flickering edges [festival]

The woman stopped abruptly and stared, but didn't say a word, not even to give her name. Aoife stopped too, one paw still raised, humming song ended suddenly midnote. Frozen in a tableau. Then her little face melted into sympathetic lines. "Oh, mebbe you cain't talk attall an I was so rude t' ass-yume you could." She nibbled delicately at her lip a moment in thought. How could she talk to someone who didn't talk? She didn't even know what her name was. Gasp. Maybe she didn't have a name. But that was silly, her mum would have given her a name. Unless she hadn't had a family either. Wow, this was getting really complicated. Like, really really complicated. "Weeell, it don't matter if you have a name'r a family, you kin just borrow mine," she decided, well, decisively, completely skipping saying any of that train of thought out loud. "My mum'n da will adopt you and give you a name an' then you won't be sad and scared no more!" With that all decided, she beamed up at her friend and wagged her tail.