War and Poorly Executed Deception

Well, this was the roughest portal landing we've had yet! We dropped into the middle of a war zone and apparently a rogue lightning bolt set our portal spinning. I ended up crash landing and skidding across the ground. I know I'm not the most graceful person in the world, but that was bad, even by my standards. Anyway, we landed in the middle of a raid, which we later learned has been happening to this town a lot and they finally decided to fight back. The men with the red bandannas were just murdering people without hesitation. It was awful. One of our previous places, the one with the gory portal room recreation, was terrible to see, but this was so much worse. To see this kind of death and destruction happening in real time and have it perpetrated by other living beings. It had me questioning what I'm doing here. But, then we helped them win the fight and while spending time with them afterwards I saw that they would have been unlikely to win without us. They definitely would have had more casualties. They are good people and it feels good to have been able to help them.
 
I am concerned about Zeke though. He became totally different while we were fighting. I walked past him on the battlefield and he looked right through me, like he had no idea who I was. His eyes were glowing gold and he was incredibly powerful. I've never seen him like that before, but then after he went pretty much catatonic. I remembered how I felt after being in that gory room so I just stayed with him so that he wouldn't be alone, but I felt so helpless. I've never seen anyone so out of control like that and so broken afterwards. I hope I can find a way to help him.
 
I also got a new book during this visit! I met someone that knew how to create portals intentionally and how to travel to whatever world they wanted to, on purpose! I tried lying to her to prevent her from knowing how little we actually know about all of these things. That did not go well. I'm not built for espionage. However, I finally told her that I couldn't explain everything and she understood and gave me an introductory book on portals. I'm so excited to be able to get some real information so maybe we can make this a little bit safer. Now I just have to figure out where I'll get the next book when I'm done with this one.