Ty's Hopeful Future

"Hey, Ty?" Lou called, poking her head out of the office. I stopped brushing Storm and looked up at her.

"Yeah?"

"I need you to go on a feed run to Maggie's. We're getting low."

"Sure," I said. She turned to go back into the office but I called her back. "Lou?"

"Yes, Ty?" She said, sounding a little annoyed.

"What are you going to do about these horses?" I motioned to Apollo and the other sick horse still in the barn.

Lou shook her head sadly. "I don't know what we can do, Ty," She said. "They've already been sold, haven't they? To the slaughterhouse?"

"They pay when they get the horses. We could still buy them."

"What are we going to do with six more horses?" Lou asked, exasperated.

"We'll help them!" I said, then lowered my voice, thinking of Ashley's words to me from earlier. "We're Heartland, that's what we do. And you can't let them just die!" I looked over to Apollo's stall. Ashley had only just left, and still insisted on coming straight back when she was finished with whatever she had to do. My guess was that it involved her mother for doing this to Apollo. "Lou," I said, taking a step closer to her. "Let's go to the dealers they came from. I have the address from my dad. We have to at least try to help them."

"Fine," Lou said with a sigh. "I have some free time now, let's go."

I nodded, untying Storm to take out to the pen. Lou grabbed her keys from the office and started following me out as Caleb entered the barn.

"Caleb," Lou said. "You need to go on a feed run."

"Why can't Ty do it?" Caleb asked, sending me an annoyed look. "He's only playing with his horse anyway."

I need Ty," Lou said. "And speaking of Ty's horse you can put him out in the paddock so he can come with me now."

Caleb's eyes widened. "I have to do his chores and take care of his horse?"

"Just do it, Caleb," Lou snapped.

"You wanna buy who?" The man we met at the horse dealership the horses had come from asked. I trailed behind, looking around at the horses as Lou spoke with him.

"Apollo," Lou was saying. "He was one of the horses on the truck that stopped at Heartland."

"I think we've already sold that horse," the man said gruffly.

"Yeah, I know. To a slaughterhouse," Lou said angrily, looking around as she stopped to wait for me.

"This place is horrible," I said to her.

"It amazes me these people can sleep at night."

"Lou, we can't just buy Apollo," I said. "Those horses all need help. And look at where they come from!"

"Heartland is already struggling financially, Ty, we can't afford them all," Lou said.

"I can help," I said. "Lou, I've been saving up since I first started showing and getting prize money for it."

"I couldn't ask you to do that, Ty."

"You're not asking, Lou, I'm offering."

Lou sighed. "Let's just see how much they are."