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The distress signal goes out at 5:09.
One Apo Kuna wakes up to the sound of the phone alarm at 5:10, having joined the Selkie Search and Rescue squad a week earlier. She's a day out of her basic orientation, a month into living in this town.
The screech has them shooting up in bed, blanket flying back off their head as they realize what it is, what it means through the haze of sleep. Quickly, Apo rolls onto their feet, kicking off their socks and clothes until they're in nothing but their coat, a warm, reddish-brown, fur cloak with an inside made of pink skin — like the inside of a mouth — that curls around her torso like a fifth limb. They grab their phone, mashing in the passcode so they can see the location.
Someone's fallen into the lake just a walk away from her home, right into that section where the ice is always too thin and half a dozen renegade ice skaters get hypothermia every other week. But — Apo tabs over to the responder section — she's the only one in the area this time. So, it's her, or it's no one.
They're a tornado, moving through the apartment in seconds. Apo runs into a chair on their way to their shoes by the door, slips them on with one hand and pulls the hairband from their braid with the other. They move quickly —but carefully— down the stairs and run out the the door.
The lake is in view of her complex, and she can see the scarring on the ice from where some idiot was skating up a storm. Funny thing about this lake, there are a ton of caves connected to it and they create underwater currents, so even when the surface looks placid, there's plenty of nasty spots where you can get sucked down and die terribly. Apo checks her phone one more time. Paramedics enroute, called by a friend who seems to have hightailed it, given that there's no one standing in or around the lake she can see.
No one floating in the spots of open water either.
Increasing their pace to an all out sprint, Apo lets their phone fall into the grass and hits the ice, specialized shoes letting them keep a grip on the slick surface. They kick them off just as they reach the edge of the open water, and their skin snaps closed around their body as they dive in.
It's easier than Apo had thought it would be. Finding the person in question is somewhat difficult. They've been swept into wedge on the seafloor, and her search yields a few dead ends before she finds them.
They're blond, wearing warm clothes.
She swims down and grabs somewhere that won't hurt — the back of their puffer jacket in her teeth and pulls them towards the surface. The only trouble is the ice skates. One of them nicks her on the tail and the other falls off, revealing toes that have gone blue from the cold.
They get the stranger back up on the surface though, shifting a hand out from beneath their seal skin to tug them onto land. Thankfully, the paramedics are already there, and Apo hands them off to medical professionals and sets themself to the task of picking up all their shit.
She hopes they live, whoever they are.
Literal months later, Apo is trawling through the clothes rack of a thrift store when someone grabs them by the shoulder.
She yelps and jerks away, spinning around to see someone she doesn't recognize. They're blond, with their shoulder length hair held up by a black headband and nothing else. Their mouth is spread in a grin so wide it makes them look a little uneasy, and their fingers tap on the handle of their cane. Seems like it's built for balance as much as it is for mobility. Apo goes to say anything — ask their name maybe -- but this stranger beats her to the punch.
"You're Apo Kuna, right? I'm the man you saved a while back. Martyn," he sweeps a hand through his hair, clearing away a few locks that immediately fall back into place. "I understand if you didn't recognize me - bit of a shit first meeting."
Apo doesn't really understand the occasion. He didn't seem to be carrying a gift, if he wanted to thank her. "You're welcome," she replies.
"Yeah, yeah." Martyn's hands spasm and he squeezes them together and shakes them out in response. "Sorry. Nerve damage. Anyway, where's my other ice skate?"