AN: Tell me the truth! You were expecting I'd take at least a month before posting the next story, right? Well, I guess my muse had other ideas. The story below is my next "Christmas Special" and, even though I know Christmas is still 2 months away, I hope it might help you all get in the spirit of the holiday!

Enjoy!

PS: Rated K plus for... reasons.

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With the departure of the Governor and his men, things in Los Angeles reentered their normal routine. Don Alejandro shared the 500 pesos Frasquez had given him as payment for the damages inflicted by his men among the poorest of those affected, even Victoria renouncing her share since she knew others needed the money more, and she could afford new furniture.

As for the projects due to be implemented, the construction of the new market and storage facility, as well as of the new school began just a day after the new Alcalde found Tornado in his corral, instead of Luna. The larger projects, however, had to wait, at least for a while, until proper measurements and studies could be carried out.

De Soto returned just a few days before Christmas, with several contracts to sell his wine, yet no news about the Mexican army and the new authorities' plans for California. At finding out all that had happened in his absence, and how close he had come to losing his wife, he decided to take a page from Zorro's book, and the padre found 140 pesos in the Church's poor box – Ignacio's last pay as Alcalde and about a third of the money he had left at that point.

ZZZ

From many points of view, and for most of the pueblo's citizens, with Don Alejandro's election, life had certainly become easier. That, however, was not the case for a certain tall caballero who was the Alcalde's son, and who had to start running the hacienda in his father's absence, besides assisting the pueblo's doctor and filling in for her when she was unavailable in addition to being the paper's editor, while also continuing to lead his double life. Most of all, however, it was a certain taverness and his masked persona's affair with her that mostly complicated matters for him.

Victoria had become a constant presence in his life, even when he didn't get to see her. She was in every one of his plans for the future; the source of his strength whenever he felt like he could no longer go on with the mission he assumed for himself; his muse and inspiration for all his artistic works, whether sonatas or new paintings; his oldest friend and counsellor, whose opinion and intuition he had long since learned to trust and value; and one of his most faithful allies in his fight for justice.

And, while he had already been given a unique chance to find out for certain that she loved the whole man, not just the hero, the more time passed without him sharing his secret with her, the more he wondered if, after all would be said and done, when the day might finally come for him to take off his mask, she would still believe in his love for her.

ZZZ

Christmas Eve of 1821 fell on a Monday and, having been given the Sunday off by the Alcalde, the lancers were using that very morning to finish decorating the plaza, while the De la Vegas, having finished preparations at the hacienda, were helping Victoria with her decorations for the Christmas Eve Party. For the first time since he arrived there, they were, however, on that day, joined by a grumpy Ignacio – who had been forced by his wife to join in – and an enthusiastic Doctor Kent, who had the idea of organizing various contests for the people taking part in the yearly celebration at the tavern, and was taking advantage of her free morning to make sure everything was ready.

"You know, Diego," Don Alejandro uttered as his son was standing on a ladder, trying to put some last decorations, including the star, on top of the Christmas tree, "I was thinking this morning of when you were a child and we would go to the orphanage to take presents for the children there. And they would sing and recite poems for us, then play with the toys or listen to your mother read them stories. Do you remember, Son?"

"Of course, I do, Father! I believe I was just about ten the last time we went. It was the year before Mother got ill." His son answered.

"Indeed." Don Alejandro answered, feeling saddened. "Those were the days, Diego! The best years of my life. Your mother was still with us, you were an impulsive, audacious youngster with too much energy and a heart of gold; my friends, the Escalantes, were alive and well… How fast the years go by!"

"I fail to imagine Diego as an audacious youngster," Ignacio uttered mockingly, as he came to stand near Don Alejandro and watch his former schoolmate clumsily attempt to attach the decorations to the tree.

"You should have met him then, and you would have hardly been able to reconcile that boy with the man he has become!" Don Alejandro replied. "God knows I'm still having difficulties doing that at times!"

"Well, perhaps, Don Alejandro, we have a different definition of the word 'audacious'." The former alcalde insisted, just as Victoria was coming to check on their work.

She stopped right between the current and the former leader of the pueblo, to make sure Diego was arranging the last decorations to her taste.

"Diego, the star is crooked!" She told him, just as her friend was climbing down the ladder. "Why didn't you tell him to incline it to the left?" She then asked the two other men.

"They are too busy gossiping about him to do their job properly," Jessie uttered from a few feet away.

"And what are they saying about Don Diego?" Victoria asked.

"Well, Don Alejandro is saying that he was very brave as a child, and Ignacio believes that impossible." The Doctor answered.

"Is this all right?" Diego tried to stop their conversation there, unwilling to have both his father and the taverness remember too much about the person he was as a child, especially since that person was more like Zorro than like the Diego everyone knew.

"Yes, now it's straight!" Victoria answered.

"I remember he once got a severe beating in school for defending a child from other children who were trying to beat him. It was when I finally decided to get him a tutor." Don Alejandro told Ignacio. "Then, a couple of years later, he almost drowned at trying to save a child who had fallen into the river. He was just eight or nine at the time. He didn't say a thing, just showed up at the hacienda soaking wet and spent two weeks recovering from the cold he had gotten. His mother and I had to find out from Victoria's father. Almost gave me a heart attack." Don Alejandro muttered.

"I very much doubt he actually succeeded in saving a child when he, himself was one!" De Soto uttered.

"Yet it's true! It was Doctor Hernandez's son, Manuel, and Diego did save him!" Victoria answered. "How could I have forgotten that? We were playing by the river, and Manuel fell, so Diego jumped after him and managed to find a branch to hold on to, while Francisco and I helped them back to shore. My younger brother was just three years old at the time and told my parents everything when we arrived home, even though we had all promised not to tell anyone. Father was so affected by the incident that he forbade us to go to the river alone from that day on." She remembered, looking at her friend, who had descended the ladder in the meantime. "Not that we obeyed that request! Do you remember Diego?"

"Barely. I was a foolish child, not yet wise enough to realize the consequences of what I was doing. At least that behavior didn't last too long…" The tall caballero told them as he neared the group and turned to admire his own work.

"That's not true!" Victoria contradicted. "It lasted until you were much older! I once climbed up the old oak tree behind the church." Victoria said, addressing the others, "I must have been about five or six, and I couldn't come down. So Diego climbed up to get me, and helped me down, making sure I wouldn't fall. And another time, I had taken my parent's stallion, and he threw me off a few miles away from the pueblo. Diego found me and carried me back home because I had sprained my ankle at falling, and I refused to get on another horse. I didn't want to mount one for several months after that, to be honest, until he also convinced me to ride with him. Remember?" Victoria asked Diego, but didn't wait for an answer. "I was so flattered by the offer that I couldn't say no."

"I remember that! Your father said you started riding again because you were in love with my son, so we started making plans for your wedding." Don Alejandro said with a wide smile.

"Their wedding?" De Soto questioned.

"I was just a child, and Diego was my hero after having rescued me! Of course I fancied myself in love with him after that." Victoria said, doing her best to hide her embarrassment.

"Really? I didn't know that." The tall caballero muttered, barely containing a wide grin.

"Of course, you knew! My brothers always made fun of me because of it!" She replied to the amused glances of her audience, before she continued, hoping to switch everyone's focus from her childhood crush on her best friend. "Then there was also that time when we found that black foal, remember Diego? About a year before you went to Madrid. He was almost completely submerged in quicksand and you managed to save him by tying a rope to a tree and entering the quicksand to pass it around his neck. He was so afraid that he almost ended up killing both of you, had my brother not managed to pull you out. I believe you spent an entire week taking care of him as he recovered, then you found his herd and took him back to his mother."

Diego smiled pensively, glancing at Felipe, who had the same look as him on his face, both of them wondering if it was possible that Tornado might have been that foal.

"And how is he supposed to have found his herd when he can hardly find his way to the hacienda?" De Soto inquired.

"I'll have you know my son is not as bad a tracker as you, or I, to be honest, believed him to be. That time he rescued you and your men from that cave in which Emilio, The Rabbit, had trapped you, he was the only one who realized that thug had left two sets of false trails." The older caballero answered.

"And may I remind you, Don Alejandro, that he also got himself lost just half an hour later, while he went to get us help?" Ignacio pointed out.

"Senores! Senores!" Diego tried to calm them down as they were starting to increase their tone at each other. "Instead of fighting over the past, why don't we focus on the future? Like tonight's party, for example."

Jessie, who had observed the entire interaction from the sidelines, eyed him suspiciously at realizing he was doing his best to change the subject but assumed he was either too modest to like where the conversation was going, or too embarrassed for the blunder of getting himself lost like that.

She was just about to help him when a commotion was heard outside, and everybody hurriedly exited.

"No! Catch her!" A woman was shouting while pointing towards a small girl running away from her. "She's stolen my basket!"

The girl disappeared behind the new storage facility, followed by some lancers. Moments later, they saw her riding away on a brown horse, and the lancers were returning empty-handed.

"I had… I had my blanket in there!" The woman she had robbed uttered, while Mendoza was already instructing his men to saddle their horses and give chase.

"A blanket?" Diego inquired.

"It was not just a blanket, Don Diego! It was a special blanket." The woman said, as tears started falling from her eyes. "I started making it the day my daughter disappeared, years ago, and I only finished it this morning. I was taking it to Padre Benitez with some food for the poor, hoping that… perhaps… donating it to the church, God might take pity on me and bring back my child…"

The woman had only moved to Los Angeles a few years back, together with her husband, a rather quiet and sulky old haciendado called Janus Gamboa, who rarely socialized with others, and only did so to discuss horses. His wife, however, was quite well-known in the pueblo, although she, too, lived a rather reclusive life, spending much of her time in church and doing charity work.

"Did you recognize her, Dona Antonia?" Don Alejandro asked the woman.

"No, Alcalde! It happened too fast. I didn't even get to see her face." She answered. "And I don't want any harm to come to her. I just want my blanket back."

"Why don't I go after her? She's just a child. There's no need to involve the lancers and the men might scare her." Diego suggested, and his father nodded, although somewhat puzzled by his suggestion. "If she's not from around here and decided to steal at such a young age, perhaps she did so because she needs help." His son continued.

"I'll go, too!" De Soto informed him. "In case the little wildling attacks you, you might need protection."

"There's really no need, Ignacio!" The tall caballero said as he mounted his horse. "Besides, you might be needed here. Felipe –"

"Felipe is more than capable of finishing what's left without us. Besides, I need some diversity since I am still new to being a civilian. It will be good for me to feel like I'm doing something useful again." Ignacio stated before urging his horse into a gallop.

Diego sighed, saluted the others, and followed him.

They found the tracks just outside the pueblo and trailed the girl for several miles until the terrain hid her tracks.

"She must have gone south." Ignacio uttered as he and Diego were both studying the ground.

"I don't think so. We should head west." Diego replied.

"Nonsense! She's just a child and has been going south for about two miles already. It's not like she knows tricks to deceive followers. She probably doesn't even know she is being followed, and is certain to have already escaped with her stolen goods." Ignacio said as he dismounted, and walked towards what looked like an old horseshoe imprint. "Here! It's headed south." He said, taking a few steps in that very direction, towards some bushes, which allowed him a better view of a wide valley. The next thing he knew, he was falling into a pit.

"Ignacio?" Diego asked at hearing him squeak.

Hurriedly, he dismounted and carefully followed him. The older man was shaking his head, trying to understand what had happened.

"That little thug! When I'll get my hands on her!" De Soto uttered, filled with ire.

"I doubt she caused a sinkhole." The caballero stated. "And she's just a child, Ignacio."

"A child responsible for me almost falling to my death!" The older man retorted

"You are exaggerating! A twelve-foot fall is hardly deadly for a man your age!" Diego remarked.

Moments later, as a small rock impacted with the bottom of Ignacio's stallion, the horse reared and started galloping away, followed by Esperanza, who was also startled in a similar manner.

Diego immediately turned and ran after them, but it was impossible to catch the horses, and he couldn't afford to whistle for his mare with De Soto within hearing distance. So he easily gave up, and returned to Ignacio, just in time to notice the girl mounting her horse, some 80 feet west of where they were, and galloping away.

"What happened?" The former Alcalde asked.

"The horses got frightened and ran away." The caballero answered, his hands on his waist in frustration, fully aware he was only telling half the truth.

"You let the horses escape?"

"There wasn't much I could do about it, Ignacio." He pointed out. "Something must have frightened them."

"The demon-child, most probably!" De Soto uttered. "Can you, at least, get me out of here?"

Diego searched the ground, hoping to find some branches, yet, besides the bushes, the terrain lacked anything useful.

"There's nothing here but rocks and sand!" He replied as he squinted to study the pit. "But I have an idea." He continued.

The largest branches he could find around were barely larger than a knife's blade, but all he needed was for them to be sharp enough, and all he needed for that was the right rock to help him. A dagger would have done the job better, but he hadn't taken one with him that morning. After sharpening some twenty twigs, he asked Ignacio to lean against the pit's eastern wall, while he started planting them in its western one, where the ceiling hadn't completely collapsed, at an angle that, some ten minutes later, caused a large portion of the upper wall to give in, half-filling the pit.

"I asked you to help me out not to bury me alive, De la Vega!" De Soto said, spitting out some earth which had gotten into his mouth and doing his best to free himself from the dirt engulfing his feet.

"Do you know the story about the man who decided to bury his donkey?" The caballero asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"A man's donkey fell into an abandoned well and started braying in panic. His owner tried all he could to get him out, spending several days feeding him and trying to find a solution. After realizing he wouldn't be able to do it, he eventually decided to help him die instead. So he started throwing earth inside the well."

"Is there a point to this story?" De Soto inquired.

"I'm getting to it!" Diego answered before continuing. "Of course, seeing himself abandoned by his master, the donkey started crying harder and harder. Soon enough, though, he stopped, and the man watched in wonder to see that he was using the dirt his owner had thrown in to climb up to the surface. And with every shovel, he was a little closer to salvation." Diego answered with a smile.

De Soto hated that smug look his unlikely friend sometimes put on, but had to agree he was right. The superficial cave-in he had caused made sure he had the perfect way out. True, he was covered in dirt and still had to make an effort to climb up, but he also realized that, had Diego been the one to have fallen in, he wouldn't have had the vaguest clue how to get him out, besides walking to Los Angeles and returning with help. The younger man, however, didn't even consider walking away, but came up with the most absurd solution to help, and actually succeeded in doing exactly that.

"You're not as useless as I always thought you to be, are you, De la Vega?" He asked as he was taking off his boots in an effort to get the earth out of them.

"I have my days," Diego answered with a smile.

Ignacio just frowned in frustration. "Where to now?" He asked, looking around.

"I saw her ride that way," the caballero replied, pointing west. "Since we are quite far from the pueblo, my guess is that our best chance would be to find the girl and hope she might be willing to let us borrow her horse."

"You saw her ride away? When?"

"I happened to notice her around the time you fell into the pit," Diego answered with an innocent shrug. "How do you think I knew she was heading west?"