Orn

From the back cover:

Three humans and an extraordinary alien creature in a quest across the fave of a counter-earth in turmoil: Cal is a wise and courageous old man whose courage overcomes his wisdom in a deadly encounter with a towering and majestic monster. Veg is a strong and sensitive man whose total loyalty to the exploration team is fearfully tested in the wilds of the killer planet. Aquilon is a beautiful your woman, an artist and an adventurer, who forms a strange and beautiful friendship with a creature who cannot speak to her. Orn is a great, powerful and lethal bird -- a bird with a subtle and fascinating alien intelligence and a surprising and unique purpose in existence.