Life as a Bree Guardsmen

What can I say? I used to be a Guardsmen...Its how I got to know the people of Bree. When I first sniged up, I was told that life as a Guardsmen will be a reward in itself. People would look up to you as if you were a hero, the pay was good, and you may not even lose a limp and living qauters would be outstanding... PAH! The largest load of horse muck I have ever be shamed to hear... The Unform itself was a nightmare made real. It was so itchy it made me bleed a few times. The sword was as dull as a leg, and the shields...Ugh, do not get me started...It might aswell be a rather thin cartwheel... The people...Well...They always seemed to hate us. Walking the streets, we were either attacked, spat on, insulted and things thrown at us. And that was on the streets! I begged the Captain not to take us to the Prancy Pony a few times. He laughed and called me a coward...Thinking on it now, I would glady sit back and be called a coward then go into the Pony with a Guards uniform on... Everytime we walked in, fights broke out...I do not mean a fight drunken fights. I mean people throwing themselfs at us and hitting us with anything and everything they could get their hands on. I was hit in the head with a chair leg once, lucky I was wearing my helmet at the time...But I was dragged outside by a fellow Guardsmen, spent three days in the Jail house recovering. And as for the qauters...It was the Jail House...We slept, ate and drank with the people we arrested...It was cold, dirty, ill kept and above all else, noisey. Sometimes we did not sleep for days on end as prisons tryed to break out. We put them down, but they never let us recover. All the Guardsmen I met I befriend. All save our Captain. His name was Hakmir...Evening writting his name gives me chills down my spine...He was the worst Captain I have ever met. He was so stuck up his own a*** the lump in his throat was his dammed nose...He insulted us for every mistake, punished for stupid reasons, and never let us train outside Bree's walls... Hakmir kept us under his hand. He controled how much we ate, drank and rested. For that, we could not leave the Guard. The pay was so low, it only covered us for repairs to our Uniforms and most of our money went to the Mayor to keep the Jail House and the people we were protecting. He also drilled us...I do not mean made us walk up and down in a fine line, he made us do it every day, for hours on end. He never let us remove anything, our helmets became to boil, our Hauberks stuck to our bodies with sweat and our shields wieghed us down like rocks. I was used to such training, but even this was taking it's toll. Never mind that I was already tired from nights of no sleep and fights around the streets and Inns. Not all of it was bad. Hakmir ran off to the Mayors office every now and then to get his medals and rewards. It was our only time of rest and we greatly needed it. I made good friends in the Guard, and met many nice people. The Bar-staff at the Prancy Pony were very understanding of our duty. I also begged Hakmir to take us out of Bree and into Bree-Land to help the people outside the walls. He shouted and cursed at me for hours on end...Saying that they are not in need of help and others have that in their intrest....He was lying. People were being attacked almost daily, and he was doing nothing. So, I took one Guardsmen with me to the Shire. Reports came in at a Black Ridder and we went to see to it. Once we got there, it was nightfall. What made it worse, was there was NO Black Ridder...Just Hobbit in a black outfit scraying the Village to death. We went back to Bree laughing. Once we made the report to the Seregant, he laughed aswell. It ended up with all us Guardsmen enjoying a relaxed night of enjoyment...Then the Captain walked in... He punished us. Well, started with me and my friend. I said to Hakmir I was to blame, I thought I would only be punished, but he punished everyone. At dawn, our food and water was cut in half, and I was given five lashes for leaving my post...I had the Mayors permission! Has it turns out...One of Hakmirs seregeants had taken it and burnt it. Now, anyone would have said to go speak to the Mayor about it, but Hakmir said it would take too long and I was just to be a man and accept it. Now, in my very weakened state, the lashes were like hot steel rods on my bad until they healed. The fights, well, I could not...None of us really could. We were so weak... One day, I had enough. We were training outside Bree, Hakmir was throwing insults like he does, I threw my shield on the ground and stormed off. The whole Guard followed me. We were not sworn by an Oath, only it was a job, like at the Prancy Pony. I left, and I never felt so free, so alive for it!