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Cass flopped onto her bed in the candidates barracks, exhausted, but not able to get ready for bed either. Her nerves were practically thrumming with anxious energy, despite how tired her limbs felt.
Plague, Plague at highreaches...they were even sending away their weyrlings and some of their other people to Ghenza...
A cold trickle of fear ran down her spine, and she fought to brush it away. The sick people had been quarantined at high reaches, so surely it wouldn't come here...? That would be horrible, to get sick before she had had the chance to impress. Could dragons get sick, she wondered anxiously. Dragons were usually immune to human disease, except when it took their rider, of course, and they took their final trip between. Worried thoughts ricocheted around her head like hyperactive firelizards as she lay there on her blankets, staring up at the ceiling.
Suddenly, she sat up and hit the bed mat with her little but firm fists, frowning intently at her stupidity. Laying here worrying accomplished nothing! She wouldn't let herself worry herself to death, or deprive herself of sleep over the plague. After all, not getting enough sleep made you exhausted, which made you prone to sickness. No, she wouldn't dwell on it any more! She would do what she could to stay healthy and that was that! Folding her arms over her generous breasts, a look of determination overcame her face and she nodded to herself.

Cass' dark eyes snapped up as someone called her name, and she smiled as Layla hurried over.
"I only just got back from the kitchens, actually." she admitted "Thought I doubt I could if I tried, too much energy running through me despite how tired I feel." the blond said, grimacing.
Judging from that worried look on her face, Cass guessed that the girl had definitely heard the news, but then maybe not. Couldn't hurt to ask.
"Did you hear the news? About High Reaches?" she asked, scooting over a bit on her bed so that the other girl could sit down as well if she wanted. "I mean, I assume you did. Who hasn't? The rumors are spreading like a wild fire in the fields during summer!" she said with a wave of her hands and a roll of her eyes.
Oh the rumors she had heard in the kitchen! The vast majority of them were completely ridiculous, and so she paid them no mind, but she did listen to all of them, trying to filter through the nonsense to find the valuable kernels of truth. Some said that the High Reaches Weyrleader was already dead, though she certain didn't believe that for a moment. Others said that the Telgar Weyrwomen were already sick with the plague, but she discounted that too. For one thing, they looked fine, she had seen them, from a distance granted, but their dragons hadn't seemed worried at all. Still, she was sure that the high reaches weyrleader was sick, and that it was the plague. That much she was certain of.

"Woah, Layla, take a breath." Cass said as the girl spoke without stopping, and she wondered how she managed to do that and not asphyxiate. "That's all pretty much the same I've heard." she said with a frown "I heard about Ghenza too. Apparently it was founded the last time the plague broke out. They're very strict about who comes into their lands apparently. They're independant, so they don't have to rely on hold's to supply them, which is how they can manage to remain so...aloof." she said with a grimace. She certainly didn't fancy going there herself. She had also heard that the people there were work-a-holics. Working hard was important, she agreed, but people deserved a right to relax too! She had even heard that they worked through the rest day! Cass didn't know what she would do without a rest day to do what she liked on, with only some minimal work in the morning and the afternoon to herself. Things would get very tedious indeed!
Cass turned her eyes to the taller girl, considering her for a long moment. She was definitely a worrier, poor thing. Perhaps she could help by changing the subject. Beating the plauge idea to death by talking about it constantly definitely wasn't going to help either of them sleep tonight. Maybe thinking on more pleasant things would.
"So, what did you think of the eggs?" she asked curiously "The touching was fascinating wasn't it?" Cass remarked with a smile.

Cass took up the subject with a good will, for her own sake as much as Layla's. The exercise of remember which eggs had been her preferred ones would do much to distract her from morbid thoughts that inevitably came with the atmosphere currently hanging about the Weyr, especially the lower caverns.
"Well, that egg with the three spots was really interesting." she said with a smile "Did it feel amused to you too? Like it was laughing at its clutch mates or something." she giggled slightly at the idea of an egg laughing "the gold egg was very soothing, I thought. I think she'll be a very even tempered little queen." Cass remarked as she ticked the two off on her fingers "The blue earth egg was very nice too, you could tell it liked being touched. The pink egg too. It seemed very nice, though I rather got the impression the blue egg it was next to didn't like it at all." she said, bemused at the idea. She wondered if the eggs got a sense of one another while they were still developing in their mother's womb? That might explain the trio from the last clutch.
"What ones did you like?" she asked curiously, wondering if the other girl had gotten any different feelings from the same eggs.

"Yeah, I kind of got that from the gray egg too." Cass said with a nod "Though more than anything it made me want to fall asleep for some reason." she remarked thoughtfully "Maybe it'll pick a lively candidate, someone who can get it up and going." she laughed.
She nodded in agreement when Layla brought up the grass egg "I didn't get a very strong feeling from it either. Maybe it was just too close to the queen so its feelings were being overwhelmed when we touched it? I rather thought it seemed like it wanted to be at the center of attention too, though. Since the queen is almost always the center of attention...well, being near her would certainly make you more likely to be noticed if you're a green or something." That was what it had seemed like to her at least, though obviously she could be wrong. Maybe it was just protective of the golden egg.
"The streaked sky egg is what really caught me by surprise though." Cass said, remembering how she had jerked her hand back, almost as though she had been burned when she had felt that hostility "I don't think it was toward the candidates so much as it was toward the pink egg." she said thoughtfully. She could be wrong of course "did you get that feeling too?" she asked, hoping she wasn't the only one.