"So, uh, why are we still in a warehouse?" Jake sat on the ground in a corner, feet untied and sitting with crossed legs and still not quite knowing what to do with his hands. He was pretty sure his fidgeting was becoming the most annoying thing possible to these crazy… what tribe was this? Well he didn't want to give these guys the dignity of being nice with terms. It wasn't that he hated all native Americans, but these seven were on the top of his least favorite people list…

Yeah, did he forget to mention that? There were like seven guys here, and it was making escape completely impossible.

"We need the alter to be perfect." The first dude, when they spoke to each other he assumed the language they were using was native, either way he didn't know any of their names, "the little people demand much."

"Cool. Cool, cool, cool," Jake nodded, with a bit of panic on his face, sacrifices he knew usually involved fire, "So uh, are you going to burn it all or…"

That actually got the man's attention, "Stupid saying for a stupid yunegv, why destroy for the living?"

"So, no fire?" Jake silently thanked God, "cool, cool, okay, um," Jake looked at all the meats and flowers and baskets and blankets and things being loaded ono the truck, "what are you going to do with it then?"

"The forever child does not need to know."

"Oh, that's cool, that's fine, kinda a weird concept though, but okay, okay, it's all cool, cool, cool, uh, do I at least get to know what time it is?"

"Time is a useless concept."

"True that, but seriously?"

"No."

"Okay…" Jake looked around, desperately trying to find something to occupy himself with. There was only so long you could stew in your own anxiety without getting bored. And Jake Peralta, the half Jewish police detective with ADHD, who was currently being held captive by a radical cult of a splinter sect of the eastern band of the Cherokee tribe, was absolutely bored.

O0o

Boyle and Rosa were conversing with an old Cherokee, "An address?" the old woman seemed to think very hard on that, "Dearie, it's the one that looks like it ain't been used in years, the roofs 'bout caved in, it's not easy to miss, she took the pen out of Rosa's hand, but before the detective could get properly annoyed, she wrote some symbols on it that looked like letters, but not quite.

"it's got these words written on it, in red letters." Rosa nodded, while looking down at the notepad in her hand.

"Thank you, Ma'am," Boyle made a light bowing motion, "can I ask your name?"

"Snow bird," she smiled, "off with you two, leave an elder to her tales." Rosa stared at her a moment, before nodding and taking out her phone.

She dialed a number while Boyle thanked the woman again, and then while telling the person on the other end of the line the needed information, she and Boyle hurried to their car.

"backup should get there at the same time as us." Diaz broke the silence of the car, and Boyle looked over at her, surprised,

"Oh, did they get an address?"

"Wasn't hard to find on google maps."

"fair point."

O0o

"So," Jake broke the silence again, he couldn't help it, silence was not his friend, especially in high stress situations, "uh, is it too much to ask for some food?" he looked around, "Or maybe water?" the sun was setting, he was going into caffeine withdrawal, and he had a dehydration headache. Not to mention how tired he was, and how hungry, "or water?" He said it again, louder this time.

"The little people will provide you with that."

"ha-ha," Jake really needed to work on making filters between his brain and his mouth, "see, they aren't here right now, and the sun is setting, Soooo…" that meant he hadn't slept in upwards of forty hours. Curse his hairbrained sleep schedule. Either way, his eyes burned from lack of sleep.

Jake was leaning against the wall, his legs bent upwards and his hands resting between them and his chest. It was cold. The sun was going down and it was nearly winter, and these insane people hadn't so much as closed a window.

Maybe he was lucky his didn't get an answer, because this whole situation could've ended with him getting much more hurt then he was, especially with how much time had passed. He was wearing both a flannel and his leather jacket, but the t-shirt under that really wasn't much of a shield form the weather. And the cold from the cement wasn't really stopped by his pants either…

Those guys all had beers, and were singing along to a song in that weird language, Jake tried asking what it was but they just laughed at him, and huddled around a fire, watching it burn. One man had dropped a bundle of sage onto the flames, and Jake wasn't quite sure of the significance, but it couldn't be good for him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a vehicle pull up, he could just barely see it, the none of the men seemed to notice, they were all a little occupied with their song. He wasn't sure if it was a celebration, but it seemed like one.

Jake's first assumption was that the vehicle was some of the men's friends, which was bad news for him. But what shattered that belief was when one of the men stopped singing and asked a question, all the others answered with the same word, Jake assumed it was a single word.

It was fast, they all scrambled. One man put out the fire, another ran to lock the truck, while two came towards him. the two coming towards him was what kept him from keeping track of the other three.

"Hey, hey!" There wasn't much of a defense Jake could put up, he was quickly yanked off the floor, "seriously, you just had to as-"

"Quiet." One of the men waved a gun in his face,

"okay… cool, cool, cool co-"

He was shushed by the man again, this time he clicked the safety off the gun, and Jake's eyes widened, this time, he just nodded.

A/N: we're nearing the endgame, and I do have a sequel planned, but it won't be too directly connected, but it'll tie up some things and help any plot-holes you all, or I, find. Anyways, i hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I also hope to hear from ya'll. So, Imma teach ya'll another word, it meand goodbye, dodadagohvi (dohdahdahgohhu'ee) I mean I've never used it in conversation, we always just say ski (Sh-ki) but I don't fully know if that's cherokee or another language my family commonly uses, anyways, peace!