When I was a Bagon, she found me after I'd been attacked by a swarm of Zubat. Normally, I could have just fought them off or made loud noises that they didn't like, but nothing had worked. She was wonderful, though. My trainer. She'd completely dominated the Zubat with her Beldum, at the time, and had approached me slowly and carefully. Bent down to my level. Fed me a deliciously sweet Oran Berry to make me feel a little better. I was already hers before she officially caught me.

She gave me a name. Aether. The name filled me with such delight, such beauty and courage and happiness and pride, that it filled my heart with joy every time I heard it emerge from her lips. Aether. She had a lovely soft sunny lilt to her voice that I never tired of hearing, even if it was in the heat of a battle. I tried my best for her; for she had given me identity, a persona, a being, as if I had woken up into a new creature I had been only subconsciously aware of.

Her other Pokémon was a Beldum nicknamed Xenon. Whilst every Pokémon expert claimed his species and its evolutions to be genderless, Xenon identified quite rightly as a male, and had myself and our trainer refer to him as such. He was a Steel and Psychic-type of Pokémon, and was only one out of the many, many Pokémon I had never seen or even heard of before. Living in Meteor Falls my entire life had given me access only to Zubat and some Lunatone – none of whom I liked.

I always tried to do my best for her, and for Xenon, too. I wanted so badly for both of them to be proud of me. When Xenon evolved, I couldn't help but be so insanely jealous that I hadn't evolved yet – if I ever would. My greatest dream, above everything else, was to be able to fly. I wanted to feel the wind against my body, I wanted to look down at the world below me, I wanted to go places I never had before; Meteor Falls was no fun. But whether or not my later evolutions, if I had any, would warrant me wings, I had no idea. I had done so much to try and be able to fly. I'd thrown myself off of some of the waterfalls in Meteor Falls in the hopes the air would catch me, but the water instead broke my fall. Each time, I retreated back to my little cave as the Zubat laughed their heads off at my attempts.

Once, just before we planned to defeat the Gym Leaders of Mossdeep City, I felt myself change. I couldn't stop or control it – it just happened. I felt like I was floating above my physical self as my body morphed and changed into an entirely different shape, an entirely different Aether. My body was round, large, and white. I didn't have arms anymore; I could hear and see quite normally, but I couldn't move as well as I had hoped.

Xenon told me later that I had evolved into a Shelgon. He appeared to be hiding something as he told me that; especially when I asked him what I would evolve into afterwards – I didn't want to stay a Shelgon forever. But he refused to answer.

When I was a Shelgon, Xenon and our trainer tried to make life as easy as possible for me. My trainer fed me now – but I didn't feel very hungry very often, and barely ate anything in comparison to Xenon's monstrous appetite. I ate a few berries every day and that was enough for me to know I was full. My movements were sluggish and slow, meaning I was always last to attack in battle – but Xenon was slow too, and sometimes, our slow attacks meant better attacks.

But I was not frightened of being a Shelgon. I was frightened of being one forever. I knew not what was happening to my body – I felt a change, could literally feel myself changing inside whilst I was a Shelgon. I asked Xenon several times, but he refused to tell me. He was a Metang, so he was fairly smart, and he had another evolution to undergo later. I knew that he would reach it before I reached mine, if it would ever come. I was terrified that I would stay in this heavy form for the rest of my life.

Whilst I was a Shelgon, my trainer sat down with me on a large cliff face one beautiful sunny day. The ocean below sang to us in its waves, and the birds above joined in with a sweet melody. I envied them so. My trainer sensed this dissatisfaction within me, and started talking to me – I don't know if she knew that I could understand every word she said.

"Someday, Aether, you might fly. That's my biggest dream, too. But you have the surprise of not knowing what you'll evolve into – you might have wings, you might not. But I'll stay with you either way, pal. At least you have that hope – I don't have any. I'll never evolve into anything with wings. I'm stuck the way I am. You're very lucky, Aether. I hope you know that."

I didn't know then, and I don't know now, what she really meant. I don't know if she was hinting at something – at the ridiculous but wonderful idea that I might grow wings...oh, the idea of flying took my breath away just thinking about it. I envied every single Flying-type Pokemon, and tears were brought to my eyes when Xenon and I defeated Winona, who specialised in them. Her Pokémon were all so beautiful, and all so lucky; her Altaria especially. Altaria was a gorgeous, soft cloud of a Pokémon that I couldn't believe we were battling. My trainer and I even saw a swarm of Altaria singing in the skies once, and it was the most beautiful song I had ever heard. I knew that I would not be able to replicate such beauty, but simply hearing it from another was enough to give me a reason to live.

Traversing through Victory Road had been tough. Xenon took the plunge and had evolved into his final form, Metagross. He was a tank of a Pokémon, with an IQ in the probable thousands, and an excellent range of attacks at his disposal. Pokémon didn't get much better than Xenon did. The trainers in Victory Road feared him greatly, unsure of what he was capable of and not willing to find out. Whereas I was the backup, and Xenon was the trump card. He was my best friend, but I was utterly jealous of him.

"Alright, guys," our trainer had said to us whilst we rested in the Pokémon League Pokémon Center. No other trainers were there to bother us, probably because Ever Grande City was so far away, and was not even large enough to be constituted as a "city". It was amusing, but I knew the battles ahead certainly were not. "We're here at last. This is what we've been training for. This is what we've been waiting for. We're gonna do our best, and we're never gonna give in – and even if our best means that we fail, we won't fail with our heads hung low."

I lived by those words. I will not fail with my head hung low.

Some last-minute training in Victory Road warranted another change in me. I felt the heavy bones of my shell peel away, and that was the biggest relief of all, not having to bear it any more...until I realised something, once I could see again. I was blue. There was something strange on my back, that I could control, and flap, and...

Wings.

I had wings.

My joy, my happiness...it was so overwhelming that I remember being probably the first Salamence in history to shed tears. My trainer cuddled me, my face buried deep in her shirt as I let loose; I'd realised and achieved my dream of having wings. I could fly. The skies were mine. All my life, I had been desperate to soar with the birds, be at one with the wind and the clouds.

I was flying now. Free-falling feels nothing like flying, but this felt so foreign. But still natural, as if all of my flights in my mind had channelled themselves to my wings to make my dreams known. I was invincible – no one could catch me, or out-speed me, or anything. No stronger Pokémon could attack me. Now, I could fly away from those insufferable Zubat and laugh at the Lunatone who could do no more than simply hover a little.

The only reason I had them was because of my trainer. She had coaxed them out of me, made me believe in myself...and my dream came true. When Xenon and I aren't engaged in a battle, I'm flying around, enjoying myself. I feel this animalistic need to suck as much up as I can, to be short of breath because I'm flying so fast...I need not measure my success in life by how many times I breathe, but by how many times my breath is taken away. Flying is simply one of them.

My trainer led Xenon and myself to victory at Ever Grande City, rendering us Champions of Hoenn. But I was already a champion in my own right; I had overcome difficulties and had my wildest, most ridiculous dream come true. Laughed at whilst a Bagon, looked at strangely whilst a Shelgon...respected and admired, now that I was a Salamence.

I owe it all to her, though. She's the only reason I have them.

"Do you see why I wouldn't tell you now, when you asked?" Xenon had told me – if he could, he would have been smiling. "I knew that you would grow wings one day."

I also realised why she had called me Aether. She'd left a book open about mythology one night, and whilst I couldn't really read very well, Xenon could, effortlessly.

"It says that Aether was the personification of the upper sky, space, and heaven. It's appropriate more than anything, really. Do you understand now?"

"I do."

I was Aether, the Bagon who had been tormented all his life by not being able to soar with the birds and for being small. I was Aether, the Shelgon who was terrified that he would be a Shelgon forever; the one who gained strange looks in battle.

I was Aether, the Salamence who had overcome it all. The one who flew everywhere, all the time, and was glad to take my trainer for a ride any time she desired. The Salamence who helped in defeating the Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone – no one else could say that. I was the Salamence who had seen it all; I was Aether, who had soared with the birds and was small no more.

I was Aether, the personification of the sky.