"Of course it could be better," Mal said, thinking: Left, right, etc. This is harder on sand than packed dirt. "But we could also be on fire, or two feet tall, or it could be even hotter than it currently is, so on the whole I'll take what we've got."

This, of course, did not mean that she wouldn't complain down the road. Long marches were one thing, but she wasn't used to them under quite these conditions. She sort of wanted to unpack her backpack and check on the bag of coffee beans that she knew she'd squirreled away before they'd left, but that would lead to odd questions, so she readjusted the pack and tried not to think about it.