Many people in ShadowStar like to have pets of some type or other. Some have cats and dogs and birds of all shapes and sizes, some have farm animals, and others have special telepathic pets. While cats are more familiar to mages than dogs, they are not purely telepathic to most people as telepathic pets are, and therefore not as good a source of familiar power for the mages. Common people like telepathic pets too, as many of them bond closely to them.

In ShadowStar are animals besides bonds and telepathic pets. Horses, cows, and other farm animals, as well as bears, deer, foxes, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, and other wild animals, and various species of birds and fish. Listed are some of the animals exclusive to Shadow Star.

As with just about everything else in Shadow Star, animals are categorized by realm. As a general rule, anything that lives in the water is of the water realm. Anything with wings that isn't in the fire realm belongs to the air realm. Reptiles, firebirds, flamelets, flarets, and fire bondcreatures all belong to the fire realm. Everything else belongs to the land realm.

Telepathic pets are listed in purple.

• Capelets: Capelets have big, adorable eyes that change color according to their moods, extremely long tails (see above) and fast little fingers with opposable thumbs. Their tails are not prehensile; though a tail curled around something indicates pleasure with that something. A limp, straight tail usually indicates poor health. Capelets can walk on all fours or switch to bipedal movement. Faint white whiskering details the skin of a bluish-gray face under a big white mane starting with a sort of mohawk crown. In rare cases, the face of a capelet may be black or white, indicating a telepathic troop leader (other capelets are not telepathic). White is far more rare than black. Their backs and upper tails are usually colors ranging from reddish-brown to black. The lower halves of their tails can range in color from white to brown to black and anywhere in between. Chests, underbellies, legs, and feet are usually white, though capelets under 10 years' age usually have somewhat black fingers.
      Capelets are monogamous and attentively loving, breeding once a year (if possible) and gestating for four months. Almost always, a capelet will give birth to non-identical twins which are weaned within two weeks. After that period, a mated pair will usually defer to the father taking care of the babies until they reach an independent age at 2 months. Once cared for by a human for more than a week, they become so attached that were the human to die, the capelet would probably die of heartbreak too. Capelets eat worms, insects, fruit, and love sweets such as sugared sap or soft pastries. In the wild, they will eat the gummy sap from trees.
  Realm: Land
  Body length: 8-10 inches
  Tail length: 13-16 inches
  Weight: Less than 1 lb.
  Lifepan: 15-20 years
  Picture 1 and Picture 2 by Scream.
• Dralks: These are a frightening cross between elk and dragon, created by one of the four legendary Creator mages of ancient times. Its conformation is that of a deer, though scaled, with a long, whip-like draconic tail. The muzzle is broader than the typical elk's, with dragon teeth. Their legs can change from deer legs and hooves into dragon legs and claws. It's a horrific predator, hard to tame and train, though possible. They're fiercely protective of their master whenever they *are* tamed. A few people will breed and tame/train dralks- everyone thinks those few are absolutely insane, or maybe just suicidal.
  Realm: Land
• Flamelets: Flamelets are small tongues of flame that can imitate speech or sound, and form into fiery images of beings or objects. They feed on normal fire fuel. Very well trained flamelets can remember up to an hour of sound and formed detailed pictures, and know only to show and tell things to their owner or the person their owner sends them with a message to. Flamelets can transport to anywhere there is a fire- from one fireplace to a candle to a wildfire, for instance. Most people who own flamelets carry bottled magefire so their flamelets can return to them any time. After transporting, the flamelets need a good amount of fuel to grow to their normal size- transportation takes a lot of energy. They don't talk on their own- they're incapable of making sentences by themselves- but they can make flame shapes to communicate. Most flamelets have a favored shape or form they use when not imitating other beings. They're about five inches tall and can change color, as long as that color is blue, white, or a shade of red and orange. They can control their heat, and only burn whom they choose to burn. Water is deadly to them, and they need some oxygen and fuel. Flamelets are created by mages only, and are somewhat expensive- poor or middle-class people rarely have these as pets.
  Realm: Fire
• Flarets: Flarets are ferrets, except slightly smaller, with fire for fur, created by one of the four legendary Creator mages from ancient times. Similarly with flamecats, flaret fur feels like normal fur, though much warmer, and it will burn if they are surprised or angered. They live underground, though they can be tamed and trained. They can burn through nearly anything... They're not quite sentient either, but highly intelligent.
  Realm: Fire
• Fliders: Fuzzy rodents, about the size of a large orange, with a long tail and large paws. Their fur conceals flaps of skin which allow it to glide in the manner of a flying squirrel, while it spins its tail around in the fashion of a biological propeller. They are curious, easy to care for, and very easily tamed, making them ideal pets for children.
  Realm: Air
  Picture by Scream.
• Flizzards: Flizzards are small winged lizards who often are found together in small flocks. Only between four or five inches in length from nose to tail (a little longer than the size of an adult human's pointer finger), with a wingspread of around ten inches, they are expert acrobats in the air. Normally friendly creatures, they can be fiercely protective of their families, and can make themselves burst into flames if threatened. They are intelligent creatures, though not telepathic, they are easily trained. If they befriend someone, it can actually be rather difficult to get rid of them. They eat mostly bugs and fruit, but many have a soft spot for sweet berries.
  Realm: Fire
  Picture by Scream.
• Headhuggers: A strange little pet that is largely stomach, brain, and tail, they have circular mouths on the ventral side of their body with razor sharp teeth for latching onto and cutting through skull, a long straw-like tongue, as well as a supple tail with a whip-like end, both of which are extensions of their central nervous system. They insert this tail into their host's to hijack the body of their prey, while their tongue proboscis receives information from their host's brain. The host will live, conscious, as long as the headhugger doesn't eat vital parts of their brain. Their limbs are tipped with a sharp, hard substance, which they use to grapple onto the head of their prey, and are notoriously difficult to be removed as a result. The only time they release from their host willingly is to find a new host, if they're getting hungry.
    Often preying on jituq, headhuggers are often seen attached to their heads and hopping around in control of its body. Due to their need for symbiosis, they are often considered more dangerous to have as a pet, as they see little difference between jituq and any other species. Everything is potential prey. This, combined with an intelligent nature, makes them a highly valued, but highly feared pet. Even those headhuggers who are most loyal to their owners will sometimes turn on them. As long at their owner gives them a steady supply of hosts, and doesn't let the headhugger get hungry, they can be relatively tame. Telepathic, but usually not talkative. They often try using their host for communication.
  Realm: Chaos.
  Headhugger picture by Zodi.
• Hippogryphs (also: hippogriffs): A melding of horse and bird, a fierce and nonsentient creature created by the four legendary Creator mages from the ancient times. The hippogriffs left to the Sierac Range, living in the mountain peaks. There are a very few who breed and train hippogriffs now, but their numbers are growing. Hippogriffs will tolerate no more than one humanoid in their life, two in rarest cases, but will be extremely loyal and protective of that person (there's a saying in SS- "friendly as a hippogriff," which means the person the idiom is applied to is very antisocial). They're very intelligent, though not quite sentient.
  Realm: Air
• Jump Dragons: A small species of dragon that live for about 900 years, only around five feet tall. They have long tails for balance, as they don't have any forelegs. They have large, rabbit-like hind paws for jumping, and small wings for hovering. The normal wing-span is about five feet, and only allows them to hover a little ways off the ground for a short while, right themselves when they fall, and keep balance. They range from sandy-yellow to a light bronze; solid colors only. Their head is , of course, very dragon-esque, but slightly lizard-like. They have long, but broad muzzles with spikes all the way up, and pointing backwards on the top of the head and over the eyes. They have a sleepy appearance, but are strong enough to jump 20 feet--unaided by their wings-- and carry up to 600 pounds on their backs.
  Realm: Air
• Kalchon: An animal unique to the Water Sphere, these resemble ridged frogs with tadpole tails (like the ones that have not fully metamorphosized.) They have suckers on the ends of their fingers that are capable of grasping things. Kalchon are usually rather ill-tempered and rarely like to do anything other than eat or sleep. They communicate through images and simple words, usually their names, their master's names, water, etc. While they usually come in bright colors, they tend to instincitvely blend into their surroundings. While they are excellent telpathic broadcasters, they are very dense the other way around and it is impossible to communicate telepathically with them. Conversations with them tend to sound one-sided. They can go out of the water, but they HATE it and will often demand to be wet down often.
  Realm: Water
• Lingsii (singular: lingsi): These look very similar to a peacock in shape, though they're slightly smaller than a peacock. They are renowned for their incredibly beautiful song. It's a gentle bird, despite its tendency to erupt into fire when surprised or frightened. Lingsii are always brilliantly colored, in shades reminiscient of precious metals and gems, fire-gold and heartflame-blue, opal-fire, iridescent emerald green; any vibrant color, really. Lingsii are neither telepathic nor extremely intelligent, but they're fairly easily caught and tamed, and can even be tamed without too much trouble from the wild. They're especially fond of sweets, for some reason.
  Realm: Fire
• Little Birds: These are messenger birds of most any shape and size. They are loyal to their owners and to whomever they carry a message for. A person who has a Little Bird will dictate a message to it and it will fly the message and tell it only to the person it's directed at. Little Birds are fairly rare as yet, and usually are found in the wild if anywhere.
  Realm: Air
• Raela: The raela are friendly creatures by nature, but will poison on the command of a friend, usually a mer or kori~nath. They were created by one of the four legendary Creator mages of ancient times. Raela have the intelligence of a telepathic pet, though no way to communicate. Not wanting to tamper too much with the original creature and create something like the sijaer again, the Creator mage increased a ray's intelligence and gave it a poison-barbed tail - paralyzing or deadly by the ray's choice.
  Realm: Water
• Sciuri: Sciuri are squirrels in most respects. They communicate with mental images and short, choppy, primitive sentences, often repeating words, such as "Horse-horse come! Fast-fast-fast!" They're very excitable and seem to be constantly hyper, although they're more sluggish in cold weather. They jump on EVERYTHING, and gnaw on anything wooden. They can be a trial to own, but many people enjoy them and their antics.
  Realm: Land
  Picture by Aeri
• Sijaer: Created in ancient days by the four legendary Creator mages, the sijaer was a mistake. A cross between a giant squid and a shark, the sijaer has the head and dorsal fin of the shark, with the many tentacles of a squid. The sijaer is fifty feet long, savage, untamable, untrainable, and uncontrollable. Ships have been attacked and split into pieces by a single sijaer. When the "Creators" discovered they couldn't control the sijaer, they tried to kill them- but they had made the creatures nearly impervious to magic.
  Realm: Water
• Snarks: Snarks are vicious little feline critters with roughly 46,000 teeth. They're malleable and seemingly boneless, so they can flatten themselves to squeeze through obstacles, but still inexplicably cute and cuddly. At least, until they latch their jaws on to your hand and break half the bones therein.
  Realm: Chaos
  Picture by Dani
• Stabbies: Stabbies are round creatures about the size of a watermelon, with long tails, bat-like wings, large white eyes and a gaping maw, and large, sickle-like forelimbs which give them their name. Despite their appearance, they are highly intelligent. Their favorite pasttime is to stab people with their long claws when it is the opinion of the stabbie that the stabbed has done something extraordinarily stupid, and they are not above turning this pasttime on their 'masters'. Like snarks, they are carnivorous and generally much cuter-looking than they should be. They do not talk, aren't telepathic, and make no noise except for a high-pitched 'kekeke' sound when they have just or are in the process of stabbing.
  Stabbie picture and stabbie sketch by tiakall.
  Realm: Chaos
  
• Wynds: Wynds are small winged cats in every way, except that they communicate with pictures and broken telepathic sentences. The only sounds they make are meows and purrs. Their personalities vary just like any normal house cat's, and while some are very friendly and affectionate, others can be vicious.
  Realm: Air
• Wyverns: Wyverns are tiny dragon-like creatures with large wings and short legs in relation to their body mass. Prone to over-activity, these hyper little pets will keep their owners on their toes. They come in any color under the sun, but usually in solid colors. They eat strips of meat and females usually stick their eggs to branches of a tree to wait for them to hatch about a month later. Coloring of the egg does not determine the color of the hatchling and upon hatching, the babies will fly away to find someone to be with. Once a wyvern has chosen you, there is little you can do about it as they are very stubborn. They communicate only through pictures as their vocal cords are only capable of what most people call chirps and growls.
  Realm: Fire