The carriage door opened and Queen Cersei stepped out, her long golden hair glinting in the cold sun and her body covered in the finest silks money could buy. King Robert followed her out, his belt barely managing to keep his enormous stomach from exploding. Robert walked over to where the inhabitants of Winterfell were kneeling and motioned for one of the men to rise. "You've gotten fat Ned!" the king exclaimed to his friend. Ned nodded at his friend's podgy stomach and they both started to laugh.
Ned's family stood up, quickly followed by the rest of the castle and Robert greeted each of them in turn. Skylar Lannister looked at the group of people clustered in front of him and wondered what they would be like. Eddard Stark was his mother's brother, but as he had lived in Kings Landing, in the South, his whole life and Winterfell was in the north, he had never met them. His father, Jaime Lannister, trotted up behind him in his horse and whispered to him, "You do know that you can move within 100 yards of them" Skylar brought his horse around and glared at his father. His father had golden hair and a more pronounced chin than he did, but his eyes were the same glittering green, even though Skylar's hair and face resembled the Starks, with his jet black hair and long handsome face. Although Skylar thought his face looked angry his father knew that he was scared of meeting his mother's family, when the people at Kings Landing were all the family he could ever need. Jaime couldn't see the point of introducing Skylar to the Starks when he had coped perfectly well without them for 14 years. But Robert had insisted that Skylar be taken with them when they went North, and as drunk and foolish as Robert was, he was still the king, and could dispose of Jaime at any point, however good a swordsman he was.
After the introductions Robert spun around and shouted for Skylar. "Boy! Where are you?" he cried and Skylar dismounted his horse and handed it to a squire, before walking around the carriage and approaching the royal meeting. Robert put a hand on the boys shoulder and introduced him to Ned and the rest of the family. "This is the honourable Eddard Stark" Robert showed Skylar his uncle and he smiled warmly at him, and Skylar felt a little better. "This is his wife Catelyn" Robert continued, "and these are your cousins Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon." Skylar smiled and greeted each of them in turn, but he could feel their stares, trying to figure out this cousin they had never met, and wondering if he would be interesting or a bore. Behind Ned stood a boy that looked astonishingly like him, but Skylar was not introduced to him. After the introductions Robert demanded to be taken to the crypts immediately, despite the protests of Cersei. Skylar didn't really want to go down there so he weaves his way through the departing villagers and numerous squires to find somewhere quiet to gather his thoughts and maybe find a willing opponent to spar with.