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 not, he uses psychological mockery to make his opponents too angry to be coordinated in combat. Zorro is a skilled horseman. The name of his jet-black horse has varied through the years. In "The Curse of Capistrano", it was unnamed. In Disney's "Zorro" television series the horse gets the name Tornado, which has been kept in many later adaptations. In most versions, Zorro keeps Tornado in a secret cave, connected to his "hacienda" with a system of secret passages and underground tunnels. McCulley's concept of a band of men helping Zorro is often absent from other versions of the character.