Zorro (novel) blossoms into a romance, and Diego is forced to remain at home to recover after suffering a few broken ribs during the attack. Diego and Bernardo then undergo a test to prove their maturity and to find their spirit guide, a totemic animal which would guide the boys' future. Bernardo's spirit guide is a horse, in the form of Tornado, a motherless colt which Bernardo encounters and cares for. Diego's is a fox ("zorro" in his native Spanish) who saves his life. After the events in the forest, Alejandro, oblivious to the Indian training Diego has been receiving, receives a
Zorro still protected by copyright, but there are at least three exceptions: the 1919 novel "The Curse of Capistrano", the 1920 film "The Mark of Zorro" and the 1922 novel "The Further Adventures of Zorro" are in the public domain in the United States since they publicly appeared before 1923. A company called Zorro Productions, Inc., asserts that it "controls the worldwide trademarks and copyrights in the name, visual likeness and the character of Zorro." It further states "[t]he unauthorized, unlicensed use of the name, character and/or likeness of 'Zorro' is an infringement and a violation of state and federal laws."