The Three Jackals
"Tell us the secrets that you have learned in your many years," the trio of jackals would ask the esteemed lion whom they held with a mixture of reverential awe and envy. The lion would speak at length of his many commissions of bronze, silver, and precious metals throughout the world, though the lion was motherless form an early age (his mother had died in cub-birth). There was no greater architect in the world and no one would be a better craftsman to work upon this massive and beautiful temple, no one more schooled in the use of arithmetic and geometry to construct this edifice of worship than the lion. In spite of being left an orphan at the age of 12 had lived under the banner of many nations and observed their secrets in building. His name was Hiram and he was the King of Architects and who were these jackals to accost him constantly with needless questions of how to build when they themselves were mere employees, as their aprons so clearly indicated?
"The answers will require time and diligence," the lion said, causing the jackals reprehensible though they were to have their eyes light up, "nevertheless, if you are indeed willing, I could teach you what I know in the course of a year. But it will take a willingness to listen and to learn. If you wish to be my pupils and learn nature's deepest and most sublime mysteries, you must attend all my lectures.
"There will be thirty-three in all and this is the first. You must absorb all the knowledge that I have learned, which I in turn gained from from the Grand Architect of the Universe. If you can build your lives and this world as masterfully as this temple is being built, then you might one day surpass me." The offer of becoming as great an architect, or better as Hiram was one that would be appealing. "Before the three of you make a decision, let me assure you the work will be taxing and you will want to quit midway through to pursue life's pleasures. Report your decision to me later tonight." The work involved in becoming a master achitect would be a test of physical as well as mental strength and these jackals obviously wanted no part of it. Of all the employees under Hiram's watch, these three were the roustabouts whose reluctance to work and tendency to distract others made the disgruntled lion wonder if the building he had been commissioned to build would ever rise to the heavens, as was his dream.
These three lazy canids for whom hard work was something to be dreaded and patience more vice than virtue gathered to think about becoming Hiram's pupils. They would at the construction site gather when the desert sun had set and think about what they had just been informed about becoming architects themselves.
"If we were to become his pupils, it would mean that we would no longer be allowed to distract the other workers. We would have to go out into the world to set an example to the others rather than throw off the entire project" one would say.
"And we would actually have to ply our craft on this current project and work hard, much harder than any of us have ever worked in our lives just to be the lion's slaves," the other reckoned, obviously not one who enjoyed the celebration that comes with a task completed for efforts rendered.
But the third jackal was the most evil of all and an accursed thought crept into his mind, a wicked and terrible idea forged by hellfire. The jackal made known his evil plot to his brethren. "Take Hiram, abduct him, and then force him under pain of death to reveal his secrets to us. He already owns a chisel and hammer meant for construction..." for a moment he stopped as a smile appeared on his muzzle, "but if he refuses our advances, they will be used for something else."
Later that night...
The jackals appeared before Hiram the lion, still in his apron to make their intentions known to the master architect. "We have made our decision." And before the lion could react, one of three rogue jackals knocked him to the ground and bound his hind-paws. The other one slipped a blindfold over his eyes and a strap around his muzzle so his fangs would not be a problem and they carried him to a hill overlooking the construction site, which was still quite a ways off from completion. And from that hill, the jackals continued their perverted scheme to become architects themselves.
"Give us the secrets now! We do not want this temple to be completed before we learn the secrets you have!" the jackal said, his tone of voice irate at the lion whose four legs were bound and his eyes were still blindfolded. But at least for now he could speak.
"It is impossible for you to know these things in just one night. This temple simply must be built for it will serve as the foundation of a new and glorious kingdom. Your training would require many lectures and patience on your behalf, my canine friends. And you threaten me and abduct me from my sacred duty as foreman, why should I do anything for you?." Upon hearing this, one of the jackals struck Hiram on the temple with a stone hammer causing him to bleed profusely.
"You fools! I can never give my secrets to those who practice violence. Once I notify the king, you will be terminated from your positions. If you had the patience and willingness, you could have learned how to be strong and wise but instead you will never learn," the lion said as the blood ran crimson down the side of his mane.
And then the third jackal took the hammer which had been used to strike the architect on the side of the head and picked up the chisel. "You will not be able to notify the king at all. If we cannot have your secrets, then they will go the grave." No sooner had the evil jackal finished saying this that he slammed the chisel into the lion's chest, puncturing his heart and lungs. Hiram, the master architect who was consigned to build the greatest edifice the world had ever known lay cold and dead on the floor. His death was a tragedy that all of nature mourned.
The three rogues, their foul deeds complete buried the master in an unmarked grave then sought an escape, knowing that as murderers they would be hunted by the king and executed. They found this in the form of a ship, and they took Hiram's blueprints for the temple with them. The jackals were bound for a distant port but that ship that carried them was swallowed in storm and the lion's secrets were lost for good.
That next morning...
"Where is the architect?" the lupine king, dressed in his royal purple robes would ask the other employees and none of the twelve apprentices (not the evil jackals but the hard-working builders) knew where to look for their lion master.
"Sir," the king's servant proclaimed, "I noticed there on the hill overlooking the construction site a beautiful tree that had grown overnight and under that tree..." the slave was crying "I found his expired corpse." The king followed the slave as did the twelve other builders and found that his testimony was horrifically true. Hiram lay dead as a stone, his mouth twisted in horror at the assaults of unseen (he was still wearing the blindfold) attackers. And when the king saw this, his eyes welled with tears for he knew the architect who had been closer to him than a brother, who was skilled in all manner of crafts was gone. There would be no completion for this temple without Hiram to oversee it. At the lion's side underneath the tree lay the tools of architecture including a compass and ruler for measuring and a blood-stained hammer and chisel.
"Do not fear, O king. The three villains who perpetrated this will not prevent this building from reaching the heavens. We are more than employees, we are a fraternity who will dedicate the rest of our lives to recovering those secrets now lost. All for the love of our master who trained us to be noble, wise, and to pursue what is good in life. That he died with the tools of architecture nearby is no accident," the leader of the twelve said, in an attempt to comfort the king. "And we will train others in the same noble profession as our dearly-departed master so that in some future generation, the temple would be complete."
And though the wolf king was saddened by the loss of his chief architect, he knew that when all things had come to pass, those who knew the arcane knowledge that Hiram once possessed would complete the temple. For he knew that in the future this fraternity of stone-cutters and builders would expand their craft all over the world, and at the end of the age, the dream he and Hiram shared would become reality.