The Truth About Bears Pt. 1

Back when I was young and naive I believed, as many do, that bears are relatively harmless. I could differentiate between toy bears and bears out of stories and the real thing of course. But even the real thing seemed to me to be an innocent part of nature.
However, as I have found out in recent years, nothing about bears of any type is what it seems. This tale begins about five years ago, though I'm certain it was influenced by events earlier in my life, and in a broader sense, further back in history in general.
One rainy day in July I stood under an awning, leaning against a building. A summer shower was passing through and I had stopped in front of the local mason's lodge to get out of the rain for a few minutes. As I stared out at the street, watching cars splash by, I glimpsed something out of the corner of my eye.
A shadowy figure, a glimpse of brown. And then it was gone into the alley at the edge of the building as quickly as it had appeared. I glanced toward the alley, arching an eyebrow in puzzlement. The street was empty except for me, so there was no one else to have seen.
Cautiously I approached the mouth of the alley and leaned around the corner. The alleyway itself was empty...and ended in a brick wall. I entered moving slowly, eyes taking in everything as I advanced. Overall it was your typical alley. There were a few doors along it's length. All appeared firmly shut, and most were of the variety that only open from one side. Near a lot of them were trash cans and there was a light scattering of trash throughout the alley. On the whole, it was one of the nicer alleys I've ever been in.
About ten feet in I noticed an odd gap in the bricks along the right side of the alley. Almost like a door. Carefully I slid my fingers under the edge and pulled gently. A section of bricks, approximately eight feet high and four feet wide, swung outward with surprising ease and near-silence.
Whistling softly, I inspected the hinges, which were apparently inside the bricks. When closed the door would be invisible to any who didn't already know it was there.
I moved quietly into the hallway on the other side of the door. To either side there was a solid brick wall and as I progressed I noted that the was slanted downward. Lights were placed at intervals in the passageway, but the light they gave was dim. Most of the light still came from the door behind me, despite the cloud cover still in the sky.
The hall progressed for several minutes as I walked. I never saw a window or a door along it's length and gradually came to realize the this passage was even more of a secret than I'd originally thought. The path began to curve and I lost the extra light from the door. Left with only the dim illumination provided by the lights overhead I pressed on, feeling glad that the floor, though sloped, was smooth.
Soon I came to a pair of large wooden doors with plain black iron handles. The hall had widened along the way it seemed and the opening hidden by the doors had to be at least as wide as it was tall. Butterflies jumped to life in my stomach as I pulled the door handle as slowly as I could, peeking through a crack between the doors before I dared to pull the door open enough to slip through.
As the door closed quietly behind me I found myself in a stone entryway. To either side a curved ramp angled slightly downward, each side mirroring the other. Directly in front of me I found a stone wall, the texture of which was smooth, though the stone curved here and there in a manner reminiscent of the wall of a cave.
The light was somewhat brighter here. Though it did have an orange-ish tinge to it and a bit of a flickering quality. "Surely not..." I thought to myself, choosing a path. Based upon the curve of the paths and the light coming from each way I assumed that both led to the same place. A short distance down the path the wall I had faced when I entered came to an end. I fell into a crouch and advanced toward the edge slowly.
As I reached the end of the wall I rested against it and leaned forward to peek around it's edge. Once my eyes were clear of the wall I felt my jaw drop open, and my eyes widen increasingly as they took in what lay beyond.
I was looking into a massive cavern, in the center a short wall, just a few feet high, formed a ring around a massive fire.
Most shocking of all, the only inhabitants in the cavern, here beneath the city, were bears.