Time Takers

         Hidden in the predawn darkness and moving with the shadows, they creep into every house. Completely hidden to the mortals of the world, they dance and play with the whimsical movements of the flickering shadows. They enjoy the activities of night as they steal the grains of time for the Sandman. Elvin like creatures with translucent eyes overflowing with the wisdom of all ages.

         The depth of enchantment around these mystical creatures, gives them a glistering glow of unearthly hues. If not invisible to mortal eyes, they would look much the same as you or I. In truth, it would be quite difficult to fathom them being either ancient or wise. The reality that these sneaky villains have been around since the beginning of time is not readily evident by their everyday appearance.

         You see, these average looking thieves of the night, are actually mystical figures from the furthest reaches of time. These little mercenaries are commanded by Father Time himself. The Elves Of Stolen Time, better known as Time Takers, work with the Sandman to take the hours, minutes, and seconds everyday that mortals squander. While the Sandman commandeers their minds in the deepest, darkest, veils of slumber, the Time Takers pillage in steady stealth. The Sandman holds their dreams in a wispy vice, as the Time Takers raid mortal’s daylight savings.

         They move with the gentle elegance of the wind, mocking you as you wander the lands of a make-believe slumber. Time Takers know what they steal is more precious than gold, as their greedy hands rob you of ill-used time. Frolicking in their veil of mystique, invisible to the naked eye, they prey upon you. In one house and out the other, every second and precious minute they pilfer quickly begins to add up. A fortune of time they will have amassed come the first rays of dawn’s morning light.

         “If ignorance is indeed bliss, then mortals should be the most overjoyed race to ever live. I do believe it would at least be a change from the whiny, wasteful, creatures that we have the ill fortune to prey upon tonight. Honestly, the fact that mortals are so unaware of what is happening around them astounds me.” Liam, a senior Time Taker stated disgustedly, as he watched Arnecta throw a Time Spot to another Time Taker in a game of Passing Minutes.

         They were playing with a fifteen-minute spot of time that a young boy wasted playing video games, otherwise known as a Time Spot. These mere minutes could have been used to accomplish something spectacular for mankind, instead of being tossed haphazardly between his inscrutable friend and fellow Time Takers.

         He and his best friend Arnecta have been stealing the wasted time abandoned by careless mortals for thousands of centuries now. He has observed the way mortals daily ignore the precious time they are granted each and every day. It irks him to no end how these ungrateful mortals complain daily of not having enough time to get things done, yet they never enjoy or embrace the time they do have. Each precious day they spend hours in front of that mind-controlling contraption called a Television.

         Mortals should have run away from such a device as soon as they had a chance. It simply robs them of precious moments they could have enjoyed with family or friends. It drowns them in make believe places, and engulfs them in fairytale lives, that mortals are fooled into believing are better than their own. Therefore, they watch such drivel instead of living their own lives to the best of their ability.

         “Mortals are so ungrateful of the gifts they receive. I can’t imagine why they don’t spend every free second, either enjoying the many pleasures a family have to offer, or to do something special that will last forever in the hearts of others. They simply treat time as if they are the ones in control of how long it will last. Never even giving a wayward thought as to when it will end or that it eventually has to do so.” Liam finished as he himself caught the Time Spot, and tossed it to a junior Time Taker, who almost dropped the precious gift. Seeing this, Liam decided to call it quits on the game for dawn was quickly approaching and they had work yet to do.

         “Oh come now Liam,” Arnecta begins as they head into yet another house to rob more innocents of their most coveted hours in life. “Don’t you think you are being just a bit melodramatic? I mean mortals have been this way for a few hundred centuries. Why are you letting it get to you now, after all this time? They are the ones that suffer the loss of what could have been. Not us. No sir. We benefit from the time these careless fools reject. I mean just think of all the Time Spots we will be able to give those mortals who are barely hanging on to the last thread of life.

         Those few endearing mortals who know how precious the seconds of life are let alone the minutes or even hours. No Liam, I cannot feel for these insipid fools who take for granted what they have until they lay at the mercy of deaths door. Then, as they look to Father Time, as their spirits begin to shift from one realm to the next, they beg for just a bit more.

         That is when anger hits me so powerfully. I want nothing more than to rob them of the few seconds they do have left. How dare they blame Father when he did nothing but give them all the time they would need. He didn’t tell them to carry on with their lives the way they have. He even gave them back an hour for six months of every year. I can’t stand to watch how badly it hurts poor Father Time when he has to refuse these ungrateful children the years of time they wasted.

         I on the other hand only wish that they knew what it is that they really loose this time every year. Granted, there are the rare few that realize time is precious and to be treasured more than any material wealth.” Arnecta stated as he grabbed up a few Time Spots from two sleeping teens. “Look at this will ya,” Arnecta chuckled while juggling four Time Spots in perfect rhythm.

         Smacking them out of his hands in successive order, Liam scoffed, “Oh, cut it out already will you. I swear sometimes the Sandman himself looses sleep over you. I will never understand why Father Time is so easy on you. I mean if any other Time Taker had as many Time Trafficking Tickets as you do, they would spend at least a century in Oblivion. I mean do you have any idea how horrifying that timeless, emptiness, and vast wasteland must be.” Liam whispered as his body erupted in a violent shudder from head to toe.

         “I have heard that even the most terrifying rouge Time Takers, the ones that steal days or even months of time from innocent mortals are terrified of the Oblivion. I personal think it would straighten them up but who am I to say what should or shouldn’t happen.” Arnecta finished, while steeling a Time Spot from a woman who should have went to bed earlier. “I truly wonder sometimes if they know how important the hour we steel today, and every fall, is to their lives.” Liam started as he chose two Time Spots from a man sleeping at his computer, with mouse in hand.

         Case in point, Liam thought as he extracted the presence of time from the sleeping man. Instead of laying next to his wife and holding her while they slept or even getting some work done on the computer. The man had been playing a monotonous game when the Sandman claimed his mind, for their thievery to proceed. When the foolhardy man awakens after we’re gone, all he will know is that he lost an hour of his precious game.

         “Seriously Arnecta, I wonder if those few Time Spots every night that they can never have back, unless at the end of their lives even matter to them. Granted the only way to get them back is if dear old Father Time allows them a reprieve right at the end. Even if he should, by then it will be too late for them to truly do anything but get their affairs in order.”

         As the two ancient Time Takers walk out into the predawn mists Liam continues in a deep regrettable tone. “If they just had an inkling of all the things they could do in but a mere hour. If they only knew that by using the time they do have more wisely they could in fact, further their own lives…” Liam sighed as the engine of his chugging tirade erupted with its final poof of smoke and totally ran out of steam.

         Standing there beside his best friend he realizes, now that his anger is spent, the only real tragic curse of human nature is the growing lack of humanity. They both watch silently for a few minutes as the sun starts it’s daily progress in the east.

         “Time to go Liam,” Arnecta states, as they watch most of the Time Takers race back to into the darkened shadows from wince they arrived. Taking with them countless hours worth of precious moments, memories, and years some of these mortals will never see again.

         “Then again,” Arnecta states spitefully as he starts into a jog. “Why should any of them give this day a second thought? Granted we relieve them of the unused portions of their lives on a daily basis. However, the amount of time we take today, we will have to give back to them come next spring.” With a sardonic smile, Liam joins Arnecta in melding with the nights drifting shadows. Together they will unite with their Time Taking Band of Brothers to finish this evening’s work.

         If mortals were not blind to the magical beings of night, they would have seen thousands of Elvin Time Takers race off into the fading silhouette of darkness. These mercenaries of time take with them one complete hour of the mortal’s ever-shortening lives, and carry in their small whimsical hearts a dream. The hope that mortals will achieve enough wisdom to realize what was taken from them this night. So that when the longer days of spring once again arrive, and the Time Takers must return.

         Mortals might then understand the precious gift the Time Takers bring only once a year. A single precious hour is all that the Time Takers are forced to leave mortals in the spring. Mortals must realize though that it is but only borrowed time. Those mischievous Takers of Time are only too eager to come back again with the shortening days of fall, and steal your dwindling time once again!