Who is Miss Kate de Vries from Airborn and what is their importance?

At approximately fifteen years of age, Kate de Vries has long, mahogany colored hair, and bright eyes that take in her surroundings with interest. She is accompanied by a chaperone - Miss Marjorie Simpkins - who travels with her in the place of her parents. She is well mannered, and obviously well heeled - a fact confirmed by the fact that they are booked into a premier stateroom. Kate is as stubborn as she is strong, and fears little. She is adventurous, curious, and has a scientific mind much like her grandfather, Benjamin Molloy, who died in his hot air balloon after discovering and documenting the first recorded sightings of the creature who would later be dubbed a 'Cloud Cat'.

Kate follows in her grandfather's footsteps, hoping to find the creatures he describes in his journal, and in a wild coincidence happens to book passage on the very airship that tried to rescue her grandfather a year earlier. She meets Matt, and soon discovers that he was not only the one who first spotted her grandfather's balloon, but was also instrumental in rescuing him, although he perished soon after. Molloy mentions the creatures to Matt, but his comments mean nothing until Kate shows him the journal he kept where the creatures are described, and hand drawn over and over. When their airship, the Aurora, crashes after an encounter with pirates, Kate and Matt realize that they are on the very island her grandfather so carefully described. They look for and find an entire skeleton as well as a live example of the creature, and Kate becomes famous when she returns with a complete skeleton. The discovery paves the way for Kate to attend University, and for Matt to attend the Academy while still supporting his mother and sisters.