Harvester (Trifecta Challenge Week 68)

lrargerich / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

It was her time; honeysuckle fragrance hung heavily on the warm night air, even crickets croaked distractedly in the hedgerows.  It seemed the world had slowed – nature itself was waiting.

The first silver coil spiralled lazily from the window opposite, quickly followed by others.  They shimmered, hovering by the rooftop, twisting tentatively as if testing the boundaries of their surroundings.

She closed her eyes as the final stages of her metamorphosis unfurled.  Tonight she’d be going home; she’d be reunited with her own kind, and welcomed as much for herself as for her harvest.

More silver coils appeared around her, joined now by agitated scarlet trails, girating wildly.  They too must be captured, but not by her, and probably not tonight.

“Go!”  echoed the urgent whisper from the universe, and she launched herself across the rooftops, snatching at the silver threads, securing them to the silken rope hanging around her waist, selecting only the strongest filaments circling above the town.

“Take us,” cried the angry red threads dancing impatiently on the breeze, watching the harvest taking place around them.

“Not my mission,” she whispered, “someone else will come for you, someone stronger.”

Their anger sizzled noisily, and she drew back, her precious cargo intact.  Whoever came for those red filaments would have their work cut out.  It may even be her, but she hoped not.

Dawn was breaking; she must hurry.  She glanced at the threads dangling from her belt.  These should keep her masters busy for eons to come.

She soared past her apartment, giving one final glance.  Her lover would grieve her disappearance, and she’d miss him too.  Perhaps in the future some other catcher would bring her his dreams, and they’d reunite, however briefly.

But now she was returning home, with a harvest of silver dreams to please her people, keeping them occupied for centuries as they developed a profile of the strange species that had plundered this precious, verdant planet.

And then they’d decide what to do.

This week’s Trifecta Challenge was the word Time, to be used as shown in the third definition below and in no more than 333 words. I’ve not entered for a few weeks, and had forgotten the 333 word limit.  I had to edit this down from 700!  Hope it works for you.
TIME (noun)

1a : the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : duration
b : a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future
c : leisure <time for reading>
2: the point or period when something occurs : occasion
3a : an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end <arrived ahead of time>
b : an opportune or suitable moment <decided it was time to retire> —often used in the phrase about time <about time for a change>