Not sure if anybody is still reading this, but in case of any future readers I will finish it.
Norrie blinked. Everybody seemed to be frozen in shock or surprise. It took a few moments for her to realize that there was more to their immobility. It was as if somebody had hit the 'pause' button on a DVD. Nothing stirred, not even a leaf on a tree. And she started to understand just how powerful the little butterfly creature was. It appeared that his escape plan included suspending time or slowing it to a mere trickle to give him a chance to get away. But then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. And when she turned her head she met Peter's blue gaze. Then he looked away and knelt down to study the black tentacles.
"Well," he said, "I heard of beauty that's only skin-deep, but this takes it to a whole new level."
Norrie gaped at him. "Why aren't you frozen like the others?"
Peter rose and scratched his head. 'Well, I'm not exactly from here," he said.
"Neither is your father," Norrie pointed out.
"No, I don't mean not from this area. I'm not exactly from this universe - but that's a long story. Suffice it to say that some of the laws of physics work differently on me."
Norrie meant to ask him for further clarification, but at that moment a bright shaft of lightning flashed across the sky over them, followed by a clap of thunder that made the ground shake.
"What the..." Peter began, but Norrie knew exactly what this meant.
"The mother ship has arrived to collect him," she said. More, smaller flashes ran across the domed surface above them, converging at its apex. Where they met a small hole appeared, and a strong gust of wind shook the trees around them and almost swept them off their feet. Clinging to each other for balance Peter and Norrie watched as a bright beam of light fell through the hole.
Norrie's face was aglow with excitement. "He's going home!" For a moment she felt envious of this other being who would be reunited with its loved ones soon while she would never see her mother again. But immediately she felt ashamed. This alien race had suffered so much loss and hardship, it was petty to feel sorry for herself given her own relatively comfortable circumstances.
Peter, in the meantime, was thinking about their safety. "If our little friend is ready to get out of here this time warp won't last much longer. We better collect the guns from Max and her two watch dogs before they come round."
And sure enough, they had barely gotten their hands on the weapons when the light disappeared and the dome began to dissolve, collapsing into big fat drops of water and as the first splattered on the ground the rest of the group awoke from their stupor.
This prompt here was to include a deadly sin, so I gave Norrie a brief bout of jealousy.
