Disclaimer: The characters of Xena, Gabrielle, and Cyrene are the property of MCA/Universal and Renaissance Pictures. This is just a work of fan fiction and not intended to infringe on the copyright of " Xena: Warrior Princess".

The characters Little Xena and Little Gabrielle were used with permission of Lúcia da Ascenção deNóbrega lunobrega@sol.com.br. If you have not seen her drawings or cartoon connection on The Australian Xena Information Page http://ausxip.com/index2.html , I recommend it!

The story is mine. December 18, 2000

Violence: None

Subtext: Sorry not in this one. This story is for my niece and is suitable for all ages.

Authors notes: I just wanted to say thank you to Lúcia for providing me with a wonderful image that I can share with a very special Little Gabrielle, my Niece Nicole! Betas, you folks are the best.

I’d love to hearing from you. Please feel free to send me your comments good or bad. ricesue@mediaone.net

A Little Xena and Little Gabrielle story

By Susan A. Rice

"XEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNAAAAA"

Little Xena looked out the window of the inn and saw Little Gabrielle running as fast as her little legs could carry her across the icy yard. Gaining on her were some of the local bullies each with snowballs in their hands. Little Xena saw several of them throw the snow at her friend and watched as Gabby dodged them.

She ran down the stairs and out the back door hoping to catch up to her friend.

**********

Little Gabrielle was running as fast as she could but she knew that the boys were closing in on her and she needed to find a place to hide before they could pelt her with snowballs. "What did I do to deserve this?" asked the little blonde. "All I did was ask if I could help them build the snow fort."

Little Gabrielle rounded the back of the Inn and prayed that her friend heard her call. Sure enough, Little Xena was standing there with a few snowballs on the floor at her feet and a couple in her hands.

"Duck!" said Little Xena.

Little Gabrielle dove for the ground as several snowballs flew over her head just missing her.

Little Xena threw first one, then the other snowball, hitting both of her targets with a satisfying *splat*. The boys slid to a halt on the snowy ground and surveyed their opponents. Little Xena had this evil grin (well as evil a grin as a 10 year old can have) on her face and it made them think twice. The boys looked at each other and figured it was 10 boys against 2 little girls, this should be easy.

They started to advance on Little Xena.

Little Gabrielle shook her head and said, "Oh, this is gonna be bad. You boys should know better by now."

The boy in the lead threw his snowball at Little Gabrielle, but as fast as lightening the snowball was caught in Little Xena's hand and tossed back at the big bully.

Little Xena looked at the boys and said, "What is going on here? Why are you chasing Little Gabrielle?"

"She wanted to play snow fort with us," said one of the boys.

"So," asked Little Xena.

"So," said the boy, "So, she's a girl! Girls don't play snow fort. They cook and play with dolls. They can't do what we boys do."

Little Xena raised an eyebrow and looked at the boys. She took a step forward toward them and watched as they all took a step back. She smirked and said, "I bet Gabby and I could build a snow fort better than yours and we would be able to invade your fortress before you could get into ours."

The boys looked at each other and started to laugh. The leader said, "Are you trying to say that the two of you could build a fortress and manage to keep us from knocking it down before you knocked ours down? Little girl, you are on."

Little Xena nodded and said, "OK, let's build our forts out in the woods behind the Inn. Will 2 days be enough time for you guys to build your fort?"

The boys looked at Little Xena and Little Gabrielle and started to laugh even harder. Little Gabrielle walked up to Little Xena and whispered, "Is this a good idea?"

"Trust me Gabby, this is going to be great fun."

"Ok."

The leader of the boys said, "Two days, you’re on. But what will we play for? What happens if we win?"

"Well, if you win," said Little Xena, "You will have beaten two little girls, what more could you want?"

The bully said, "I want someone to do my chores for a few days."

"OK," said Little Xena, "But then if you loose, you will have to do our chores for a few days and we get to tell everyone in town that two 'little girls' managed to beat all of you boys in this little snowball war."

The boys looked at each other, unsure for the first time. This could really mess up their reputation if they lost. Then one of the boys started to laugh and soon they were all laughing together. Yah right, loose to two little girls, right...

"You're on," said the leader of the boys. "See you in two days. Come on guys we have to go celebrate our victory to come!"

Little Xena and Little Gabrielle watched as the 10 boys left. Little Gabrielle turned to Little Xena and said, "OK, so, what's the plan?"

"Well," said Little Xena, and at the moment the both heard a loud growling sound.

Little Gabrielle blushed as Little Xena said, "First we feed the Stomach Monster, then we build the fortress. I have just the perfect spot for it too."

Both girls went into the Inn to get some lunch to quiet the beast and make plans to out smart the boys.

**************

After lunch, the girls got right to work on building the fortress. Little Xena took Little Gabrielle into the woods to one of there favorite areas to play. All summer long they had been building a little fort and decided that now they would make sure it was well backed with snow to look like a snow fortress.

Both girls used shovels and buckets to make the little fort look like it was entirely made out of snow. Then Little Xena decided that she and Little Gabrielle needed a couple of ways in and out of the fort that only they could use. She also decided that some traps around the fortress would be a good idea.

The girls made a number of trips back and forth to the well that day and discussed plans so that one of them could defend the fortress while the other one attacked the boy’s fort.

After a full day and a half of working on the fort and a number of traps and surprises, the girls were ready.

****************

"Come on Little Gabrielle, today is the day we teach those boys a lesson," said Little Xena as she shook her friend.

Little Gabrielle rolled over and looked at her friend through half lidded eyes, "The sun isn’t even up yet. Do you really think the boys are?"

"Nope, and that’s why we need to get going. It is time for a little bit of reconnaissance so we can find their fort. This way, I can get there as fast as possible while you keep them busy at our fortress. We also need to get the furs in place and make sure you have a good supply of snowballs."

"Little Gabrielle, what do you want to use as a flag?" asked Little Xena.

"I don’t know. I don’t… What is a flag for anyway?"

"Well, it is something that represent you. So it does not have to be a flag, but something that you care for very much and would be willing to protect it. At the same time, the other side may also want it as a prize," explained Little Xena.

Little Gabrielle turned around in bed and grabbed her lamb from under the covers. She got up and started to get dressed trying to think about what to use for a flag. She kept looking at her little lamb and thought, "This is the most important thing I have. Little Xena gave this to me and I would not let anyone try to take it." She turned to Little Xena who was looking under her bed trying to come up with a good idea for a flag.

Little Gabrielle walked over to her friend and said, "Here."

Little Xena looked up and saw her friend holding her lamb by the tail. "What's this?"

Little Gabrielle's lips quivered and said, "Lambie will be our flag, but Little Xena, promise me that if we loose the fort, we will be able to save Lambie. I lost her once, I don't want to loose her again."

Little Xena looked at her friend and the lamb that she was holding out to her. She gently took the lamb from her friend and said, "I promise, Gabby, Lambie will be safe."

Tears rolled down Little Gabrielle's cheeks. She tried to be brave as she watched Little Xena tuck Lambie into her backpack.

"Don't worry Gabby, we will win and Lambie will be fine, you'll see."

Sniffling, Little Gabrielle said, "S'alright, she'll be alright."

The Girls left their room with the extra furs and headed for the kitchen. Cyrene treated the girls to a big breakfast and packed a picnic lunch for the girls to enjoy. She kissed them both on the head and wished them good luck.

********

They arrived at their fortress and Little Gabrielle carefully wormed her way into the hole that served as the front door. Little Xena passed the furs into Little Gabrielle who put them opposite the entrance against the far wall making sure that it formed a nice cushion. She then crawled back to the entrance and Little Xena helped her out.

All around the fortress, the ground was slick and the two girls leaned on each other in order to stay upright. They finally made it off of the ice patch and started to hunt around for the boys’ fortress, making sure to walk in the tracks that already existed in the woods.

Little Xena was able to find it easily and they looked around to see if there were any signs of the boys yet or any traps that they needed to worry about.

Little Xena turned to Gabby and said, "I don't see any traps and the fortress looks wide open to me. I can even see where they are going to hang their flag from here. I should be able to just grab it and run back to our fort."

Little Gabrielle nodded her head. "Where are we supposed to meet them before this thing starts?"

Little Xena said, "I talked to one of them about that yesterday when they came by the Inn. We are going to meet at the fallen log. You know the one, it’s huge and hollow."

Little Gabrielle nodded as both friends started to walk to the meeting place. Little Xena reminded Gabby about all of the traps that they had set as well as where all the snowballs were hidden. They decided that Xena would be best at going for the other teams flag while Gabby would defend the fort from attack.

The girls made it to the log before the boys did but did not wait long since they could hear them coming through the woods.

The biggest boy stepped forward and said, "Well, you ready to loose? We could just let you surrender now and have done with it."

"Nah, why would we want to make it easy on you? Wouldn't you rather work for it honestly?" asked Little Xena.

"Okay," said the boy, "but just remember, if you get hurt, there is no crying to your mommy about it."

The other boys laughed at this. Little Gabrielle just tried her best imitation of Little Xena's raised eyebrow. This just set the boys off into more fits of laughter. Tears started to form in Little Gabrielle's eyes, making Little Xena angry.

"Come on Gabby, let's get ready to kick their butts."

"Not so fast, Xena," said the boy, "Here is our flag." He unfurls a plain black cloth.

Little Xena reaches into her backpack and pulls out Lambie by the tail string. This just caused all the boys to start laughing again.

One of them shouted, "Aww, isn't that cute. The wittle girls are going to defended a wittle wambie... " More laughter could be heard coming from the boys as they started to head for their fort.

Little Gabrielle saw the look in her best friend's eyes and had an idea. "Um, Little Xena? Did they just call you cute?"

Little Xena turned to her friend and said, "I am not cute! I'm a warrior!"

Little Xena started to stomp off through the woods holding Lambie in her hand by the tail. All the way back she kept on talking about how she was a great warrior, and how she had her own horse, and that she was a big girl... BUT... CUTE was not in her vocabulary except when it came to describing her friend.

Little Gabrielle fell back a ways to give her friend some room. She smiled as she watched her friend change the position of the lamb so that she was now carrying it in her arms. "You are so cute, you silly warrior."

Little Gabrielle then ran to catch up with her friend. She got to close to the fort and forgot about all of the ice and started to slide across the clearing, finally winding up on her bottom. She got up and looked down at the offensive ice. "Just make sure you know whose side you’re on when the battle starts," she mumbled.

Little Xena carefully managed to get onto the roof of the fortress and tied Lambie to the pole. The girls were set.

Little Xena turned to Gabby and said, "Good luck." Then she turned to leave the fortress in search of the black flag.

************

Xena moved swiftly toward the boys’ fortress. As she hurried on by, she ducked behind a tree as she heard seven of the boys moving in her direction. She watched and noticed that all of the biggest boys were heading toward Little Gabrielle back at the fortress. She smiled as she started off after the black flag.

She finally made it to the boys’ fortress when she heard yelling coming from a distance. She knew that Little Gabrielle could handle things for a bit and started sneaking up on the three remaining boys.

The boys could also hear the commotion and were now standing together talking.

"How long do you think it will take them to come back?" asked the boy on the left.

"From the sounds of it, they’re having fun. They are probably going to keep it up until they make the girls surrender. Shouldn’t take too long," answered the boy in the middle.

"You think so?" asked the boy on the right.

"Yah, I just wish we didn’t have to stay here and guard the flag," said the middle boy as he pointed over his shoulder. His friends agreed with him and the started to discuss which chores they would have the girls do for them.

While the boys continued to talk and look off into the woods, Little Xena slowly crept up behind the fort. She easily got to the back of the snow fortress and silently flipped over the wall, snatching the flag in the process. She peered over the top of the wall and knew that this was the easy part. "Gabby has the hard part," she thought. "And from the sounds of it, I would say that the boys are finding it pretty hard to deal with a six year old guarding her lamb."

Little Xena could not help the chuckle that escaped her but the boys were so busy talking about the chores that the girls would do, that they never heard it. Little Xena left the way she had come and started to head back to Little Gabrielle.

*************

Little Gabrielle waited a good twenty yards from the fortress. She was hiding in the bushes when she first heard the boys approach. She carefully looked up the path and say them approaching. She smiled as she grabbed the rope that hung next to her.

"I hope this works," she whispered. "Ok, come on now, just a little closer."

The boys stopped on the trail and started to talk. They were to far away for her to hear them.

"Come on now," she whispered, "just a few more paces."

Still the boys were not moving any closer to her position. Little Gabrielle’s eyebrows knit together as the little bard started to think. "How can I get them closer? I could just let them see me." Little Gabrielle stood up and shook the branches of the bush she had been hiding behind.

Suddenly one of the boys yelled, "Look! There’s Gabby spying on us. Get her!"

The little blonde’s eyes opened wide as all the boys went running up the path. Still holding the rope, she turned and started running, pulling on the rope with all her might.

The boys had not gotten very far when a pile of snow was dumped on their heads. The snow went down the back of their shirts and they howled because it was cold and wet.

The boys regrouped quickly and started running up the path after Little Gabrielle. As they ran, a couple of them were tripped up and fell into the snow. Gabby turned around to see that the vine that Little Xena had draped across the path did indeed slow them down, allowing the smaller Gabrielle to get a better lead on her pursuers.

The boys were yelling and complaining to each other. Finally, they were able to regain their feet and started after the fleeing blond once more.

Gabby got to her next checkpoint and waited for the boys. She had plenty of cover and lots of snowballs, while she knew that they would have neither. She also knew that she could throw her snowballs a littler further since they were going down hill from here, especially with the slingshot the Little Xena set up for her.

Little Gabrielle loaded the pocket with a couple of snowballs and pulled back on the sling and let them fly. One missed, but the other one caught the leader square in the chest. He looked up the hill trying to see where the snowball came from just in time to get one right in the face. It made a satisfying SPLAT and the war was on!

Little Gabrielle continued to shoot snowballs at the boys as they tried to come up the hill at her. She made sure to aim for the closer boys, knowing that if they went down, that they might take a couple of the other boys with them. Slowly the boys made progress up the hill. The few snowballs that they were able to throw up the hill at Gabby never came close to her.

SPLAT, SPLAT, SPLAT went several more volleys of snowballs before the Little Gabrielle realized that she was out of snowballs. "Uh oh," she said and decided it was time to start running for the snow fort.

The little girl started to scamper over the snowy ground just as the boys made it up over the rise.

"GET HER!" cried one of the boys.

The boys were throwing some snowballs at her, but they had all missed so far, but she knew they were gaining on her. She pushed her little legs to the limits, when she hit the ice just outside of the fortress.

"Whoa!" yelled Little Gabrielle as she started to dive forward toward the fort. She closed her eyes and hoped this was not going to hurt as she quickly slid toward the fortress wall. The next thing she realized, she was laying in a pile of furs in the fort.

She looked around amazed that she had actually been able to slide into the hole.

She turned around and looked back outside the hole to see the boys approaching fast. The leader was in front and saw Gabby dive into the fortress, but some of his friends were not as fortunate. They hit the ice and started to slide into the fortress walls.

Little Gabrielle’s eyes opened wide as one of the boys started skidding right for the entrance. The boy’s head maked it into the entrance but is quickly stopped by his shoulders. Little Gabrielle was looking right at the boys face as he opened his eyes.

"Hello Jason," piped Little Gabrielle. "You OK?"

The boy nodded.

"You sure?"

The boy nodded again.

Little Gabby reached over and grabbed one of her many snowballs and watched as the boy’s eyes opened wide. "You gonna leave now?"

The boy started to scramble back out of the hole.

Little Gabrielle could hear the boys outside as they tried to get close to the fortress. She climbed the ladder to the roof and looked down at the boys. Some were just starting to get to their feet. Others were still lying on the ground at the base of the fortress.

The leader started yelling, "Get up and get that lamb!"

The boys slowly regrouped and gathered around looking up at Little Gabrielle as she waved back at them. Hanging over her head, they could see the lamb hanging from its tail.

As the first boy slowly approached the fortress, Little Gabrielle threw her snowball. The snowball hit the boy in the arm and it was just enough to make him loose his footing on the ice.

The other boys started talking and it was decided that they would surround the fortress and come at her from all sides. They figured one of them was bound to get to her that way.

The fight was on and Little Gabrielle was throwing snowballs down on the invading boys. She knew she just needed to keep them away from the fort until Little Xena showed up. "I can do this," she thought as she moved from area to area around the top of the fortress.

*******************

Little Xena came jogging up the path and saw her friend surrounded but handling herself well. She saw a couple of the boys try to throw snowballs at Gabby but she was dodging them and throwing her own back at them.

Little Xena watched with pride in her eyes knowing that this was exactly what her friend needed; a chance to show the older boys in the village that she could build and defend a snow fort just like any of the boys. The more she watched, the more she smiled at her young friend.

"LOOK!" shouted one of the boys. "There’s Xena and she has the flag!"

Little Xena took a running start and leaped into the air. She landed on one of the boys, causing him to slip on the ice. From there she jumped and flipped twice before landing on top of the fortress.

She waved the boys flag and yelled, "We won!"

The boys looked at one another and knew they had been out smarted by the two friends.

Little Xena went and grabbed Lambie and handed it back to Little Gabrielle. "You did a great job, Gabby. You defended the fortress all by yourself and saved Lambie."

Little Gabrielle looked at her best friend and smiled. "We won, we really won!"

"Yes, we did," answered Little Xena. "So, which chores do you want to have the boys do for us?"

Little Gabrielle thought about it for a moment and said, "They can go get the eggs for your Mom in the morning. Then there are the stables at the Inn. Oh and how about getting the water from the well?"

Little Xena chuckled. "Those all sound like good ideas. Come on now, we need to get down and back to the Inn."

Little Xena flipped off of the top of the snow fortress while Little Gabrielle climbed back down inside. She started passing the furs back out to her friend and then she crawled out herself.

The boys had been talking amongst themselves and looked up to see their small nemesis stand up. The boys walked over to Little Gabrielle and surrounded her. She looked up at all of them and smiled.

"Hi," piped Little Gabrielle.

Jason said, "Look, Gabby, we just wanted to say you were really great at defending the fort against the rest of us. Next time we play snow fort and you want to play, just ask."

The boys started to walk away but not before each of them went over and ruffled Little Gabrielle hair.

Little Xena and Little Gabrielle started heading back to the Inn.

"So, Gabby, are you going to play with the boys tomorrow?" asked Little Xena.

"No."

"Why not?" asked Little Xena.

"Because you and I don’t have any chores, so we can go sledding tomorrow!"

Little Xena looked at her friend and smiled as they head home. "Sounds like a plan to me. Sledding tomorrow it is!"

Little Gabrielle skipped the rest of the way back to the Inn.

The End.

I’d love to hearing from you. Please feel free to send me your comments good or bad. ricesue@mediaone.net