In the days when Sir Cluckington and Lady Peckara braved the Leviathan of Eggshell, there was another chicken whose courage shone not with the sword, but with the helm of a ship.

Marlin Wavecrest was no knight by birth, but a lowly fisherman of the Hills of Scratch. His life had been one of reed boats and simple nets, cast in the streams that fed the great lake. While others feared the monsters of Eggshell, Marlin studied the currents, the winds, and the hidden paths of the waves. He learned to read the water like parchment, to feel its pulse beneath the boat’s keel, to steer even the frailest craft through storms that sent stronger hens to shore.

When the Eggshell Fleet was first formed, Marlin was but a deckhand. Yet, when the Leviathan rose and chaos tore through the fleet, it was Marlin who seized the tiller. With steady wings and clear command, he guided three crippled boats out of the serpent’s coils, rallying terrified rowers back into order. His voice carried over the waves:

“Steady! The lake is no foe, but a friend to those who listen! Row with me, and it shall carry us to victory!”

His daring maneuvers turned rout into triumph. Marlin wove the fleet like a tapestry across the waters, hemming the beasts into shallow reefs where Cluckington’s sword and Peckara’s traps could strike true. That day, the Eggshell Fleet did not drown — it sailed into legend.

On the very deck he had saved, Sir Cluckington drew his spur-sword and knighted him before all. “From fisherman to captain, from captain to knight — let all know Sir Marlin Wavecrest, master of the Eggshell Fleet, who turned fear to triumph.”

Thereafter, Sir Marlin’s crest bore not a sword, but a golden tiller over silver waves. For though his blade was humble, his mastery of ships gave the coop dominion over the waters. To this day, every Eggshell warship sails under the motto born of his command: