Page 36 of The Hyena’s Guardian

Hundreds of lines had been carved directly into the rock in overlapping layers deep enough to survive centuries underground.

Most were written in languages Matt didn’t recognize.

One sentence wasn’t.

DO NOT LET THEM REACH THE SURFACE.

It appeared again.

And again.

And again.

Matt stared at the wall while cold unease settled heavily beneath his ribs. Then he noticed the carvings changing the farther down the corridor they went.

The higher markings looked controlled and deliberate, their lines sharp and measured despite the claws that carved them.

Lower down, the writing changed. The carvings became deeper and more erratic, their lines cutting violently through the stone as though control had steadily deteriorated with each passing entry. By the time the markings reached the base of the corridor wall, the words barely resembled language anymore.

Matt looked toward Theron, who still had not met his eyes.

“I wrote them.”

Theron remained near the corridor entrance for several long seconds after speaking, his attention fixed somewhere deeper in the tunnels while Matt tried to process the implications of what he had just admitted.

“You wrote all of this,” Matt said carefully, glancing back toward the walls covered in carved warnings. “How long have you been down here?”

Theron’s jaw tightened beneath the dark fur framing his face. “Long enough.”

“That answer is aggressively unhelpful.”

Matt opened his mouth to argue before another distant sound echoed faintly through the tunnels behind them. This time it was not scraping or shrieking.

It sounded like gunfire.

Far away. Muffled by layers of stone, but unmistakable.

Matt straightened while Theron’s entire posture sharpened toward the sound with predatory focus. The shift happened so fast it almost looked involuntary.

“My team,” Matt said.

Theron listened for another moment. “Maybe.”

Another distant shot echoed through the mountain, followed by silence.

Matt gave a flat look. “Sound doesn’t carry right down here.”

“No.”

Theron turned toward the warning-lined passage. “Need to move before they circle back.”

Matt looked once toward the darkness where the gunfire had come from, then followed him deeper underground.

The passage narrowed beyond the carved walls, forcing Theron to angle his shoulders to fit through portions of the older stonework. Unlike the excavation tunnels above, these corridors showed no signs of modern reinforcement or recent equipment placement. The architecture felt older here. Deliberate in ways Matt struggled to fully explain.

The walls curved too smoothly in places where stone should have fractured naturally.

Support arches repeated at uneven intervals that somehow still felt patterned.