Chapter three. Trait

Translated by an online translator I apologize for any errors.
Early in the morning, Irina and Sasha Svetozarov went out for berries. They took with them baskets, some food, and went to a distant part of the forest, because there the berries were larger, and local children were afraid to go there, telling stories about the presence of evil spirits.
But, since Ira and Sasha were not timid, they waved away these, in their opinion, stupid fairy tales told by cowardly village children, and set off on their way.
They did not go long, and while they were talking, they did not notice that the distance between the trees looked somehow different from the surrounding forest .As they got closer, they were surprised to see that the grass was thicker right from the line drawn on the ground between two pines, and beyond it they could see a small waterfall and a cave. Sasha immediately wanted to cross the line, but the cautious Ira pulled him away by the hand:
"Wait! What if it's dangerous?
- Oh, don't tell me that you believe in fairy tales about all sorts of dishonesty! ... - laughed Sasha.
"I don't believe it!" But there may be wild animals there, and we don't have a gun, " Ira said.
"We'll climb that tree if we have to," my brother said.
"Let's go!" Stop being a coward!
And Ira went after him, grabbing his hand.
After crossing the invisible strip, they did not feel anything, and the number of berries on the ground was pleasantly surprising, causing euphoria, and the children began to collect them with joy. So, imperceptibly, step by step, they came to the cave and then a strange thing happened: there was a crack, a pair of bones flew out of the darkness and something that looked like a man came out, but it was not a man, pieces of flesh hung on it in fragments here and there, exposing the bones, in places the hair remained on the head,
If Ira's mouth hadn't instantly gone dry with horror, she would have screamed at the top of her lungs, but fortunately the children seemed to be paralyzed and they only slowly, trying not to give themselves away, sank into the grass.
The creature moved its snout or head, the children did not know what to call this disgusting formation, sniffed the air noisily, then dug something in the ground, and finally went into the cave .
Crawling, ignoring the scratches and cobwebs, the children rushed out of the cursed place, wishing only to get to the strange window between the trees that had brought them here.
Fortunately, no one was following them, but a sense of blood-curdling horror spread through every cell of their bodies, driving them forward.
When they reached the place where there was a passage to their forest, they were horrified to find that they could not go back through it, as if an invisible film stretched, but did not let them to their home.
"What should we do?"Ira shouted almost soundlessly, and in her eyes Sasha saw emptiness and hopelessness .
"Let's try climbing that tree over there!" Maybe this thing doesn't know how to climb, and then we'll think about what to do next, " said Sasha, the first thing that came to mind.
The boys did so. And this was done in good time, for several monstrous creatures had already come out of the cave at this moment.
The children were thrown into a fever from fear, they watched with shaking hands as they walked around the area and when one of the creatures came to the tree, Ira thought that her heart would jump out of her chest.
So the night passed in fear and anxiety, during which the twins did not sleep a wink and more than once said goodbye to life.
It was the worst night of their short lives. How many times they cursed themselves for overstepping the line, for even going after these berries ....
When dawn broke, Ira and Sasha saw two men coming from the back of the window between the trees, a stocky man in his forties and a boy their own age. They did not know whether to be happy or not at the arrival of men, for the creatures were still wandering near the cave, but in their hearts they began to hope that now they were not alone and that they would be saved...