Loss and change is a constant idea repeated in the story. When White Man's Dog prays to the stars and Above Ones, the distant stars are "pitiless and gathered their light within themselves," (p. 5), which foreshadows the theme of "loss and change" threaded throughout the book as ancient ways give way to the advancing Napikwans. The author uses the natural world and Native American traditions to create suspense that hooks the reader. When White Man's Dog looks at the stars and they are brighter, it foreshadows the brave's own internal hope and his belief in the magic of the many-faces-man Mik-api.