"These feathers are quite an unnatural color - you could use them to line your nest, make your neighbors jealous with how pretty your nest is compared to theirs."
Right now, the lion was bartering with a crow. The bird stood perched atop a tree branch, looking down at him with its usual blank expression. But Matthias could tell what the bird was thinking. Not through any use of magic or being able to actually understand its crow-speak, but from the way it moved, head jerking to view the feathers from different angles. It was Matthias' own baby blue feathers, which he had painfully plucked from his own wings and now held between his foretoes. In the crow's nest was a tarnished silver necklace, an empty socket foretelling the location where a gem used to be. It had lost most of its luster from weather and time, but like in most things, Matthias knew of its potential, and wasn't about to let this opportunity go to waste. The crow looked for a moment longer and then made its crow noise of dissatisfaction, its body beginning to turn away from Matthias, "How about some of my fur, too? See, nice and soft," he would use a paw to rub at the softness of the fur on his flank. The bird seems to turn back and watch him for a moment, before flying over to land on his horns. It looked not at the baby blue fur of his flank, but the dark blue fur of his mohawk, "Hey! That's not for trade," said the lion sternly, but it completely ignored him. It ripped off a tuft of fur from his mane, and immediately flew back into its nest before Matthias could even finish raising his paw to protect his mohawk, "Ow!" the feathers he held fell to the floor in the process, and the bird came back and picked those up too.
"Alright, you've got the fur and the feathers. Can I have that trinket now?" he says, holding back his annoyance as he rubbed his scalp. The bird kept looking at his reluctant offerings with its stupid expressionless expression, and after a moment Matthias was beginning to think the crow wasn't going to give up the old necklace. But just before he could say anything, the crow unceremoniously picked up the necklace and dropped it just over the nest. Matthias wasted no time in picking it up, "Thank you! Nice trading with ya!" stupid bird, and so the lion began to walk away with his prize between his jaws.