Cienie had set up a little while after breakfast outside the best pub in Trebín, right across from the village church. He was due to head off and join up with B-Company over in Plymouth Lane later today. But that appointment would be for the afternoon, or perhaps the evening — after he’d finished his second ‘tour of duty’ as an entertainer.

In his hands were two set of [url=https://mimo-international.com/mimo/image.ashx?q=http://www.mimo-international.com/media/MINIM/CAMAA/IMAGE/379a1e015429960f5bbdcc6b8668fa19.jpg]clappers[/url] — simple percussion instruments, not much more than boards of wood tied together by string. A pair of larger clappers was in his right, while his left held five smaller ones with his index finger resting between the first and second. After a doomed attempt at using castanets to substitute for these [i]paqpe[/i], the barkeep’s daughter had carved them out for him in exchange for lessons. His past few evenings had thus been part practice and part teaching the girl how to play. Fortunately, her mind and her hands were equally quick, and Cienie already felt comfortable entrusting the paqpe to his disciple when he would inevitably have to return to the trenches.

In hindsight — should he have requested another set of paqpe? One that he could finally call his own? Perhaps.

When Cienie himself had started learning the art properly back in Ostend, also on borrowed instruments, his northerner teacher had referred to it as [i]k’uaipanr[/i]. But Kaan-mu’s name for it was [i]khuape[/i], and though little Hi En hadn’t much interest in the art back then, he still held her performances dear to his heart. So it was by the latter name that he introduced the next item of his road-show.

[color=9aa9a6]“Ladies and gentlemen! I think today is the first time I ever show khuape to you all.”[/color]

There was no need to explain what that foreign word was, or what it meant. A decent number of the audience were regulars at the pub who’d probably already overheard him practising these past few days, anyhow. Either way, nothing could be clearer an explanation than cutting straight to the chase.

[color=9aa9a6]“Last time I practised was many many months ago already. And I am southern Honngìn. This is northerner art. But I try my best anyway. Come!”[/color]

A flick of his wrist sent one of the two large paqpe flying into the other, colliding with a resounding ‘clack!’ that hushed the crowd into silence. The rosewood looked and sounded a little different from the bamboo he’d seen and heard at home. But it worked better than castanets, at least. And besides, though their beat was the backbone of the performance, it wasn’t as if paqpe were the sole essential element of [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACZ3Yor5Yhg]khuape[/url].
 
[color=9aa9a6]Sunday morn, I went to town
And came across a cricket and an earthworm
Boasting ‘bout bollocks and bragging ‘bout bull.
And the earthworm said:[/color] [color=9c7fac]“Hmph! For aft’noon tea, I ate a donkey with my crescent rolls!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]And the cricket said:[/color] [color=60ac64]“Hah! In Punjati, I swallowed a pair of feral tigers whole!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]And the earthworm said:[/color] [color=9c7fac]“I coiled ‘round a great big fir and yanked it out the ground!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]And the cricket said:[/color] [color=60ac64]“Hmm? With one small kick, I flattened a mountain into a mound!” [/color]
[color=9aa9a6]And the earthworm said:[/color] [color=9c7fac]“The birds and beasts — they bow to me!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]And the cricket said:[/color] [color=60ac64]“Bah! Who cares ‘bout that? All that flies and all that runs and all that swims and all that jumps: they all obey my every decree!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]Just as this pair of dunces talked their cock and bull
Came a sound, from the east:[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]“Coo-coo-coo, cluck-cluck bawk-bawk, cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]And what flew in was a hungry cockerel!
It laughed at their bunkum, bosh, and babble
Opened wide — and down went the earthworm head to toe!
Infuriated was the cricket
And went to scold the baffled bird:[/color]
[color=60ac64]“Oh, you foolish fowl!
Who am I? East to the fields does my kingdom stretch
West to the islands and the open sea
I am the Lord High Lord of the Insects —
You will rue the day you met me!
En garde, you wretched, rotten bird!
I’ll show your place in this here hierarchy!”[/color]
[color=9aa9a6]The quarrelsome cricket, cross and crotchety
[b]Stomped[/b] its feet! [i]Bared[/i] its teeth! [u]Spread[/u] its wings!
[u][i][b]Charged[/b][/i][/u] right forth——!

…more chicken feed![/color]

Rhythm, actions, tone of voice, facial expressions… Cienie reckoned he had it all down pat. The audience seemed to agree, what with their hooting and hollering punctuating rambunctious clapping and laughter. A whole bunch of pub-goers had been drawn outside too. Pity this would be the last chance he’d get to perform khuape for a long while. 

He hadn’t been too sure at first if imitating his now-commanding officer was a good idea — Captain Middleton seemed like the type to take offence at being voice-cast as a cricket. But a little birdie had told him that the man was still in his bunker, and as one of the more unpopular officers, no one would really object to the unflattering portrayal. Certainly none in the crowd seemed to. The same was true of the earthworm. The paintbrush sergeant had been spotted heading towards the trenches earlier — so Cienie was (probably) safe.

Was it almost lunchtime? He had no watch. The sun seemed to be almost overhead, but he was sadly not a sundial. He could not tell the time with complete certainty. So perhaps it was noon already, and the messes were filling up. Perhaps it was still morning, and he was simply rushing to wait. Either way, Cienie still had plans to play for the injured and ill in the casualty clearance station, along with the nurses and medics tending to them. He’d have to wrap this routine up.

[color=9aa9a6]“The sun is tall and my shadow is short! It is noon time already.”[/color]

He stopped suddenly, his eyes darting around as if about to share some sort of secret.

[color=9aa9a6]“But most important: my belly is grrr~rowling! It is [i]lunch[/i] time already! OK, done for today, I go eat.”[/color] He knelt down and tucked his mouth organ — he’d left lying it on the ground after his musical numbers earlier — under his arm. [color=9aa9a6]“Bye-bye now!”[/color]

And so Cienie made his exit, at a vigorous jog, the crowd’s applause mixing with the clapping of his paqpe as he went. Next stop: Trebín Village Casualty Clearance Station.