Gandalf's sword flared to life in a burst of white fire, cutting through the darkness like dawn breaking stone. Goblins shrieked and scattered as the wizard struck, light and flame ripping through the Great Goblin's hall.
"Now!" Thorin roared.
Chaos erupted.
Chains snapped. Axes rose. Edwen tore free as the suppression runes burned out under Gandalf's magic, pain lancing up his arms as strength rushed back in. He fired once—clean, controlled—dropping a goblin that leapt for Bilbo.
"Move!" Edwen shouted.
They ran.
Through twisting tunnels and collapsing bridges, through screaming goblins and falling stone. Gandalf led from the front, Thorin and Dwalin carved the rear, and Edwen stayed close to Bilbo, shoving him ahead whenever the path narrowed.
Then the ground vanished.
Bilbo cried out as the stone beneath him gave way.
Edwen lunged and then missed.
Bilbo Baggins fell into the dark.
Edwen skidded to a halt at the edge of the drop, heart hammering.
"Bilbo!" he shouted.
No answer.
The tunnel shook. Goblins poured from side passages, shrieking wildly. Gandalf grabbed Edwen's arm.
"We cannot stop," the wizard said sharply. "Not now."
Edwen hesitated one heartbeat, then another.
"I'll come back," he said quietly. Not a promise shouted to the dark, but a vow spoken to himself.
As they were forced onward.
Latter after Billos' fall, he lay still for a long moment, stunned, the world spinning. His fingers scraped against cold stone, then something smooth… metal.
A ring.
Plain. Golden. Cold as if it had never known warmth.
He picked it up without thinking and slipped it into his pocket.
Bilbo staggered through the tunnels alone, clutching his ribs. His small voice echoed strangely as he spoke aloud, mostly to keep himself from crying.
"All right, Bilbo… just think. You've gotten out of worse situations than this."
He hadn't. Not really.
Something moved in the dark.
Bilbo froze.
A shape slithered into view, pale and thin, eyes gleaming like dying stars.
"Lost?" the creature hissed. "So very lost…"
Bilbo's hand brushed his pocket.
The ring felt warm now.
Up above, the company burst out into a wider cavern. Goblin pursuit thinned as Gandalf collapsed a passage behind them with a flash of blinding light.
Edwen leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
"He's alive," he said suddenly.
"I can feel it," Edwen continued, voice steady despite the fear coiled tight in his chest. "Bilbo's alive."
The wizard studied him for a long moment, then nodded slowly.
"Then let us hope," Gandalf said quietly, "that what he finds down there does not find him first."
The mountain groaned.