Story concept - old

Woman with three shapeshifters - wolf n human

idk 2 'pages' of art. All characters looking at viewer with cool eyes/narrowed eyes.

1: her sitting down, legs straight out in front. One wolf resting on her lap on his paws, her hand on his head. One standing and resting head on her shoulder, one on the other side standing protectively behind her.

2: she's still in the same pose, but the wolves are now human. One resting his head on both his hands and in her lap (still looking at the audience, maybe lying on his side instead of stomach), another leaning his back against her and draping head over her shoulder (hair blocking her face maybe), someone standing behind her, arms crossed, but his head/shoulders is out the top edge of picture since he’s too tall

I.e. first pic looks cool & intimidating, second they just look like idiots

she probably just has them to intimate ppl in their wolf form since they're idiots and spout trash as humans

maybe pretends or has them pretend they are the brains or something so people focus attacks on them not her - "You guys are durable, and you're good for nothing except as my shields"

Characters
Sword (Az): Leader and the voice of the group (in the meeting idea below, the one speaking is him unless noted) because the eldest is a bit rough and aggressive, and youngest is quiet. They generally walk in line with each other, but if anything happens he’s the first to step forward and defend the other two, or talk to the stranger.

Goal: If it makes his siblings happy, then he would support it. Anything for their happiness.

Two (Fynn): Youngest, so the other two are very protective of him. Quiet and very rarely speaks to strangers. Speaks a few words to siblings, though they generally already know what he wants. If he hates you, it wouldn't show. Nothing over the top for expressions with this guy.

Goal: Anything is fine with him, as long as the three of them are together.

Spear (Keiyuu): Has glaive/spear, is a mid-range fighter so he generally lets the other two close-range types attack while he provides support. Generally attacks from blind spots or acts as crowd control, and because he lingers back he can observe the battle and create strategies. Sees that as the eldest he should defend them from as many things as possible, including being a murderer, so if any killing has to happen (hasn’t happened yet? has?) he would claim the kill so that the others don’t have stained hands. Very blunt & harsh towards other people since he doesn’t care for anyone else besides his siblings, which is why Sword speaks instead of him.

Goal: He greatly values their freedom, and hates any restrictions on him or brothers. Really loves the time when it was just them, running around doing whatever they want

Concept/backstory/worldbuilding

Someone more intimidating and serious? Maybe they get a friend who's super chill and chatty

Character idea/wolf
No fear because they've been coddled a lot
Or they're too strong to fear what most people do

Shifters have varying levels of ability. All have an animal form indistinguishable from normal animals, and the only way to tell is their behaviour as they have an intelligence equal to humans. Shifting ability means how believable their human form is.
To take wolves as an example. At the very bottom of the shifting spectrum is a human-like wolf, where they can stand on two paws and have hand like paws. They still have fur and a snout, and a slight hunch to their shoulders. Called werewolves. Next level up could be a more human posture, and less pronounced snout? Less fur. Able to roughly speak the human language. Human like but with lots of fuzz on where humans normally have hair - eg hairy arms and legs. Sharper canines. Ears and tail. most common? Then human with ears and tail. Then just one presenting (eg only ears), then none/full human. These three groups are called the Akin. Some might be able to make telling parts vanish but it takes concentration. (Maybe not hmm)
Ears might be another thing. Wolf ears on top -> wolf ears where human ears are (A) - pointed ears to show they're not fully human/another species (K) - full human ears (F) All shifters have the capabilities to reach great intelligence. Ability does not equate to it, i.e. werewolves are not feral or dumb. They might be uneducated, but not because of genetics. There are noble families, and children generally are within the Akin range. Our MCs are from one
Birth rates are very low for them, which is why combined with hunting and conflicts, they are rare. A female might produce at most five children, with the average being three. Packs often fight with each other.

Meeting idea(isn't as comedic as I first wanted it to be hmm there isn't even a part written to be funny OTL also feeling really 'eh' about this meeting idea, just something I dreamed up at night when I'm bored.)

Three of them are triplets? Idk but they’re close

Something something they and the woman start fighting. She’s a supremely powerful witch, and pretty much wipes the floor with the three of them. Manipulates one of the shortswords to stab the guy with the broadsword, dude is severely injured

The three faint? She brings them back to a mansion, they wake up bandanged, with weapons next to them

Tries to leave mansion, there’s some kind of force barrier around it so they can’t leave the grounds

Dude who’s a servant of hers talks to them about how they can’t escape since they have a mark on them something something can’t leave unless she gives permission or something

… they return back to mansion since broadsword guy’s stomach/somewhere wound is reopening since they were in a rush to leave

Servant helps them treat wounds, tells them more about mark

Woman enters the infirmary saying something about the three being her bodyguards, the three get angry, servant takes her away to talk to her

- They need to care for you if they’re your bodyguards, you need to give them incentive to even not hate you, etc etc. Go talk to them and work out the problems between you

She goes back, asks what they’re most angry about

- You almost killed him!

She thinks, before approaching him. Dual sword jumps in front to protect, spear guy lowers spear so it barrs her path

- If my magic is powerful enough to beat the three of you with barely any effort, it’s strong enough to heal a simple wound like this

- There’s no way we’ll let you get near him

- What, afraid I’ll kill him? As if. I need you three to do a job for me. I could kill any of you whenever I want. If I wanted him dead, I wouldn’t even bother bringing him here, or waste time placing that mark on your hand/shoulder/maybe inner wrist. So I have no motive for killing him now.

- There’s no way I’ll believe that.

- *sigh* I’m tired of your yapping. Either you let me through and heal him, or I’ll beat all of you until you can’t move, then heal him. I might as well heal all three of you so I don’t need to hear your constant whining. So, what do you pick? The hard way or the easy way? If you haven’t noticed, I have no injuries whatsoever from our little spar yesterday. You can’t even beat me when you aren’t injured and have three fighters.

- …

- Servant: that’s a bit…

- ...Can’t you heal him from a distance?

- If I could, I would trash you from a distance as well. Magic has its limits.

- …

- …

He grips his swords, hating the position they were in, and hating this woman for putting them here. But there was no way of stopping her from doing whatever she wanted. Reluctantly, he lowered his weapons, eyes downcast. Spear-guy hesitated, glaring at the witch for a moment longer, before lifting the spear.

She goes to heal him, maybe lightly touches the skin above the wound or something? Same for healing cuts and bruises on his arms and elsewhere: she’s always touching his skin with a finger. Maybe something about touch healing faster since the magic can transfer from her to the wound directly. Perhaps earlier their clothes were removed to be washed since there was blood everywhere, so all that they’re wearing is underwear and a robe. Maybe she has to touch close to a wound for the most efficient heal.

The three of them are watching her actions intensely, tense, prepared to react to anything.

She takes off the bandages on one arm to reveal flawless skin, or maybe the bandages were already off and they see it healing, idk

- The two of you. Sit. I don’t want to have to reach up to heal your face.

- You’re not going to say thanks?

- Spear: As if we’ll thank you for healing the wounds you gave us.

She dismisses servant, they talk about what other issues (your attitude. There’s no way I’m changing my personality to suit you.)

Intentions: she wants bodyguards to intimidate others, plus they could pretend to be normal wolves, and look around enemy homes/base without interruption, the three really value freedom and this is not it.

- Isn’t this more freeing? What did you do before to get money?

- robbed??

- Exactly. I’ll pay you accordingly, so now you have money earned the right way. + food and shelter

- ...If you had offered us this before attacking, we might have accepted

- I wanted to judge your strength by myself, and I didn’t think you would fight full force if you worked for me. It’s more fun anyway.

- Anyway, it’s not like you have a choice. Its either you accept being my bodyguards, with meal+money+rooms here, or I give you three a fun curse, and you’ll still have that mark.

- I’ll leave to let you decide.

Maybe they go outside and run around to scout
Plays a game of tag? Discuss their plans to find the limits of magic and see if she has a library they can use to research?

Return to the front door, she’s there

- So? You accept?

- Spear: Tell us how you’ll curse us if we refuse

- Trying to see if that’s better? Fine. You seem like the protective type, so I wonder how you’ll fare if you can’t protect the other two with your spear anymore. What would you do if you can’t use your arms anymore? You’ll just be a burden, wouldn’t you? And I’ve noticed he’s quiet (tilts head at Sword), even when he’s under attack. I wonder if he would still be so silent if he sees demons everywhere… As for you (two), I think just watching over them is enough of a curse. Unless you abandon them, of course.

Spear being riled up

She gives them a collar each since they’re now her dogs. Spear ofc upset. Says she made it herself. Each has a charm in the middle with her initials

Spear gets a belt-like collar (belt buckle in middle, charm hanging from that). Two has one with rows of holes? Sword has a metal one, maybe just a simple metal ring.

She leaves? Spear tries to take it off, but it can’t be removed or even budge. Idk maybe he says he wants to talk (with body language) and the group turns to wolves again. Collar still there which is a shock since their clothes vanish as wolves. Collars could not be scratched.

Spear says to be careful and speak confidential things with their own language (body lang, ears, tail, whines etc) since he thinks she can see and hear them with her magic/monitor them somehow.