Supernatural gifts Can help save the world is another theme. This is a typical Orson Scott Card novel in that the protagonist, Lanik Mueller, learns many supernatural gifts that eventually help him defeat the worst enemy imaginable and saves the world. In Nkumai, he does not gain supernatural gifts, but he learns the gift of courage in descending from the highest treetops to the earth. However, Lanik possesses a supernatural gift already in that he can regenerate although he can and does experience excruciating pain.