The nurse said something to her, and she answered back in her native language. Dale ignored them, keeping his hand tight on the girl’s. Lyra seemed to be suggesting that he should let go of her hand, but why? Admittedly, it wasn’t the kind of thing which would be allowed in a normal hospital, but this was far from a normal hospital. So far, he’d seen a distinct lack of any sort of surgical instrument. Aside from the weird heart monitors, the only other medical devices he’d noticed thus far were the thermometer in the female doctor’s coat and the stethoscope in the male’s—and why on earth did the ponies insist on listening to a heartbeat with their ears when they had stethoscopes? That practice had fallen out of favor on earth centuries ago.