Author's Note:
I've read stories in this format, and I especially liked the ones by my favorite Pride and Prejudice fanfic author, WadeH. Each chapter is narrated by a character in the first person, allowing the author to add their feelings and reflections. I hope you find it to your liking.
Chapter 1. Party in the Square - Zorro
As usual in this village, the market day ended up turning into a bandit raid. I don't know what it is about Los Angeles that is such a magnet for trouble. Party! Everybody dance! The square was chaos all around me, but I tried to concentrate on each fight individually, trusting that my instinct would make me react if another combatant approached from one of my flanks. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything to dodge a bullet, despite what some people think, I'm not that fast, I wish I was. Luckily Victoria and Don Alejandro (I always think of him like that when I wear the mask) had taken refuge in the tavern taking with them all those they had been able to rescue. I have seen don Alejandro in similar situations, too frequent for my taste in this village, and I bet he took those who decided to listen to him to the back of the tavern, behind several tables set sideways on the floor. There were some idiots leaning out of the windows, as if a wooden wall that thick or a pane of glass would be enough to stop a bullet, but I can't save everyone from their own stupidity.
The bandits were shooting at any man, woman or child who was not part of their group. Luckily most of their bullets were wasted; in return we could say the same for the soldiers' shots against them. Typical, they are usually more of a nuisance than a help.
Our honorable alcalde, Ignacio de Soto, seemed more concerned with getting the soldiers to shoot at me than at the bandits. He loudly claimed that I was in cahoots with them, as if violently dismounting two of their horses, and disarming three others with sword and whip did not make it clear that I had not come with them to have a few drinks. There is no one worse blind than he who does not want to see.
Luckily Toronado is not spooked by the sound of gunshots, and I only have to put pressure with my legs to make him obey immediately, sometimes riding this animal is just as reliable as using my own legs. Years ago I read a treatise on combat horsemanship, and one of the bandits got a nasty surprise when he got behind me, I think with the intention of pulling my cloak to knock me down (yes, sometimes I think I should take it off before getting into a fight, but I don't always have time to prepare) and I gave Toronado the order to give a kick. I don't know what happened to him, I hope he has a good hard head and didn't break it, but at the time I didn't have time to check.
A woman was hugging her son, about 3 years old, who was crying so loudly that his cry could be heard above the noise of the screams, the horses and the gunshots. She was trying to cover herself so as not to get hurt, but with such a brawl going on around her it was only a matter of time. I'm not quite sure if I gave Toronado the order to go there or he was already doing it a moment before. The woman screamed and cowered in fear as she turned and saw a horse next to her, but as I shouted for her to get on she reacted by putting her son under her arm as if he were a bundle and raising her other arm towards me. I pulled her up by her elbow, and I hope I didn't dislocate her shoulder, but better alive and bruised than crushed to death by a horse or hit by a stray bullet.
With the woman balanced precariously in front of me in the saddle I checked to see one of the boy's feet sticking out of the side at a really odd angle, I prayed that neither of them would fall off and steered my trusty horse towards the tavern. That's when luck deserted me, all good things come to an end at some point right? Immediately after hearing a gunshot I felt an intense pain in my right thigh.
I gritted my teeth and got my passengers off the horse while Toronado stood between us and the square. I turned over one of the tables on the tavern's terrace to duck behind, the wood is quite thick, and knocked on the door. Toronado galloped out from the side, and I hoped he had understood my last instruction. The woman was holding her son, who was squirming like a lizard, while keeping low behind the table, showing commendable survival instincts. I wish the men I rescue had half as much sense as that woman, sometimes I think that if it weren't for the way women are able to react to a crisis the human race would have become extinct. Meanwhile, I took out the black cloth handkerchief I always wear under my belt and tied it around my wound, tightening it as much as I could. It wasn't a definitive solution and it hurt like hell, but I would have to make do for the time being.
Victoria opened the door, I don't know if she recognized my voice or just heard the woman screaming for them to open the door and the child crying at the top of his lungs. I didn't have time to kiss her hand, tell her some gallantry or make a bit of a fool of myself in general, I was busy, so I ran out (or rather at a trot, with a bullet embedded in one's leg one is not in the best shape for pirouettes) and headed for the back door, in the kitchen.
Toronado was waiting for me there, looking at me with an expression that seemed to ask what had taken me so long; sometimes I think that horse is smarter than most people I know, like the alcalde, Mendoza, or even me when I do something stupid.
I got on with much less agility than other times when I show off like a circus performer, that's just what I mean when I say I do stupid things, luckily there was no one around to tell the difference. The noise in the square seemed to be dying down, and then I saw three of the bandits coming out through the archway in the square next to the tavern. At that moment I thought: Well, Toronado and I are going hunting.
Unfortunately, one of them separated from the other two instead of keeping the three of them together like sheep, and that delayed their capture. I just had to have a clever bandit, you can't count on the incompetence of others when it's most needed.
Once the merry fellows were gathered, although this time they were on their horses tied up and with zetas on their clothes (another of my stupidities, but at this point it is what everyone expects from me) I accompanied them to the entrance of the village and left them there. Between them they occupy a volume large enough for even one of the garrison lookouts to see them. I know it's an uncharitable thought, but after fighting some bandits and taking a bullet I was not in a good mood.
Hiding the wound this time was not going to be possible, I needed the doctor to get that bullet out so I wouldn't end up losing my leg. I knew that Felipe was in the newspaper office, and I wished with all my might that he was also safe and well, because I was going to need his help.