It all happens way too fast.
One moment, he's a proud leader, a king, fighting for the sake of those who live in the shelter of his cavern.
And the next, his challenger hooks a pair of curved tusks under his chin and throws him to the ground.
He has a few seconds to think as the enemy Bewilderbeast swings its head down toward his exposed underside- where his chest and stomach can easily be punctured- and knows the Alpha's intentions immediately.
These might just be his final seconds, he realizes, turning his eyes to the sky to search for a familiar face. He finds one instantly.
Cloudjumper is rocketing toward a nearby dragon trap, both pairs of wings tucked against his side as he dives at full speed.
In the split seconds before his inevitable death, he locks eyes with the Stormcutter as the much smaller dragon swoops upward after blasting a green Raincutter free of its trap and begins to circle overhead.
Valka is standing on his back, but her attention is elsewhere- there are dragons everywhere, most of them flying wildly away from the ruined sanctuary, others (the riders' dragons) setting trapped ones free, and the occasional armored reptile can be seen lurking on the edges of the swarm of dragons, ready to attack.
And then it's done.
A sharp pain rips through his side as the gray Alpha stabs him right in the soft, exposed underbelly. He doesn't die instantly, and for a full three seconds he just stares straight at Cloudjumper, the back of his mind screaming at him to get up, keep fighting, it's just a wound. It'll heal.
No, he thinks, it won't. This is it.
His eyes shift to the black shape swooping sideways in the sea of dragons diving toward their new Alpha.
He's fighting to keep them open, but his eyes go from Cloudjumper to the Night Fury and then back again. There's only one thing left to do.
The dying Bewilderbeast's icy eyes lock into Cloudjumper's owl-like yellow ones. He sends the Stormcutter a short mental command,
"Protect him."
If Cloudjumper hears him, he doesn't show it, and after a moment the dragon and his rider swoop upward again.
Valka's calling to him is the last thing he hears before he closes his eyes, the pain finally too much to handle. But he doesn't die yet.


The life is pouring out of him in rivers of scarlet blood, staining the ground and the enemy's tusks and his own body.
He feels absolutely useless lying in the snow like this, his great heart growing weaker each minute. But there isn't anything he can do.
He can hear the other Alpha's tail swishing excitedly on the ground, he can hear the shouts of men, and the screams and roars of dragons.
A strange presence is lurking on the edges of his mind, probing, poking, trying to get in. He listens to its voice, dark and haunting, and after several seconds he can distinguish words.
"Kill the boy." it's whispered, meant for only one pair of ears to hear. It's followed immediately by, "Stay back, stay back." to the other dragons, and then the Alpha is speaking to one dragon alone again, and the white Bewilderbeast can make out the batlike wings and sleek black body of a Night Fury.
His vision is going black. He feels his heart slowing, weakening.
And it hits him full in the face- he's dying, in a few moments he won't be able to stop this. And he has to do something NOW.
He lashes out with his mind at the Night Fury, frills quaking with effort as he fights his way into the dragon's brain. At the same time, he reaches out to Cloudjumper and says to both of them,
"Do what you know is right."
The Night Fury's mind shuts him out before he finishes.
When he lets out his last breath, the Night Fury's jaws are beginning to glow purple from the oncoming light of a blast, the boy hasn't moved, and his last thought is the realization that the world really isn't fair at all.