A/N: No Tiva, just Tony, Ziva, a missing gunny and a full moon.

Day20: Write about footsteps in the snow.


"Tony," Ziva said in a hushed voice.

He turned towards her and she signaled him to come over. His eyes scanned the area, shoulders tense. When he stopped next to her she nodded towards the footsteps in the snow, leading into the trees ahead.

Ziva took the lead as they followed the footsteps in the light of the full moon, and approached the tree line slowly. They were out in the open, didn't know if the tracks belonged to the gunny or someone with bad intentions. They'd have nowhere to hide if something went wrong. The sooner they spotted whoever they were tracking, the safer they would be.

When Ziva glanced down to check the track again, they were about 30 feet from the trees. She stopped dead in her tracks, Tony almost bumping into her. He frowned at her and looked around suspiciously, probably assuming she had seen something.

He was right, she had seen something, she wasn't entirely sure what, though.

"The footsteps," she said quietly scanning the area ahead.

"What the hell."

He looked at her wide-eyed. Expectantly. As if she would know why the footprints they had been following suddenly disappeared.

From what she could tell from the snow, there appeared to have been some kind of a scuffle near the last set of footprints. The only prints leading away from the flattened snow, were paw prints leading straight into the forest.

The paw prints were larger than she had ever seen, but prints in the snow often had that effect. What disturbed her more than the size, was the complete lack of any other marks.

There were no tracks leading towards the scuffed area, other than the footprints. There were no other tracks leading away either, not even drag marks.

It was as if the gunny had vanished into thin air.

And where had that wolf come from? It hadn't snowed recently, so no tracks would've been covered up.

"Ziva?"

His voice was quiet but tense, and Ziva looked up at him. He was staring into the woods. She squinted in the same direction, and when a low growl pierced the quiet night sky, they both raised their guns.

"Maybe we should call animal control, or something," Tony said.

"It could take hours for them to get here." Did a shadow move low between those two trees? "What if our gunny is in there, injured," she said.

A pair of eyes suddenly lit up in the moonlight, and she felt her pulse race. A sharp inhale told her Tony had seen them too.

Ziva resumed walking, Tony by her side, guns trained on where they had seen the eyes. If the wolf had attacked the gunny, they needed to know if he was there and conscious.

"NCIS!" she called out, eyes and ears straining to pick up any movement.

"Gunny! Give us a sign if you can!" Tony yelled. "We don't want to mistake you for a wolf and accidentally shoot you!"

Ziva scoffed quietly, and stopped walking when the wolf appeared to approach them. She could feel the tension radiating off of Tony's body, and felt her own muscles tense. They were trained to deal with people, not wild animals.

The wolf came up to the edge of the tree line, but remained half hidden by the long shadows of the trees behind it. With less than 20 feet of snow between them, the hair on Ziva's neck stood on end.

The animal looked from her to Tony and flicked its tongue a few times, before sitting down on its haunches and staring at them, head low.

"What's it doing?" Tony said quietly.

Ziva shrugged and shook her head in frustration. How was she supposed to know? She'd only seen a wolf once, at a zoo. And the one sitting in front of them seemed…off. Maybe it was the shadows and the eerie glow of the moonlight on its matted fur.

"Should we call for the gunny again?" she said, trying to ignore her churning gut.

"Yeah, sure, let's start yelling in front of a wild animal, that can't possibly go wrong," he hissed.

"We have guns, Tony," she hissed back.

"What if we miss?"

Ziva resisted the urge to glare at him. "He can't attack us both at the same time. I will not miss up close when he's on top of you."

Tony's head snapped in her direction for a second, before focusing on the wild animal again.

"Why would he attack me first?"

"More meat," she replied and smirked.

"Are you seriously calling me fat now?"

She clenched her jaw. "I said more meat, not more fat."

He scoffed. "I don't think wolves go for the biggest prey, anyway."

"We will see," she said, then yelled, "Gunny! Show yourself!"

Tony swore at her, but didn't lose his focus.

And then her eyes went wide and her breath hitched, as the wolf slowly walked out of the shadows, stood on its hind legs, and it became abundantly clear it wasn't a wolf at all.