The Dolphin Merchant

"You. Buying?"

"Meow..."

Zed had seen many things, but this was his first encounter with an actual sentient dolphin unlike the before. "Name? Goods?" He expressed mentally his questions, his doubts, and what was the dolphin up to.

The dolphin squealed and clapped its fins. "A-Dolph. Name. You?"

"Zed. Zed Pizza Alimonte Nuts Growltiger Noir." Replied the cat with a little bit of difficulty in his head. He missed that name. He missed being called his name.

"Zed. Friend."

A-Dolph, the self-proclaimed merchant went round and round in the shallow water with nimbleness as he expressed his joy. "Kwe~ kwe!"  He meant that it was good to meet new friends and possibly new customers. "Sell. Items. Knowledge. Pay. Items. Knowledge." The water mammal telepathically communicated with the black-furred quadruped. 

Zed who understood the concept of trade was curious about A-Dolph's goods, especially knowledge.

The dolphin understood the curious intention of the cat and communicated what knowledge he had in store.

It struck like a flash of light, the names of his goods appeared within a microsecond. 

The cat recoiled but quickly took his bearings as he perused the list of knowledge that the dolphin was selling. It was an indescribable experience that rendered Zed quiet.

There were all sorts of knowledge. General knowledge about the underwater biome. A-Dolph's favorite foods. The taste of pufferfish and how to get high. The sport of pufferfish volley. Art of somersaults. Art of nose blowing. Dolphin's Aesthetic beauty. Underwater Undead. Reports of the Change in Underwater. AviaNest Tongue. English Language. Japanese Language. Korean Language. Simplified Chinese Language.

"Meow!" Zed decided to purchase every language-related knowledge.

"Kyah!" The dolphin danced while singing in his squealing voice. "Pay. What?" He telepathically added.

"Meow." Zed confidently puffed his chest and offered his own knowledge of his travels 

A-Dolph and Zed came to an agreement as they both expressed their consensus intent. Knowledge was mutually exchanged. The cat felt joy at the prospect of being able to read, but then, he was reminded of the apocalypse and his current situation.

For a cat, Zed was normally arrogant and bossy. This was the cat's natural mindset with their 'I own you,' attitude, but Zed was humbler than his fellow kind, and every time he was reminded of the apocalypse, he felt hurt in his heart that his important human was now gone. The appearance of A-Dolph had somehow become a poultice to him realizing that despite all of the changes, he might not actually be alone.

Though honestly, Zed had refused the advancement of others. He recalled the few friends he made in the past while roaming around the world. 

"Kwe! Kwe~!" The dolphin floated in the water as his head bobbed up and down. "Hey, would you want to buy more? I still had more items on my list!"

Zed was surprised by the dolphin's sudden eloquence. "How could I hear you now more clearly?" He mentally replied, made aware of his own eloquence. With his own cat tongue, he tried to speak up. "H.h.w. ku. ld. I. talk. ayk. this..." He meant 'How could I talk like this?' but because of being new to this, he found it difficult to voice his words.

"Woohoo~!" Cheered by A-Dolph.  "You now had knowledge of several languages, so of course, you could now talk to me more fluently. I wouldn't be able to talk with my lungs though... I wouldn't really know if we had a dolphin language yet."

Zed, a simple housecat, with lethal single-mindedness was overwhelmed by the dolphin. "Dolphin language?"

"You didn't know? You were late on the news, my friend. Were you living under the rock?"

"No, I was actually roaming the world."

A-Dolph shook his head and decided to be nicer to the quadruped who claimed to have traveled the world but might have actually not paid attention to it. "A new civilization was being raised. They ambitiously planned to create a nation of their own. They called themselves the AviaNest or the Nest for short. They were led by the Owlking, the dude was supposed to be a scholar or so I heard. Now, other species were aiming for World Domination. The north was quite secluded so I wouldn't know what was happening there, but the south and further west had been hectic."

"Could you tell me more?"

"For the right price, I would."

Zed was intrigued, but not intrigued enough. But this could be an opportunity for him. He saw hope in the water mammal, so he dived at the opportunity right ahead. "Humans. Would you have information about humans?"

"Alive?" A-Dolph asked back while feeling ludicrous.

The black-furred cat nodded excitedly. Surely, the dolphin would have information. he was a merchant and more well-traveled than Zed as the former had traveled to oceans, seas, and coasts. Though Zed claimed to have traveled the world, he wasn't really so sure of it either. He reckoned it was despair talking him out of it.

Now with a new avenue to throw his hopes no matter how blind, Zed had decided his quest to find his new person had not ended yet.

A-Dolph sighed, and Zed could almost 'hear' it through the telepathic link. The dolphin added assuring Zed's disappointment. "No. I wouldn't have any information about humans."

The black cat was saddened by this revelation, but he was persistent. "Anything? You really didn't have anything?"

"Hmmm..." A-Dolph felt bad for Zed, so he took it in great pains to tell the cat of the reality of the world. "Humanity. dead. They all had died. I had a conversation with Owlking. He deduced humanity was certain to perish permanently."

The words had hurt Zed, but he was persistently stubborn in his way. "But... I would try nevertheless."

"Suit yourself, but I'd already be telling you... I told you so..."

Zed reminisced about the days before the fall. As a cat, it was sure ingrained in him to be haughty and be served. To be frank, all of that love was new to him when he was only recently adopted. When he was but a stray, all he knew was running away and trying to make the best of the day just like what he was doing now.

And then again, this search for a new person was not about for the sake of his comfort, but as a matter of principle. "I. Not. Bad luck." He voiced in his broken cat tongue.

A-Dolph heard him loud and clear. "Of course, you were not..." The dolphin telepathically assured him.

"I wanted to know what was happening in the west and south," Zed said via the telepathic link with conviction drawing out hope he might glean something from the information. "I'd pay with information of a dangerous herd up north that could split and multiply, and also information about a random sighting of an undead that could swim."

"Eh? I already had enough of deranged mutated sea beasts, but more troublesome undead? Not to mention swimmers!?" A-Dolph was rattled by what he heard. He immediately began the transaction.

Enlightened by the new information, Zed realized that he might not have roamed the whole world yet. He was misinformed perhaps the result of accumulated stress that had been done on his body and his mind.

In the past years, decades, and centuries, he had been moving blindly while he was burdened with the loss and the continuous threat to his life. But he had mutated and evolved. He had changed too. And now, he possessed more knowledge in his arsenal. Hope was his fuel, and as long as possible, he would keep them burning. 

A-Dolph and Zed conversed exchanging more news with each other. This time, it wasn't a trade, but truly an exchange of news of the current affairs around the world.

The dolphin was especially rattled when he learned what was the north like.  The black-furred cat had been there, and it was there that Zed had accumulated all kinds of knowledge about survival.

"Oh man," A-Dolph cried in complaint. "It seemed legit. It looked like I had to go now. I'd have to gather some friends and bring an end to these swimming deadies..." The dolphin dived deeper into the sea and went into the ocean with incredible speed.

"I had the pleasure of doing business with you!" The dolphin's words echoed in the telepathic link as it faded steadily.

Zed watched the seas with renewed hope for himself and a prayer of good luck for the water mammal.