Familiars
Familiars
Familiars are shapeshifting magical beings that are meant to be someone's companion and assist them. They will either naturally come to someone or they will be 'adopted' by someone. Once they find someone, the form that person sees them in will be their permanent form and they are bound to them.
Familiars will choose somebody at random and then shift into a form that they'd know that person would desire. Such as, if they liked cats and are learning fire magic, the familiar would transform into a fire cat. Or alternatively, if they were a terra magic user who was independent and agile, they would transform into a viny cat. It should be noted that familiars will not have a physical form until they find an owner, as in, a familiar that's meant to be furry will not have their fur be able to be felt until they're connected to an owner.
A familiar is born as this and will look like this until it finds a form to fit in.
These creatures are useful in more than one way as well, being able to "merge" with the body of their owner to give them the natural magic abilities of a magic type they're not born with. For example, a magic user learning fire magic as a second ability may be able to use their familiar to breathe fire.
Familiars don't need to eat, but do like to snack on things like fruit occasionally to give them energy. As far as people are concerned, it just burns into their body and is converted to energy. At least, that's the case with fire magic familiars. Familiars are also immune to poisonous foods when in physical form, however the same can't be said for poison magic attacks.
Familiar "species"
Some species that exist in the wild are familiars and act like them too, looking for their perfect person to bind themselves to. These "species" aren't technically species but they are hundreds of wild familiars that all decided to look like each other based on how much people liked them for hundreds of years. These familiar species will always have a specific magic they're purposed for, for example, the Lazikis are psychometry magic familiars. Despite being meant for the wild, these species are actually mostly found in shelters up for adoption.