Alexander, nestled in Sofia’s arms, was intently licking her finger, as if this gesture was the only salvation in a boundless sea of uncertainty. In his every movement there was an urgent need, a thirst for life, which he sought in the smallest drops of souls unquestioningly given to him by Sophia. With each new soul absorbed by him, his small body was filled with strength, giving him hope of salvation.

“I’ll take all her supplies, it’ll be inconvenient...” Alexander thought, feeling the energy growing in his small body. - But when I return to my body, I can return everything to her a hundredfold. I promise, Sofia, whatever I take now, I will return to you!

He said these words of promise out loud, although for Sofia it sounded only like the rumbling of a satisfied animal. Her smile in response was full of tenderness and care, her hand gently stroked his head, adding confidence to his heart.

Suddenly interrupting their quiet moment, a message appeared on the girl's phone. Opening it, she read it and said:

- It's time. The boss is calling. Will you sit here?

The hare, sensing the cessation of the flow of souls, grumbled dissatisfiedly and carefully jumped onto the floor. A spark of regret about the interrupted feast flashed in his small eyes.

Sofia, standing by the bed, slowly put on her jacket, deep thoughtfulness was visible in her eyes. Memories of a recent incident, when she, not remembering anything, searched for a hare through the buildings, circled in her head. She left the room, leaving behind silence and Alexander, who was now sitting on the floor, enveloped in the faint light coming through the window. He was left alone with his thoughts, wondering what trials still lay ahead and how he could return to his old life.

Alexander, deep in thought, slowly looked around Sofia’s room, feeling how every corner was filled with warmth and personal memories. The soft light filtering through the half-draped curtains created a feeling of coziness and security, contrasting with the austere military atmosphere outside these walls.

The walls of the room, painted in soothing shades of beige and light blue, were lined with shelves of books. In one corner of the room there was a small desk, on which various papers, notes and pencils lay in disarray.

On the wall next to the desk there were photographs, each of which was like a window into another world. One of them depicted Sofia against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, where she smiled while hugging a group of friends. Another showed her with her family on a picnic in the forest, where an atmosphere of joy and carefree reigned around. These moments, frozen in time, reminded us of life outside military service, of peaceful days and joyful meetings.

There was a small bed with a soft blanket and colorful pillows near the window. The light aroma of lavender in the air added a special charm and tranquility to the room.

“I have time and souls, but I shouldn’t devote everything to restoring my soul just yet.” She is very gluttonous. - Alexander thought, feeling an internal conflict and at the same time clarity of thought. - I’ll probably give ten souls right now, the rest for training.

He closed his eyes, concentrated, and became introspective for a moment, feeling his soul storehouse as a living, pulsating organ within his consciousness. As soon as he transported ten souls to the center of his own soul, he felt it hungrily swallow them up, like a water-thirsty desert swallowing raindrops.

“I can’t even imagine how many other people’s souls are needed to restore my own!” - Alexander thought, sitting in a cozy room, surrounded by silence and tranquility. His small but penetrating eyes looked into the distance, immersed in deep thought. - Okay, I want to check what I saw in Sofia’s soul. The ability to create thinner threads of the soul and tie them into a knot. Something interesting should come out of this.

He focused again on his soul vault, imagining it as a cosmos where souls were stars, pulsating with colorful lights. Alexander carefully pinched off the smallest particle of the soul and pulled it towards himself, but to his disappointment, this only damaged someone else’s soul, tearing off a piece from it.

- Maybe we shouldn’t take it so small? - he thought and took a larger piece.

Now a piece of the soul maintained contact until the bunny’s paws, but the connection suddenly broke off. The haze, like a web, stretched to the limit and eventually could not stand it. It was like a thin thread that snapped, unable to withstand the tension. Alexander sat, reflecting on his failures and trying to figure out how to control these thin threads of the soul.

Continuing his experiments, Alexander diligently researched various ways to manipulate souls. He tried to take different amounts of energy from his storage, pulling it first to his paws, then to his teeth, observing the effect. Each time the result was the same: a silver haze that varied in size but not in quality. The subtlety and grace that he noticed in Sophia’s soul, he had not yet been able to reproduce.

- I'm doing something wrong. It looked like a thread, while I take a whole fabric... My mother knitted... I remember... - he thought, trying to remember the technique that his mother used. He visualized her collecting dog hair, carefully and carefully processing it into soft, pliable yarn.

Alexander remembered how his mother separated the wool into thin fibers, spinning them into surprisingly thin but strong threads. She used an antique spindle that spun easily and gracefully in her skilled hands. The thread twisted, forming a uniform and beautiful texture.

- Exactly, maybe the amount of soul I take should be large, I just don’t process it further! - it dawned on him. Inspired by memories of his mother's skill, Alexander realized that he needed to change his approach to manipulating souls. He had to learn how to spin spiritual energy, turning it into a thin but strong thread that could create new opportunities.

Alexander, thinking intently about his task, came to the conclusion that to create a thin thread he only needed to correctly manipulate souls.

- Twist and pull, and so on, until the thread becomes thin... Okay, let's try. - he decided and began the painstaking process.

First, he carefully pinched off a large piece of the soul, holding it in his imagination. Then he began to slowly, with great concentration and attention, twist it, like fibers of wool, trying to make the thread as thin and strong as possible. As the thread became thinner and thinner, Alexander began to get a headache from the stress and effort spent on this process.

“This requires more practice...” he thought, completing the process.

He then passed the resulting thread to his paws, creating claws from it. At first glance they seemed the same as before.

- Damn, so much effort in vain. - Alexander sighed in disappointment, not seeing or feeling the difference. However, when he tried to dispel the claws, he found that the thread remained in place, requiring no additional attention or effort from him to maintain its shape. She was surprisingly stable and static.

- Now this is interesting! - Alexander exclaimed, feeling a glimmer of inspiration. - A preparation that requires no time delay at all! Interesting…

This discovery opened up new horizons of possibilities for him. Now he could create structures from soul energy that remained stable and functional without his constant control.

Inspired by new ideas, Alexander set to work with new passion. He began to create another thread in his soul, then a second, inspired by the complex structure of the gift of Cold, which he observed in Sophia. In this gift, the main threads were combined into three lines, forming a complex and graceful structure.

Concentrating, Alexander began to carefully tie these three threads into knots, forming a pattern. His goal was not just to direct energy from the soul to the paws, but also to create obstacles in the form of knots that could change or intensify the flow of energy. It was difficult and required maximum concentration and precision from him. The result, although far from the perfection he had seen with Sofia, was still impressive. The complex threads of soul created found their way to the hare's paws, forming new, improved claws.

Stolen novel; please report.

When Alexander examined his creation, he could not contain his inner emotions of joy.

- Yes! Well, this is already something! - he thought joyfully. A slight chill began to spread on the floor around his paws, and frost appeared on the linoleum beneath them, as if his claws now had the properties of cold.

Alexander's enthusiasm reached its climax.

- This is what I understand, progress! At least there was some benefit from the fact that I became a hare... Besides the fact that I didn’t die... - he thought with admiration, feeling the new power in his paws. He carefully pulled the thread towards himself, and the claws disappeared into the soft fur of his paws. At that moment, a chill ran through his body - a sudden awareness of his new strength.

- I’m not a bunny now, I’m Wolverine! - he thought cheerfully, feeling incredibly powerful.

However, the joy was short-lived. Suddenly his consciousness became foggy, and he felt a sharp surge of fatigue. All the emotions, tension and effort spent on experiments made themselves felt. His little body could not bear the strain, and he fainted, exhausted, but satisfied with his achievements.

Alexander lay on the frozen linoleum in Sofia’s room, his breathing was even and calm. At this moment, he looked like an ordinary bunny, but inside him now lived new knowledge and abilities that he had to explore and develop.

Some time after Alexander fainted, Sofia returned to her room. Her gaze was immediately drawn to the small hare lying motionless on the floor. The girl’s heart sank with tenderness, and she carefully lifted him into her arms.

- The authorities know about you and want to see you. It’s not as scary as you think...” she whispered, gently placing the hare in her palms. The bunny was unconscious, and Sofia, speaking these words, was rather trying to calm herself down.

She left her room, clutching her small warm body, and headed towards the exit from building A. Going outside, Sofia felt the cold air, and quickly covered the hare with part of her jacket, protecting him from the wind. Her steps quickened as she ran towards the administrative building, where her comrades were already waiting.

An hour earlier, they were all together writing a report on the latest events, carefully thinking over every word. Verbally, they had already checked the conversation with their supervisor, discussing every moment of their usual mission, which resulted in an additional gift. Now the supervisors were calling them, and Sofia could feel the tension in the air.

Approaching the administrative building, she saw Ivan and Andrey, who were waiting for her, discussing something in a tense manner. Their glances spoke more than some words, one was like a mountain, ready to protect, and the second was a reproach, pointing out mistakes. Sofia approached them, clutching the helpless hare to herself, and preparing for the upcoming meeting with her superiors.

Entering the administrative building, three servicemen - Ivan, Andrei and Sofia - felt part of the strict and disciplined atmosphere that reigned in the building. The air was filled with seriousness and anticipation, and the corridors rang with the echo of footsteps and commands.

- Junior Lieutenant Kharitonov, Senior Sergeant Mikheev, Junior Sergeant Berentseva! - Ivan reported, handing over the documents to the duty officer. He, being the senior rank in their group, was responsible for the team and its actions. Ivan had combat experience behind him and, after being wounded, was sent to the reserve. After the first stage happened, the return from the dead, Ivan just became limp and went on a drinking binge.

By a lucky coincidence, this was precisely the point of his return to his old life. He managed to collect souls in the Edge, killing everything he saw, thinking that he had a fever. Returning to the real world, his body was healed. Returning to duty a week after the incident, he participated in a large-scale battle for the Moscow region - a battle that led to the death of thousands of military personnel and was popularly nicknamed the “battle with zombies.” This became known as the second stage of the confrontation with the undead.

At the third stage, when everyone began to actively develop gifts, including the man, Ivan was appointed commander of a group of young volunteers. Under his command were Andrei Mikheev and Sofia Berentseva, both of whom were distinguished by excellent fighting qualities and the ability to quickly adapt to new conditions. At least that's what was officially said. In fact, the destructive Cold skill and the scanning Energy skill played a big role.

The trio walked past the duty officer and followed a familiar route along a long corridor, illuminated by the bright light of neon lamps. The steps of Ivan, Andrei and Sofia sounded decisively and confidently against the backdrop of strict walls and closed doors leading to various offices and departments. Having risen to the fourth floor, they found themselves in front of the office of the head of the military camp.

There was another duty officer sitting in the office by the door. Ivan handed him the documents with dignity, and the duty officer carefully checked them and reported on the arrival of the team. While they were waiting for permission to enter, the trio looked around the room. It was a spacious room, the walls of which were decorated with maps and plans of various military operations of past centuries. The head of the military camp loved history and tried to fill every corner of his world with it. On one of the walls hung a board with photographs of decorated military personnel, each image telling a story of heroism and courage. In the corner there was a cabinet with folders and documents organized in strict order.

When the intercom said they could enter, Ivan led the team inside. There were already three officers in the office: a colonel, a major and a captain. The Colonel, an older man with gray hair, had a penetrating gaze and a confident posture. His face was decorated with wrinkles, each of which seemed to be evidence of the trials and combat missions he had endured.

The major, the special officer, looked younger and more energetic. His dark hair was neatly styled, and his eyes sparkled with sharp intelligence and cunning. He sat with his arms crossed over his chest, and his gaze was filled with keen interest in the arriving group.

The captain, their supervisor, was a young and ambitious officer. He always tried to take the initiative and now he wanted the team not to let him down. His face reflected the mixture of nervousness and responsibility he felt as he stood in front of his charges.

The atmosphere in the room was serious, but not hostile. Sofia carefully placed the hare on the chair next to her, covering it with the jacket she had taken off in the corridor.

- Junior Lieutenant Kharitonov, your report on the last mission in Grani was very informative. - the major began, his gaze slid over the faces of each of the arrivals. - However, there are some points that require additional clarification... Your report says almost nothing about the hare, which, judging by the report...

The major found Mikheev's report in the papers on the table.

- Judging by the senior sergeant’s report, the hare has unique abilities and saved the group’s lives twice. Would you like to comment?

- Comrade Major, my report is focused on the key aspects of the mission. As for the hare, yes, it turned out to be an unexpected factor. However, I did not consider it necessary to pay much attention to him in the report, since our main goal was accomplished without his direct participation.

He glanced briefly at Sophia, who stood with her eyes downcast, then turned his gaze back to the major.

- The hare, as you correctly noted, really showed some unusual abilities. He helped us twice in difficult situations, but I believed that these moments were not decisive for the overall outcome of the operation. These were more unexpected moments than strategic success factors.

Ivan maintained a direct and confident gaze, showing that his decision not to mention the hare in the report was balanced and deliberate.

- However, I am ready to provide additional information if it turns out to be necessary to complete the picture of events. - he concluded, leaving room for further questions or clarification.