As the Ring fell in Mount Doom, the ground shook so violently that he could not tell up from down. The sky that was ash and fire became gray as the corruption of the Ring was destroyed. Bilbo held one Edwen out of instinct more than strength.
They ran out of haste as the stone split, and fire climbed into the air like a living thing. The sound of it all was like a roaring beast.
They ran until running was no longer possible due to a lack of air in their lungs. Then the world went dark as unconsciousness claimed them.
When Edwen woke, the first thing he noticed was the wind. The warmth was cleaner, like something new. He blinked against the light. The sky was open above him as light surrounded him like a shield. As great shapes were taking form, wheeled in wide skies and circles above them. Eagles slowly landed and grabbed them like they were made from glass.
A shadow that had lived in the back of Bilboes' mind for weeks was gone. He could think clearly and felt lighter as he breathed.
"Did we?"
"Yes," Edwen said quietly.
Bilbo swallowed.
He let out a breath he had been holding for days.
Edwen sat beside him.
"What do you feel?"
Bilbo considered it carefully.
"Light," "And very tired". He said at last.
Edwen gave the smallest hint of a smile. "That sounds right."
They were flown west before the mountain finished collapsing.
Far beyond the borders of that ruined country, they saw it.
Movement armies of Mordor were in confusion, and dark creatures were scattering.
They were set down in a wide valley where green had not yet surrendered to ash.
Gandalf was waiting. He looked younger somehow than Edwen remembered. As if years of hardship were lifted off of him.
His eyes found Bilbo first, then Edwen.
"You did it," he said, not as a question.
Bilbo nodded once.
Gandalf closed his eyes briefly, as if steadying himself.
"The shadow has passed," he said. "Across all of Middle-earth, it has passed."
Edwen felt the truth of that in his bones.
No tremor beneath his feet.
No whisper at the edge of thought.
No sense of being watched by something vast and patient.
Bilbo stepped forward and fell silent.
After a moment, he asked the question neither of them had yet voiced.
"What happens now?"
Gandalf looked westward.
"Now the world remembers how to be free and full of life."
Thorin did not speak at first. He looked at Bilbo for a long time, searching his face as though measuring something invisible.
Then he gripped his forearm firmly.
"You walked into the fire," he said.
Bilbo shrugged faintly. "I walked out, too."
Thorin let out a rough breath that might have been a laugh.
As Edwen watched them both. He thought about how this was not a battle of armies. But something far greater had ended. It was a battle for the soul.
As the sun dipped lower, its light seemed clearer than it had in weeks. The air carried the faint scent of growing things from lands far beyond the scars of war.
Bilbo sat on a stone and was quiet as Edwen joined him. The sunset was full of the colors of gold and light purple.