Shrubs and fallen leaves rustled and cracked as the leathered-armored soldiers darted through the Bunoll Woods. They dodged fallen logs and draping branches, they struck down any young monster that crossed their path with a swing of their blade, breathing heavy and hard as they chased their quarry through the trees.

"Target in sight!" One soldier in the lead cried out to the six others in his unit.

"Chase her down!" Their commander shouted.

The woman in pursuit looked at them over her shoulder, strands of blond hair streaking across her face as she dashed ahead. The white cloth sling she wore jostled as she ran. She looked forward again and clamped down her hand on its bulky contents as she pushed ahead. She wore less armor than her pursuers, but what she lacked in defense she made up for in speed. But the soldiers couldn't stop; that thief had stolen something critical to the function of the government and the only path for her now was death.

Soon the path cleared and the forest thinned out. "Move, move!" The soldiers charged ahead, gaining on the woman. A sudden snarl from the left and a pack of eight rabid wolves lunged at the soldiers. The whole unit stopped in their tracks to fight off the threat. The woman kept running.

One soldier in the front broke free from the attack, saw the woman, and continued pursuit. The soldier screamed, "Halt!" The woman glanced back, and then darted off again to the right. The solider skid on the forest foliage and cursed. He was so close though, so he pressed on with sword drawn. He could see her now, and she was head on to a dead end. Ahead loomed the bottom of a large and rocky cliff. Nowhere else to run but-

The soldier near fell forward in shock, skidding and stumbling to kill his momentum. He stood dumbstruck by what he saw, or what he thought he saw. The woman had run head on into the cliff side, and disappeared. Gone. No trace. The stones she stepped on crackled and fell, an echo that proved she was there. Or at least used to be. The soldier looked around, incredulous. He wheeled around again to see the rest of his unit catch up with him.

Their commander ran up to him. "What are you doing?! Where is the thief?"

"She, uh-"

"Speak up!"

"She's, she's gone! Ran right through the cliff! I swear it!"

The commander narrowed his eyes. "You fool, how could she have?! All men, scatter! Find her before she leaves the forest!" The other soldiers gave the first soldier a look before spread out into the remaining trees. The commander clapped a hand on the soldier's arm and gave a push. "You too, and keep your eyes open for once!"

Resigned, the soldier ran off again with his sword sheathed again. The commanding officer eyed the cliff, tracing it all the way up to its peak. Jutting edges made it manageable, but it was too tall to clear in less than an hour. On the other end of the cliff was nothing but more forest. She would have hidden the stolen records somewhere in the woods, if anything else...

From up above, a man watched from the top of the cliff, in dressed in light clothing and armed with two daggers strapped at his back. He watched the last soldier leave and chuckled and tsked that none of them notice him peering over the edge at them. Or else they would have gotten fussy, and the man up high had his own work to do. He left the cliff's edge and moved back into the dense trees up above, curious at how a woman could run through a wall.