All night, they had walked silently. The mules were flagging. The wind blew hard. Their stomachs, empty since yesterday, no longer made noise. The girl walked numbly on, as in a trance. She could no longer feel the earth beneath her feet.
Why would the author most likely include this passage at the beginning of a story?
A. To set up a conflict among the main characters
B. To establish the motivation of the main character
C. To identify the story as an example of a particular tradition
D. To make the reader question what is happening in the story