Expandable and free Animal/Familiar/Special Mount

Question

I think everyone hate when an animal companion, mount, or familiar dies. But what is even worse is the time you have to wait to get them back if it happens.

Here is a list of every creature you can get back easily (Often by a 24hrs long ritual)

• Druid
• Ranger
• Wizard/Sorcerer Wild ACF
• Bard Wild ACF
• Arcane Hierophant
• Elemental Archon
• Bonded Summoner
• High Elemental Binder
• Valiant Steed (1 year is quite a long time)

Not free (Examples)

• Wizard Necromancer ACF (Must pay 100g)
• Urban Companion (Must pay100g)
• Planar Binding/Planar Ally (XP)

Special Mounts & the like generally take a year to come back which is awful. Same for familiar. Animal friends is only one month. But it is not what we can call a great feat to begin with. (Examples)

• Paladin (1 year and one day)
• Waverider (Same)
• Zhentarim Skymage (2 caster level)

I might have forgotten some obvious ones, but is there any creature you can have, by your side, all day everyday and call back basically for free and relatively quickly? The mount spell could qualify. But it's not going to perform very well after first level so let's say it should be upgradable or stack with Animal Companion, Special Mount or Familiar...

Answer 1

Take the Summon Elemental reserve feat from Complete Mage.

As long as you have a summoning spell of 4th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Small elemental (air, earth, fire, or water; your choice) within a range of 30 feet. The elemental acts as if summoned by a summon monster spell (PH 285). The duration of the summoning is equal to 1 round per level of the highest-level conjuration (summoning) spell you have available to cast. You can have only one summoned elemental from this feat at a time; if you use the ability a second time, the first elemental disappears. Also, you must remain close to the elemental you summon. If at the end of your turn you are more than 30 feet from the elemental, it disappears. If you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 6th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Medium elemental instead. If you have a conjuration (summoning) spell of 8th level or higher available to cast, you can summon a Large elemental instead. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting conjuration (summoning) I spells.