The Velvet Swan (Disney's Zorro Fanfiction)

Chapter Six

The next day, I woke with a start to find that my window was open. Had I not closed it last night?

worried, I tried to slide out of bed, but could hardly move from so much pain. Placing my hand on my wound, I took a deep breath and slowly walked over to close the window and lock it once more. At the moment, I was in too much pain to care if something had been stolen from my room, besides, I did not own anything that was of a ton of value.

I began to get ready for the day, putting on my fiesta dress because it was the loosest fit and wouldn't squeeze my injured side as much as the others. When I looked in the mirror, I could see how pale I was. Groaning with frustration, I was not sure if I could make it to my first training lesson with el Zorro. I did not want to give up, though. I found a bag I could put a light lunch in for myself, making sure to stay hidden as I did so as to not be seen by Diego. I did not really feel like talking to him today.

Swiftly leaving the hacienda, I began my walk towards the lake where Pablo had stabbed me a few days ago, my side throbbing with pain. I was not so sure it was smart of Zorro to have the training begin there. What if Pablo was still there? I just hoped Zorro was not actually working with them or something. That would be horrible!

The hot sun beat down on my fair skin, warming my entire body. I took in a deep breath and pasted on a happy smile, even though I was in severe pain. Nothing could calm me down like being in the outdoors.

 As I trudged on across the hot dirt, I thought I heard some kind of odd noise behind me, like a snort or something. In a panic, I flipped around and came face to face with a large animal. Letting out a cry of surprise, I fell onto my back, sending a shock wave of pain through my wound. Poor Casamontero was frightened by my scream, and almost ran off, but suddenly decided not to and slowly walked up to me. She bent her head down and nudged my cheek gently, nickering softly.

"It is all right, Casamontero. I am just really jumpy," I told her, patting her soft nose, then carefully getting back up and holding to my injury. "Mind giving me a lift?"

Casamontero whinnied and threw her head around wildly in excitement, then knelt down so I could slide onto her back. Once mounted, she took off at a gallop, right for the place I wanted to go. I did not know how she knew where I had intended to go, but she did. The only problem was that I did not see Zorro anywhere.

"Maybe he forgot?" I said to the white mare with a shrug, a feeling of betrayal washing over me. Just as soon as I was sure Zorro actually forgot is was too busy, something colorful caught my eye. "Hey, look over there."

Carefully sliding off my mount, I trudged over to a tree that seemed to have some kind of marking on it. As I got closer, I could tell it was three horizontal lines. Both on the outside were white, but the one in the middle was blue. There was an orange dot on the right side of the marks. The dot seemed to point in a certain direction, so I just assumed that is what it was for. El Zorro must have something special planned for me, I thought to myself with a grin.

Continuing the way the lines seemed to point, I soon came upon another set of lines on a tree quite a ways away. Casamontero followed me silently, watching me with curiosity. "This way, girl!"

In excitement, I moved faster, ignoring my pain, and finding yet another tree with the marks, and another, and another, until I came to an area without trees. Slightly discouraged, I looked at the trees again just in case I missed anything, but alas, there were no more marks.

Casamontero suddenly whinnied and trotted out into the open, stopping by a rock on the ground. "Did you find something?" I wondered, making my way over. Sure enough, there were the three marks on the rock. "Casamontero, you are the smartest horse I have ever met."