He forgot there was a river! It was good that he cut it off from the herd, but once it reached water it would be considerably harder to kill it. Mainly because fire magic and water just isn't a good mix. Though he supposed that if it really came down to wrestling in the river he would probably win that too because. Well. He had gills. Either way, it would be best for him to end it before it got to that.

Callum tried to continue and manipulate the fire to make a ring of it around the meadow deer to stop it from running anywhere. But it seemed SOMETHING went wrong because it did not go as planned.

The Meadow Deer slowed to a panting trot, each loud exhale from flared nostrils audible even from the air. The smoke was mostly died down, the wool having put out the fire, and the creature no longer seemed quite so panicked. Afraid--yes, he was afraid; but although he frequently turned his head to glance behind him (and now, above him, finally, finally noting the wings in the air), his speed was a swift and steady lope rather than a frantic gallop.

He angled downhill, for the river, though whether the beast was intelligent enough to be aware that water put out fire, or just aiming for that direction via dumb chance (and thus likely to just pass beyond) was unclear.

Behind it, the flames spread--not in any real direction, but in a general, "this might shortly become a wildfire, oops" sort of way, the control slipped and wind taking hold. This blew the flames to the south--away from the bull, but down toward the southern meadows and the forest beyond. The spread, for now, was gradual, however, and depending on the moderately strong wind, might still be controllable.

@Callum

"EY! GET BACK HERE!" Callum swore he was done playing around. The meadow deer was gonna pay for this! Paying no attention to the fire that was starting to spread out of control, (who cared about burning down Pegasus anyways? Not him!) Anyway, it was time to get more physical. The sound of quickened wing beats filled the air as he sped up to catch up to it.

Spell didn't work? No problem! Sorta! Callum murmured a few words under his breath, it was all working just fine earlier! Why was it failing now? But that's no problem. He remembered that his hunting usually worked perfectly fine without using magic. He was large enough that the spell would've been a nice touch, but wasn't completely necessary. Perhaps he was underestimating the strength that a meadow deer could have considering how he was nearly gouged to death last time, but did he care? Nah. He was going in.

The deer half-spun as Callum swept down, seeing him coming now that it was keeping a few eyes on him--and as the hybrid impacted, braced. It staggered, then--as Callum hit the ground--rushed him.

It was brief--an attempt at trampling him, a few kicks, the weight of the creature on cloven hooves thrusting for him. And as a brief, instinctive attack, it wasn't particularly directed, and would likely do very little damage. The Meadow Deer did not wait to see the consequences: it hopped over Callum and rushed off toward the south at a sprint.

In the direction of the flames.

note: consequences of Callum's fail were confirmed on Discord first!

@Callum

Smacking into a meadow deer was like jumping headfirst onto your bed. A bad idea but at least it was soft. Well, as soft as it could be considering how fast he was flying into this thing. After failing to knock it over he sorta just fell backwards onto the ground, head spinning and the start of a headache forming. Come on! Get back up! You gotta kill that thing! How does it keep running away from you? It's just a stupid deer! He shook off the kicks from the deer, ignoring the pain. They were rather light after all. As he began to gather his thoughts again, he saw his prey straight up LEAP over him and run. "Who the HELL do you think you are?! AND WHERE ARE YOU GOING. HEY. YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!" There was something about the way that instead of just going around him, it decided to go OVER him? Nah, he wasn't about to let that slide!

It took him thirty seconds or so, but he managed to get back up in the air, following the deer back towards the flames. Heh. You know what that meant. He got another shot at surrounding it with those flames.

The fire had spread, carried by wind, over rather a large area of the meadow. It wasn't enormous, given that this grass was alive rather than dry, dead kindling.

But it was still enough that it was clearly going out of control.

And now, Callum pulled it into a circle--the farther the Meadow Deer approached the flames, the closer the net pulled around behind it.

It spun, whirling and snorting, ringed in by flame--then pranced there, head high, uncertain as to what to do next.

@Callum

Callum descended from the sky the gust of wind from his wings, stirring up the edge of the flames. He ignored the spread of the fire he had started, not caring in the slightest about the health of the forest. If anything, it would actually allow him to hunt prey more easily if it all burned down.

He landed inside of the ring of fire, facing the meadow deer. Now they could have a real fight. He felt his stone pulse with magic, imbuing his paws with a painful burn. Callum gritted his teeth in pain, but it was nothing compared to what he had felt before. It was easily ignored. The dragon charged forward, leaving pawprints of burnt grass in his wake.

His eyes locked onto the neck of the meadow deer. A dangerous target considering how close it would bring him to being trampled or gouged. But hey, a challenge was always a good thing right? Though the fact that he had never actually killed one of these deer should have been enough of a challenge already. Callum leaped forward and jumped at the last moment, using his wings to try and propel himself on top of the meadow deer and sink his burning claws into its neck.

Unfortunately, it seemed he didn't judge the distance quite right. He was able to contact the meadow deer for a few moments, but lost his balance and fell over the other side of it and onto the ground.

The fire frightened it.

It could not fight fire--fire was an instinctive terror, a thing to be fled, a thing that could not be combatted. But--ahh, a welcome distraction: a massive predator sinking agonizing claws into its already-seared hide. The burning was instant, painful, the flapping and Callum's body an immediate target for the beast's fight-or-flight drive.

And as they almost always did, the Meadow Deer chose 'fight.'

The moment Callum went over it turned, driving its weight down for him, nose-horn shearing downward and then up: an attempt to hook through the dragon hybrid's torso and tear through him, impaling this danger and ridding the terrified deer of his threat once and for all.

All the while, smoke coiled from its flanks, its eyes rolling white with fury and fear.

@Callum