30 day challenge notes: quantity over quality, limited editing, stand-alone/unrelated stories unless specifically stated otherwise, not always tiva, chronologically randomly set in whatever pre-s11 season seems to fit

A/N: Tony and Ziva looking for a missing Marine in the woods.

Prompt: Fairy forest

Bright rays of light filtered through the green canvas above them, illuminating in particular, one birch tree off in the distance. "Doesn't this remind you of something?" Tony asked in a hushed voice.

Ziva inspected a broken twig on the road, right next to a footprint. "The Bollinger case?"

"No," Tony said pensively, hoping this case had a better outcome. "I mean the general vibe of the place."

Ziva looked at him. "Vibe?"

"Yeah, vibe, there's something off about the forest." He veered off to his right leaving the path behind. "Look," he said, and pointed at a circle of mushrooms, "it's a fairy ring."

Ziva frowned. "Fairy? You mean like Tinkerbell?"

"No, I mean…" Tony did a double take. "I don't know which is more disturbing, stumbling across a fairy ring while looking for someone who magically disappeared, or you knowing who Tinkerbell is."

Ziva stepped closer, and inspected the circle of mushrooms, about two feet in diameter. "Why would I not know her, Tony?"

Tony looked at her thoughtfully. "You're right, you and Tink do have a lot in common."

Ziva raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

"You both have anger management issues."

"I do not…" Ziva started loudly, then narrowed her eyes at his wide grin. She inhaled slowly. "Why are you suddenly obsessed with fairies?"

"They make people disappear. Some claim that if you disturb a fairy ring you'll become invisible and you'll be stuck until someone rescues you."

Ziva looked between him and the mushroom ring. "Hmm."

Tony took a few steps back, but otherwise ignored her. "I bet something's buried here."

Ziva turned on her heels and started walking away. "That ring is too small, I doubt someone went through the trouble of burying our missing marine vertically."

"I'm telling you, something died here. He sniffed the air. "You can smell it." He frowned, and sniffed again. "Like electricity?" He looked around suspiciously.

With an eye roll, Ziva looked back at him while continuing to make her way to the path. "The only thing dying here is my patience."

"Seriously, it smells weird here." With one last glance at the fairy ring he followed in Ziva's footsteps, careful not to disturb the mushrooms. "Can't you smell that? It's not the forest, or something decaying, it's-"

With a thud and a cuss, he found himself on the mostly soft forest floor.

Ziva was by his side in an instant. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I tripped over this log," Tony said, and shoved the large mossy piece of decaying wood to the side. "Seemed to have come out of nowhere."

Ziva looked down the length of it, trying to remember if she had seen the log mere seconds ago. The end of the decaying tree had crushed some of the mushrooms Tony had pointed out. Her eyes went wide and her right hand instinctively reached for her gun. "Sergeant Burns?" she asked the uniformed twenty-something standing inside the now broken fairy ring.

Tony held his breath and turned instantly, getting on one knee, ready to reach for his own gun. He immediately recognized the bewildered looking marine from his photos.

Ziva shared an uneasy glance with Tony. "Where did you come from, Sergeant?"

Burns ran his hands through his hair, and looked around in confusion. "I don't know."