenly remembering she was an engaged woman, she picked up her coffee and took a long drink from it, completely ignoring the burning sensation it left on her tongue.

"Isn't that too hot for you?" Diego asked her, somehow concerned.

"No… I'm just fine." She replied unconvincingly, and he did his best to cover a smile.

"I was sorry not to see Sergeant Mendoza at the party last evening." Diego changed the topic of conversation. "He's always loved Christmas. It must have been quite hard for him to be so close yet so unable to enjoy your cooking. We all know how he loves it. I can't understand what has gotten into Ignacio lately."

"Oh… Don't worry about Mendoza, Don Diego! I have it on good authority that he was provided with his personal Christmas feast." Victoria told him with a chuckle and a look saying she knew more than she was willing to disclose.

"Really? And who might that someone be?" Diego pretended to be curious.

"Well…" She said and drew a Z in the air "…of course!"

"Zorro?" He wondered as if he had no idea of what she was talking about. "He was here? Did I miss him yet again?"

"Everybody did!" Victoria replied with conviction. "He only came for some food and wine to take to Mendoza and remained in the kitchen all the time until I finished preparing the basket."

"I see… Well, Victoria… I do hope he was a gentleman."

"He always is, Diego!" Victoria replied, her voice containing a hint of undisguised rage at the implication that her hero might be anything less than a total gentleman with her.

"Diego, Victoria!" Don Alejandro interrupted as he came downstairs.

"Good morning, Don Alejandro!" She greeted. "Would you like some coffee?"

"No, my dear thank you!" He replied. "I believe we should leave. I had a strange nightmare, and I'd rather go home and check on Felipe."

"Who's the new mother now?" Diego asked in a low tone, only Victoria close enough to hear him.

"What was that, Diego?" Don Alejandro inquired.

"Ah…Nothing, Father. In fact, I would also like to check on my son. I was just waiting for you to wake up." Diego said and took one last sip of coffee before standing up. "Thank you for the hospitality, Victoria! We will see you at lunch?"

"Of course, Diego! I'd never miss Christmas lunch at the hacienda!" She replied with a warm smile.

"Excellent! I'll go saddle the horses and meet you in the plaza, Father." He offered.

"I'll be there, Son!" Don Alejandro replied. "I hope I haven't interrupted anything!" He addressed Victoria after Diego disappeared through the kitchen.

She smiled as she shook her head, then took the empty coffee cups to the kitchen.

"I will send the carriage for you at 11:30, my dear. Would that be fine?" Don Alejandro wondered.

"Si, Don Alejandro. Gracias. I will be ready." She confirmed as the old don, hearing the horses' neighs in the plaza took his goodbyes and headed outside just as Mendoza and his men were leaving the cuartel.

ZZZ

Hearing the sound of the hoofs made by the horses exiting the courtyard, De Soto jumped out of bed and headed for the door, not even realizing that he was still in his night shirt and Long Johns.

"Sergeant Mendoza!" He shouted, just as the men were leaving.

"What happened, Alcalde?" The Sergeant replied as if he'd just awoken from a dream.

"I...I just got news that the bandits are no longer there, Sergeant. You may return to the cuartel for your breakfast! And come to my office in an hour!" He answered.

"Si, Alcalde!" Mendoza replied with enthusiasm and signaled for the men to return.

De Soto watched him and his men return to the courtyard, then glanced towards the tavern, just in time to see Diego and his father leaving on their horses. After watching them until they disappeared, he hurried to change and shave, making himself presentable for the day.

ZZZ

Diego's and Don Alejandro's ride to the hacienda was rather short and, less than 15 minutes later, they were banging on the closed door, worried that nobody was answering.

Felipe woke up, but remembering he was still supposedly unable to hear, he pretended to go back to sleep until Maria was finally awaken by the noise. She shook him at hearing her patron and he pretended to only wake up then. He checked on the still sleeping bandits as the De la Vega cook was answering the door, then involuntarily coughed loudly just as his adoptive father and grandfather hurried through the door, looking in wonderment at the tied-up sleepy men.

"What happened here?" Don Alejandro asked.

"These men tried to rob us, patron!" Maria replied. "But Felipe captured them! He was so brave, Don Alejandro! You should be very proud of him!"

"He captured them?" The old don made sure he had heard correctly. "Good Lord!"

"Are you alright, Felipe?" Diego asked him. "Have you been injured? You haven't slept here all night, have you?" He continued asking, looking around and noticing clear signs that his son had, indeed spent the night in the rather cold library. "You have a cold! What were you thinking? How are you feeling? You should go to bed and I'll bring you some tea and some breakfast!" He instructed before the young man even had the chance to signal a reply.

"It's just a cold, Diego! Felipe captured three bandits! I think that information is a little more significant right now. How did you do it, son?"

Felipe started signaling to indicate what had happened, and Maria helped by recounting what she knew.

"But how did you know they were attacking the hacienda when you can't hear?" Don Alejandro asked.

Felipe had already thought about it. He signaled that he had been at the window when the men put on their masks and was certain they were attacking the hacienda, which is why he hid and prepared the traps.

"That was incredible, Felipe!" Don Alejandro stated in amazement. "If Zorro ever retires you can take his place! He'd certainly be extremely proud of you, young man!"

"I'm sure of that, Father!" Diego confirmed with a knowing look at his adopted son, one only Felipe understood as he smiled at his father. "Now…" Diego continued addressing Felipe, this time his tone commanding "you need to go to bed and have a good rest! I'll come by with the tea and that breakfast, and I will wake you up in time for lunch. Father and I will see to the thugs."

"Right, Son!" Don Alejandro agreed and Felipe shrugged and headed towards his room.

"You should go get some rest as well, Maria!" Diego encouraged the woman.

"Sleep? With all the work I have to do? I'll sleep later, Don Diego." She answered and headed for the kitchen.

"What do you want to do with them?" Don Alejandro asked his son.

"I'll make sure they remain sedated and tied up neatly. You should go find Juan and Pablo and tell them to get a wagon."

Don Alejandro nodded and, about twenty minutes later, the wagon carrying the bandits was making its way into the pueblo.

ZZZ

De Soto just ordered his men to take the thugs to jail, then waited for Mendoza to come to his office after breakfast.

"Alcalde? May I come in?" Mendoza asked.

"Yes, yes, of course, you may, Sergeant!"

His subordinate entered and was invited to take a seat.

"Tell me, Mendoza, you are a good friend of the De la Vegas, aren't you?" De Soto asked.

"I do consider them my friends, Alcalde!"

"Good! Good! Then I have good news for you! Have the horses saddled at noon! We are going to spend this Christmas with the De la Vegas!"

ZZZ

While the Alcalde was suspiciously making Mendoza's day with his news, Victoria was deeply immersed into organizing her cellar, an activity she could only afford to do on holidays, when she could close down her establishment for one or two days. I don't remember that! She told herself as she climbed a shelf to reach a bottle nestled on top of it. A second later she felt the shelf was about to crumble under her, so she rapidly jumped down and landed on her feet, miraculously catching the bottle which fell with her and almost smashed on her head. "That was close!" She uttered with a sly grin.

The banging on the door came as a surprise to Victoria, since it was barely eight o'clock, and she wasn't expecting anyone. Putting down the bottle, she gracefully climbed up the stairs to the taproom and opened one of the door, her eyes suddenly resting on a small girl, who looked no older than eight. She was dressed in wet ragged clothes, and her face was filthy with mud.

"Yes, honey?" Victoria replied, looking kindly at her.

"Please, Senorita, do you have something to eat?" The girl asked, trembling.

"To eat? Yes, of course I do!" Victoria replied with wide eyes as she opened the door all the way through. "Come in! You look frozen! Were you out all night?"

"I stayed in the municipal stables." She answered hesitantly.

"The stables? And why did you do that?" Victoria wondered as she made a fire in the taproom, then hurried towards the kitchen dragging the little girl with her. "You sit here!" She ordered, seating her at the worktable, her back to the already-burning fire in the stove. "Do your parents know where you are? Do you know where they are?"

"I don't have any parents, Senorita!" The girl answered.

"You are an orphan?"

"In a way…" The girl gave a puzzling answer.

"In a way? You either are or aren't!" The taverness explained as she put a plate filled with enchiladas before the girl and hurried to make her a tea to help her warm up. "Tequila would work better" she mumbled mostly to herself "but I can't give that to a child!"

"I'm not an orphan as you are one." The girl replied. "I did not lose my parents, I just never had any."

"Of course, you did! You probably don't remember them, but everyone has parents." Victoria disagreed as she was selecting the plants for the infusion.

"Mostly everyone…" The girl insisted.

The taverness just smiled at the stubborn child, and a few silent minutes later she poured her a cup of tea. "It's hot, so be careful!" She asked.

The girl touched the cup, and it immediately cooled down, so she drank it in one go.

"It was very good, thank you! And thank you for the food." The little girl uttered, looking intently at her. It was only at that point that Victoria noticed that the food had completely disappeared from the plate in less than five minutes.

"You must have been very hungry!" She noted hesitantly.

"I was! I haven't eaten in several decades!" She relied.

"Decades? But you are barely seven or eight!" Victoria noted.

"I'm actually much older." The girl confessed, then stood up and, turning around three times, she transformed into a beautiful lady, a head taller than Victoria, her hair brown and her eyes blue. Her ragged clothes became a white body-fitting lace-and-silk dress and all the mud on her face disappeared as her porcelain-clean skin emanated only light.

Victoria almost fainted.

"My name is Ariana." She introduced herself. "I am… well.. you wouldn't know what I am… All you need to know is that, because you've shown yourself to be kind to me, I am here to grant you one wish. I cannot give back life, though, so do not ask for me to resurrect anyone, and my powers only last until midnight, after which it will all be undone. So, tell me, Victoria, what is it you wish?"

"I… I… I…" The taverness was too stunned to utter a coherent sentence and had absolutely no idea what to ask for, nor was she certain that what she was seeing was real or simply the result of having bumped her head or something like that. In fact, she was seriously considering the possibility that she was, in fact, at that very moment, lying in the cellar, unconscious, in pool of red wine, a shelf on top of her.

"Yes… you…"

"I don't understand!" She finally uttered as if the words had been jailed inside her and were only looking forward to get out.

"I just explained it to you. Take it as a Christmas present! I will fulfill for you one wish. Any wish. Do you want to be a princes, or, better yet, a queen? I can make that happen. Do you want to see how it is to be extremely rich, have hundreds of servants and any material possession you can think of, I can do that, as well! You want to have magical powers? Done! The only catch is that it will only last until midnight."

"I see… Why?"

"Why it can only last until midnight? Those are the rules!"

"No… I mean, why me?"

"Because you are a good person, Victoria. Because not many people would do what you have. Most of them simply ignore me when I ask for a meal and shut their doors in my face. In all the time I have walked this earth, barely a few hundreds had ever fed me."

"How would anyone refuse a little girl?"

"I am not always a little girl, Victoria. Ragged and mudded, yes. But I take the form the person I seek most wishes to have in his or her life. You want to be a mother, which is why, to you I came as a small child. Others want to be brothers, sister, or wives, or husbands…or someone's child again… I take the form they need but they still ignore me…"

"I could never ignore a hungry person!" Victoria told her. "Even if not a child."

"No… I guess you wouldn't…"

"But I do so wish to have a family…" the taverness sighed. "and the man I wish to marry won't even tell me his real name!"

"I can tell it to you if you so desire, but you will only know it till midnight. All you'll have left afterwards will be the feelings that fulfilled wish left you with."

"You know his name?" Victoria asked, having stopped listening after the woman offered her Zorro's real name.

"Any wish, remember? But be wise in asking for your wish!"

"Hmmm" Victoria thought, wondering if it would be wise to ask for Zorro's name. What if she didn't know the man? What if she'd be unable to associate the name with the unmasked face? That would have been a waste of a wish. "The truth is that all I really want is to spend Christmas with him. Can you make that happen?" She finally decided.

"That's a rather simple wish to fulfill, to be fair. Are you sure about it? Do you understand the rules?"

"Sure! And yes, I understand!" Victoria answered.

"Done, then. All you have to do now is go about your day as you were already planning to and say yes to any suggested activity."

"That's all?"

"As I said… It's a rather simple wish to fulfill… Frankly, you wouldn't have even needed my intervention, since the man who is Zorro was already planning to spend the day with you. But… since you've decided that way… If nothing else, at least you will have all your questions answered today, one way or another. Thank you for the delicious meal, Victoria!" The strange magic woman uttered before she disappeared.

The taverness sighed and grinned at the idea of spending the day with her beloved, not even considering what that undone part was all about. Minutes later she was singing as she was warming up water for her bath in all the fireplaces of the tavern, just before joyously hurrying up the stairs to choose her dress.