where only that morning thrived luscious woods thick with life , now there was nothing but trees torn clear off their roots , leaving great holes where not even a worm stirred ; gone were the birds , the hares , the deer and all the other creatures of the wild ; not a single peep or rustle greeted their passing , made slow , hard and perilous by the chasms that forked here and there like evil lips , still spewing a stench of sulphur and turning the desolate plain into a veritable maze .