Kiwi sighed deeply, as he approached the podium in front of the crowd of Interspecies Alliance members milling about and chatting loudly.
"Seriously, having to chair two meetings in three days for this bunch of yahoos? It's more than a koala can bear!" he murmured to himself, then had to swallow down the laugh, thinking humour wasn't quite the thing at this moment.
Pounding the gavel on the podium, he shot a Gibbs-worthy glare at Sinatra, before the lamb could even begin to think about bleating about the state of his hooficure.
Hedwig, sensing the koala's underlying distress, landed softly on his shoulder, as she had several days before, and offered consoling nuzzles to Kiwi's fluffy ears, while Dobby also popped in out of nowhere and put a gentle arm around his shoulder, offering a sympathetic hug. It seemed like Kiwi had finally gained his very own support group to handle the unruly Alliance.
Clearing his throat around the knot had somehow appeared, Kiwi raised his head and looked at the assembled crowd. It seemed the news hadn't made it this far yet, which left him in a terribly unenviable position.
"I'm afraid that I must report the sad departure of one of our own, if only an honorary member by virtue of the name. It saddens me to announce the passing, at age ninety, of one of finest Scotsmen we will ever know. David McCallum died of natural causes in New York City today. He was also known by his aliases of Doctor Donald 'Ducky' Mallard, GrandDucky and, many decades ago, Ilya Kuryakin. Given that the Idio…erm…writer is still in the hospital, and Hollywood is still stuck in a writer's strike, we have no clue how this event will be handled in the coming weeks and months, but he will be sadly missed. Zuma is currently on duty with the family. As you might imagine, they're devastated at this time."
Kiwi had to stop there, partly because the lump in his throat had suddenly reached boulder proportions, the allergies were having a terrible effect on his eyes, and the entire Alliance was issuing shouts of disbelief or sobbing, sometimes at the same time. Hedwig just nuzzled closer and Dobby pulled the koala into a tighter hug. They knew their friend would need plenty of support in the days ahead.
Rallying, Kiwi found his voice again. "We have no knowledge of the arrangements as yet, and I'm sure you are all going to be exceedingly busy in the coming days, as you help console the grieving members of the Cabal. But there are a few details to cover now. David or Ducky (take your pick) requested donations to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation in his memory. Dobby will pass out the web address again. That's the first item left to discuss."
Dobby waved his hand again, much as he had several days before, and the address appeared in front of the podium again, as well as being delivered to each Alliance member.
https://www.mcsf.org/
"And to the second, thanks again for your help with this, Dobby…"
Suddenly tea cups appeared in front of each Alliance member. Though for a change, it wasn't Kiwi's special tea, but the finest of Scottish whiskeys.
Kiwi spoke again then, "A toast to David McCallum…our beloved Ducky!!! May he rest in peace!"
Teacups were drained throughout the barn, to cries of "DUCKY!"
Kiwi had no need to disperse this meeting. Various creatures milled around for the next hour or so, sharing memories and tears both. Sinatra didn't mention his hooficure once, and if Dobby somehow managed to make that whiskey bottle bottomless and magically refill teacups as soon as they were emptied, no one said a word. However the rest of the world would choose to say goodbye, this was the Alliance's very own special send off, to a very special man and one of their own.
Fin
Vale David McCallum. Thank you for being our Ducky for all these years. You will be greatly missed!