"¡Oye, mira lo que haces!" a voice yelled in the distance.

An entitled hombre rico was pushing and shoving the people in the pueblo around as he seemed to be heading for the local tavern. Diego de la Vega found himself wiping sweat from his brow as he stared down the arrogant man entering the building. If looks could kill, the daggers he was shooting from his eyes would have caused bloodshed. For the moment, he was distracted with the proposed purchase of a horse from the head of a family of Gitanos. He would listen for any hint of trouble coming from the tavern, but he could not immediately go to make sure his beloved Victoria was not experiencing difficulty with the pompous fop as he was in the middle of examining the horse before him.

As the discussion continued, the seller's very focused wife was busy telling fortunes to curious patrons. Their wide eyed children were eating slices of bread while staring at the other children in the nearby area playing and laughing. They were not permitted to mingle with the children of the pueblo. Diego's stomach growled, while reminding him that he needed to eat soon.

"What is the meaning of this?!" a loud voice screamed in their direction.

Diego knew that voice and knew that it could only mean one thing. Un idiota autotitulado desastre. TROUBLE! DeSoto, the current alcalde, raged at the woman telling fortunes. Startled, she looked up as DeSoto lunged at her, missing her, only to knock the bread out of her young son's hand onto the ground. Seeing what he had done, DeSoto laughed and stepped on the fallen piece of bread with his foot. He smeared it around in the dirt while laughing.

"Oh my, were you enjoying that?" the arrogante alcalde teased.

"You will be sorry for that," the mother of the children warned him.

"Pack up immediately and leave, or my men will gladly escort you to a cell," DeSoto informed her as he snatched the bread out of her daughter's hand and began to eat it.

As if he were cursed, he immediately tripped over his own two feet. He stood up facing Diego and yelled, "Don't you even laugh, not one peep!" His face was covered in thick brown horse excrement from where he had fallen into the foul droppings. Diego had to stifle his laughter as the alcalde yelled for Mendoza to assist him with escaping the hysterical crowd.

As the family began to gather their belongings, he offered to help. It was the least he could do while he continued to pursue a conversation with the husband in hopes of finalizing the purchase of the horse he had his eye on.

"Senior, we prefer to handle our own things as we do not know where your hands have been," the mother informed him.

Diego understood their reasoning, but still felt obligated to try to help them. His father haid raised him to be an honorable man. It was worth a try to offer them a spot for their wagon at his hacienda where the alcalde couldn't bother them.

"Do you need a place to make camp?" he asked the man who had been prepared to sell a horse to him.

"We will find somewhere beyond these gorgers as we have since we left Brazil," the Gitano man replied.

"Here, use this and you will find the itch much better,'' she informed him.

Noticing that Diego had been scratching his neck, the mother had offered him a container of pork fat. Diego thanked her for the container. During one of his recent adventures as Zorro he had come into contact with a bit of hogweed that had caused a rash to develop. The hot sun seemed to have been making the itch more noticable.

"We are many stars scattered in the sight of God,'' she replied to Diego's gratefulness.

"There must be a balance and harmony between good and evil," she added as she turned to her husband.

"I completely agree with you, he responded as she quickly spun around.

The woman grabbed his right hand, and proceeded as if in a trance to say, "You have questions that only you can answer."

He felt as if she had been looking straight into his soul. The mother grinned at him with an all knowing smile as he paid the man for the horse. Diego's stomach growled loudly.

The mother handed him another container saying, "Soup for your kindness, perhaps baxtalo."

Diego tied the new horse to his wagon as he watched the family leave the pueblo. His new horse was a proud and regal mare. She was almost as black as Tornado except for the faint brown sheen that seemed to come through when the light of the sun bounced off of her as she moved. She seemed a bit restless and ready to experience her next adventure.

He desperately wanted to go into the tavern before leaving. Before he could cross over to the tavern he saw the door of it flung open and a man stumbling out of it.

"Get out, and stay out!" he heard the woman of his heart's desire yelling at the entitled rich idiota from earlier.

The rich man's nose was now bleeding, and he was trying to flee through the crowd. He had angered the wrong person and had been taught a lesson. Laughter filled the pueblo as everyone noticed the comotion.

"Diego!" his Victoria called out as she ran over to him.

He waited full of anticipation as he watched her skirt swishing around with each movement. Her beautiful dark hair seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. He longed to take her into his arms and kiss her lips. Unfortunately he could not do that while he was not disguised as Zorro. She still had no idea that he is the man whom she is in love with.

As Victoria approached him she laughed loudly and asked, "Were you here to see the alcalde fall in caca?"

"Yes, I saw it happen, '' he replied while remembering how satisfying the sight was.

"I would bet that it tasted like dulce desierto!" Victoria sarcastically replied as she scrunched up her face.

He hated to leave and knew that he had responsibilities elsewhere. Diego needed to turn around and walk away from her before he accidentally brushed his lips against hers. She was the love of his life, but as himself without hiding behind his mask he was not the man of her dreams. He distracted himself from his impure thoughts by securing the newly purchased horse to his family's wagon with a rope.

"I must return to the hacienda with the new horse," he sighed.

"You probably won't be missing much here, because I highly doubt he will show his face for the rest of the day," she excitedly replied while turning to return to her tavern.

Diego watched her skirt swish as she moved past others to get back to her daily routine. He began to prepare the horses for the ride to the hacienda by rubbing them down and praising their exceptional behavior. After he had made sure that the horses were in a calm state of mind he climbed into the wagon and proceeded to head to his home. He had a hard time getting the Gitana mother's face off of his mind as he remembered how she seemed to be looking straight through to his core.