Ellis River

<p><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>The </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>Civil War</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> scattered her family and now along with her beloved </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>horse</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> a </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>young woman</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> must travel across a </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>war-torn country</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> to collect what's left of her life.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>For fifteen-year-old Ellis Cady life has gone quiet on her </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>western Tennessee</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> homestead. Her father and older brother left to sell horses to the army two years earlier and never returned. She watched her mother's health decline finally succumbing to a broken heart. Her </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>twin brother</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> left in search of their father and while he was gone neighbors moved out of their </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>Quaker community</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> searching for </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>peace</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> ahead of the final sweep of war.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>Ellis is left with nothing but the company of the remaining </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>horses</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> and the </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>letters and journals</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> she continues to write trying to make sense of a desolate world. A small band of soldiers rides through to claim the last of the herd and hope for the return of life as she knew it evaporates like the mist on the </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>river</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>When the </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>head-strong mare</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> Billie returns having escaped from the soldiers Ellis takes it as a sign to leave.</span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> Disguised as a boy</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> for safety and comfort she rides off to find her twin. Though war refuses to fade Ellis stumbles upon an unlikely </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>group of rescuers</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> who teach her </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>family</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> is more than blood and </span><strong style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)>love</strong><span style=color: rgba(42 42 42 1)> has no limits.</span></p>