Maggie Hoskie, a 20-year-old Dinétah (Navajo) monster hunter with supernatural powers, is the protagonist of Trail of Lightning. She is a serious, hard-headed, and determined person, although the betrayal of her former mentor Neizghání and a lot of death and killing in her past both haunt her throughout the novel. As a Dinétah monster hunter, Maggie possesses clan powers, which are supernatural abilities. In her case, these clan powers give her the ability to move at extreme speed and to kill efficiently. Although her clan powers make Maggie a skilled and efficient monster hunter—one to whom the surrounding communities look for help with the many dangerous creatures roaming the night in the novel’s post-apocalyptic flood world—Maggie is often scared that such dangerous abilities make her more like a monster than a person. This fear shows up in her dreams—in one nightmare, Maggie dreams of hunting Kai. When she catches him, “he only has one word for [her]. Monster!” (122). This constant fear that she is less than human drives Maggie to do good, just as it holds her back from connecting with others.

Throughout much of the novel, Maggie is also plagued by the emotional wounds left after her former mentor, Neizghání, abandoned her months ago.