Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 7] Ch.1 Soondeery Explained

Sebas

"I'm fine." I said and she let go when she was sure I had my balance.

"Good, Nyah." She then turned to the boys who hadn't missed a step in their horseplay. "Hey, watch where you are going!"

"Apologies, apologies." The group of them chanted insincerely as they got further and further away.

"Boys, nyaaaah..." Julie sighed then she turned back to me. "But I'm glad I bumped into you, I need a semblance of intelligent feedback. You read a lot, right?"

"Uh sure?" I said before I could think better of it. "I'm not sure how much good I can do, though." I shrugged trying to get out of more trouble.

"Have you ever heard the words loly or soondeery?" She asked.

My eyes visibly rounded. Normally, I could hold my reactions, but Julie was too good at throwing me off. And the fact that she used those words meant more than I had prepared myself for. I wanted to deny her, but she noticed my reaction and the cuteness of her happy tail wag weighed on my heart to much.

"You have, Nyah!" she beamed. "Please, you have to tell me everything you know! It's important." She took my hand with both of hers while her eyes practically glowed.

Her hands... they were so... soft and warm.

"Uh huh... sure." I could barely hear myself say it.

"Great I'm on my way back to the inn where I'm staying with some friends, we can talk there." She said.

Hold on. What!

*

"Oh pits, please excuse the mess." Julie cursed as she bent over and gathered clumps of clothes in her arms and tossed it in the closet. During her first load a pair of lace fringed pink panties fell onto the ground and my reality seemed to stutter. A white fox appeared, seeming to jump from her shoulder. It picked it up and disappeared from view. "I'm a bit of a clothes nyerd, and being close friends with Tiera doesn't help my addiction." She without noticing.

I swiftly straightened my back and spun around as the blushing face of Julie turned to see if I had seen.

"Um." I said stiffly. "Where did you hear the word Tsundere from?" I was painfully conscious of the fact that not only did Julie change clothes in this room, but so did Nerinin by the looks of it.

"Let's just say I read it somewhere, it's part of a research project I'm doing, and I'd rather not release all the details until I have some more concrete information. Since I was personally trained by the Bluecoasts, and I'm a Magus initiate, I have a few more eyes on my research then most people. As a Sorcerer I'm sure that you understand the pressure." Julie shrugged it off, but I took it as a red flag that she was being so secretive about it. Those were not words of this world let alone words I used with any frequency.

"Okay, in what context were they used and what do you know about them?" I asked.

"First, I nyeed your word that you will keep this conversation and it's contents to yourself." It would have been easier to take her seriously if she weren't frantically cleaning her room. All the bending over she was doing wasn't good for my sanity. "Okay, nyou can turn around now. Nyaaah." She sighed.

Julie collapsed onto her bed with a hardy breath as she wiped the sweat on her brow. The white fox hopped onto her lap and she instinctively began petting it.

"Sure, I won't tell anyone. Just so long as you don't mention this to Liz, she'd freaking kill me if she found out I was here." I looked around and she patted the bed neck to her at the cue.

I swallowed and nervously walked over and took a seat next to her at the edge of the bed.

Thoughts of "I'm in a girl's room," "I'm alone with a girl in her room," and "I'm on a girl's bed," ran through my mind adding to my anxiety. At least nothing was trying to kill me. But the white fox put me on high alert to no end.

"Nyah, So what is Soondeery?" Julie asked leaning back casually to pull a notebook from under her pillow. If the fox weren't in the way, her skirt may have come all the way up. But when it lifted up, the healthy portion of milky thigh frazzled my mind and every instance of Lilith's overaggressive flirting came to mind in the worst way. I was glad that I was sitting and crossed my legs and regretfully tore my gaze away before things got out of hand.

It was made that much worse when she actively lifted up the corner of her skirt to get at the latch on her thigh pouch. She pulled an ink pen of some fashion and held it between her teeth. In the meantime, she used a practiced motion to tie her hair up in a ponytail with a ribbon. There was something unsettlingly erotic about the bare skin on the back of her neck that glistened with the sweat from cleaning the room. I saw the white fox's ear twitch when I had that thought as if it were reading my mind, so I flicked my entire head away so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash.

"First, how do you spell it? Nyah." Julie asked when she took the pen out of her mouth and the 'nyah' sent weird 'cute' fuzzies all over my nerves.

"Duh uh," I stuttered nervously. "It's a little funny because it's based on another culture's native language." I prefaced as I spelled it out for her.

"That's a silly way to spell a word. What does it mean?" Julie asked. And when I looked over at her she was studiously taking notes and leading the conversation. It reminded of our days of studying magic for the first time. But this older version of Julie is so much cooler and mature. She really does feel like someone who is a Magus Initiate. She's completely engulfed in the study of magic once again.

"It's a word to describe a type of personality archetype. It's made of two words 'Tsun' and 'dere' I don't remember the exact translations anymore but the 'tsun' is like some kind of hostility or coldness and 'dere' which is like lovey dovey. It basically means someone who has a hard time conveying or receiving feelings of love and affection, so they lash out verbally or physically instead." I tried to explain.

"But why I haven't met anyone like that... except maybe... nevermind." She shook her head. "Why is it significant?"

"They are popular characters in certain kinds of literature aimed toward teenage boys. Most center around one boy with several female admirers in a harem setting. It's a plot device used to prologue a romantic arc between the main protagonist and the group of admirers. Usually, the Tsundere is the first girl introduced and the main love interest." I explain and I saw her eye widen a little.

"But that's not always the case, right? Nyahaha." Julie asked while laughing nervously.